Throwing a Sake Party

World Sake Day (October 1st) is fast approaching and I’m sure most sake fans have picked out a special bottle or 2 to share, but how can you really celebrate sake in all its glory? Here are some ideas for throwing a sake party:

Sake cups:

Part of the fun of drinking sake is enjoying Japanese sake drinking culture. It’s up to you how you serve it - cold, or warm, in traditional Japanese ‘ochoko’ sake cups or wine glasses.

If you have a collection of sake cups you’ve been building up over the years like me, take this as an opportunity to share them: pass around a tray of different styles of cup so your friends can choose their own. I usually put cups of a variety of shapes, sizes and materials including a traditional masu (box-shaped, cedar-wood sake cup), kikichoko (sake tasting cups containing a blue, bulls-eye design), as well as glass, metal, and ceramic cups. People love to choose their own and hear a little about what makes their cup unique.

Drinking Games:

Japan has a strong, sociable drinking culture, and drinking games are not reserved for students. Forget sake bombs, here are a couple of more sophisticated, traditional drinking games to play:

Bekuhai are sake cups used in a traditional drinking game originating from Kochi, a prefecture famous for its stunning sake and drinking culture. Some of the cups are cunningly designed so that they cannot be put down until they are empty.

Each cup has a face on the underside. The cups are shaped like a Japanese goblin (tengu), male ‘funny face’ (hyottoko) and female ‘funny face’ (okame). The Japanese goblin cup holds the most sake due to its long nose, which also means you cannot put it down until all the sake is drunk, the male cup has a hole in its mouth which you have to hold your finger over to stop the sake running out, whilst the female cup holds the least amount of sake and can be put down.

A special dice, with pictures of the faces on each side is spun , while everyone claps and sings the Berobero song, to decide which cup must be drunk from.

Tosa Bekuhai Set containing all 3 cups and dice available from House of Sake: https://www.houseofsake.co.uk/product/beku-hai-set/ See here for a video of the game being played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsbi-j0pHxU

Kikunohana: is a game in which cups are placed upside down (one for each player of the game) and a chrysanthemum hidden under one by the first player. The tray is passed around in a circle as a song is sung, everyone taking turns to turn over the cups until someone uncovers the chrysanthemum. Each empty, upturned  cup is then filled with sake, and the finder of the chrysanthemum must drink them all!

Sake and Food Pairing:

Sake works brilliantly with Japanese food, but is generally very food friendly, boosting the flavour of foods, so take the opportunity to experiment! Most on and offline shops that sell sake will be keen to give you advice on both Japanese and non-Japanese foods to pair with specific sakes, so do ask or look out for suggestions in their tasting notes! Foods which often work well with sake include cheese, chocolate, and seafood.

For further tips on food and sake matching see my article for Foodepedia here: http://www.foodepedia.co.uk/articles/2015/nov/food_and_sake_pairing.htm

Use Sake as an Ingredient:

Sake: is used as an ingredient in lots of Japanese recipes, where it helps to boost flavours. More recently, people have been experimenting using sake as an ingredient in non-Japanese dishes. 

For further tips on using sake in cooking, see my article for Foodepedia here: http://www.foodepedia.co.uk/articles/2016/dec/Cooking_with_Sake.htm . Sake brewery, Gekkeikan, has also put together this useful ‘Sake Cookbook’: http://www.gekkeikan-sake.com/?method=pages.showPage&PageID=2e511a10-2264-112b-b13a-9350f3d24b82&originalMarketingURL=Sake-101/Food-Recipes

Sake Kasu (or lees, the solid leftovers from the sake-making process), can be used as a marinade, tenderising meat with a seemingly magical effect, creating melt-in-the-mouth, flavourful meat.

Marinate meat in sake kasu for a day or 2 in the fridge. Some meats, like pork, also acquire a slight cured-meat flavour. You can buy it widely in Japan, elsewhere it can be found in some Japanese supermarkets. Sake breweries also sometimes sell it directly from the brewery, so it’s worth enquiring if you have one locally.

Sake Sauce: If you’re not sure about cooking with sake yourself, why not use some sake-infused sauce? London’s first sake brewery, Kanpai have teamed up with fellow Peckham-based Slow Richie’s to create a Roasted Chilli, Horseradish and Kanpai Sake Sauce. Recommended in a Bloody Mary or bacon sandwich. Available from Hop, Burns and Black: https://shop.hopburnsblack.co.uk/products/slowrichiesroastedchillihorseradishkanpaisakesauce125ml

Sake chocolates: Sake and chocolate can be an incredible food match, Prestat, London-based fine chocolatiers’ (by appointment to Her Majesty the Queen no less!) Yuzu Sake Truffles are divine! Dark chocolate truffles dusted with yuzu powder, with zesty yuzu-infused sake centres, they make a great gift to take along to a sake party, or to finish off a meal. Available from various retailers including Selfridges, Liberty, Amazon and Prestat:  http://www.prestat.co.uk/shop/yuzu-sake-truffles-175g.html

KitKat also make a rare, and limited edition Sake KitKat in Japan, which is made with white chocolate and has an alcohol content of 0.8%. Buy one if you can track one down! As I write, they are available Tofucute: https://www.tofucute.com//product_info.php?products_id=2649  and usually from the Japan Centre.