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April 30, 2024
 

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KANPAI CULTURE

Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Nov 7, 2013
Unique sake from father-son team
Kumpai Shuzo stands along a quiet stretch of the Kyu-Tokaido Road, across the Abe River in an old part of Shizuoka City. Run by father-and-son team Seiji and Hidetoshi Ichikawa, the brewery has remained in the same location since the family's ancestors began making sake in the Edo Period.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Oct 10, 2013
Fall for the flavor of autumn sake
The seasons in Japan can turn on a dime. When I'd left Tokyo for Sweden, at the end of September, summer had shown no sign of abating: The city was still sweating in 32-degree heat and 60 percent humidity. When I returned five days later, the air was lighter and the evenings pleasantly crisp. Fall had arrived. As if on cue, sake shops across the country began stocking their shelves with aki-agari and hiyaoroshi — limited-edition, seasonal brews.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Sep 12, 2013
Tasting Kirin's beer of many colors
Morbid curiosity had prompted me to order a Two-Tone beer cocktail at the branch of Kirin Ichiban Shibori Garden in Tokyo's Akasaka district. I had read, with no small measure of disbelief, that Tokyo's latest summer beer fad was lager mixed with fruit juice or sweet syrup, and I had to see it with my own eyes. My mind struggled to grasp the concept of beer flavored with blueberry syrup, which according to one article in The Wall Street Journal has been a popular choice this year. Perhaps most staggering of all was the combination of beer and Calpis, the yogurt-flavored soda inspired by fermented yak's milk from Mongolia.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Aug 8, 2013
Supporting Tohoku one glass at a time
On a Saturday evening in late July, Wine Aid for East Japan began, appropriately, with a toast. Now in its third year, the event, organized by professionals in the wine industry to raise money for charities in the Tohoku region, featured over 100 premium wines and a buffet showcasing ingredients from northeastern Japan. The opening remarks culminated in a catchy slogan expressing hope for Tohoku's recovery through food: Yo naoshi-wa, shoku naoshi (Changing the way we eat to change the world).
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jun 14, 2013
Hard-won battles produce great wine grapes
On an overcast morning high in the hills of the Priorat region in northern Spain, I found myself faced with a dilemma: I had to decide which shoots to prune from the gnarled arms of a 60-year-old Garnacha grape vine. It was mid-May, and several young grape clusters — tiny, green beads that fitted neatly into the palm of my hand — dangled from the new canes. My guide, Jordi Miró, director of the wine-producing collective Vinicola del Priorat, had instructed me to pull off all but "the two strongest stems."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
May 10, 2013
You don't need to be a pro to enjoy tasting and pairing sake
For those new to sake, learning to distinguish the subtle nuances in the flavor of various brews can feel like a daunting task. When evaluating sake, professionals consider the balance of sweetness and acidity, the body and the finish, in addition to the drink's specific aromas and flavors. Having judged sake at the International Wine Challenge in London this April — which involved sampling around 80 varieties a day and making notes on each entry — I can confirm that tasting at the professional level is indeed a difficult job.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Apr 12, 2013
Cocktails with a fresh twist (literally)
Dressed in a crisp white jacket, white shirt and black tie, bartender Gen Yamamoto looks as though he has just emerged from a casino in a James Bond film.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Mar 8, 2013
Singapore's taste for Japanese drinks
On my recent trip to Singapore, Japanese drinks seemed to follow me everywhere. At Jigger & Pony, a stylish new cocktail bar in an old part of Chinatown, the first thing I noticed was the selection of around 20 Suntory and Nikka whiskies that lined the backlit shelves, along with Coedo beer. Perhaps it was a fluke, I thought — after all, the bar manager, Akihiro Eguchi, is Japanese.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Feb 8, 2013
Whisky distillery plays a winning hand
Inside the visitors' center at Chichibu Distillery, high in the hills of Saitama Prefecture, a hint of sawdust mingled with the aromas of vanilla, dried fruits and honey that filled the air.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jan 11, 2013
Japan's latest wine trend is only natural
It's official: Natural wines are entering mainstream consciousness in Japan. I know this not simply because sections devoted to organic, "bio" (biodynamic), or shizen-ha (natural) wines have become fixtures in many retail shops, or even because sales of natural wines have risen around the world. The realization struck when a friend who rarely touches alcohol brought a bottle of Gérard Schueller et Fils Rien que des Bulles, a sparking natural wine from Burgundy, to Christmas dinner.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Dec 14, 2012
Sake-making mission: the last step
The thermometer inside the brewing facility at Shimazaki Shuzo registered a chilly 8 degrees. Like everyone else who had signed up to take part in the final sake-making session of the Karasuyama Taiken (www.karasuyama-taiken.jp), I was dressed for work — in a thin white jacket that resembled a lab coat, white plastic boots and a gauzy hairnet. While this uniform was neither the warmest nor the most fashionable of ensembles, it ensured that none of us would compromise the brewery's hygiene standards.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Nov 9, 2012
Japanese wine: not as bad as you think
On the morning of Nov. 3, the line leading to the entrance of Hibiya Park snaked along the sidewalk and coiled around the corner, several meters from the gate. I was there for the Yamanashi Nouveau wine festival but had assumed that the throngs had come for some other purpose. It was a moment of cognitive dissonance: That there could be so many fans of Japanese wine was a proposition my brain found difficult to accept.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Oct 12, 2012
Sake-making mission, part two: the harvest
The instrument I was given to harvest sake rice was a small sickle, about 20 cm in length, with a thin, curved blade and a serrated edge. It was, essentially, the agricultural equivalent of a pair of children's scissors: If used improperly, you could nick yourself badly but were unlikely to do great harm. However, it was a lightweight and startlingly efficient tool, able to slash through a cluster of sticky, green rice stalks in seconds.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Sep 14, 2012
Sake brewers turn their hand to beer
Taro Ishikawa, president of Ishikawa Shuzo in Fussa City, Tokyo, knows a thing or two about brewing beer. This comes as no surprise: In addition to producing Tamajiman sake, his company has been making Japanese jibīru (craft beer) for 14 years. The Ishikawa family's history of beer brewing, however, goes back to 1887, when the brewery created a German-style pilsner called Nihon Bakushu (Japan Beer). It was a short-lived venture; production ceased in 1890.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Aug 10, 2012
Developing a taste for sake cocktails
Despite its funny-sounding name, the Sakenic is a compelling tipple. A fizzy mix of sake, soda and tonic water with an orange twist, it is light and refreshing, with a balance of sweetness and acidity that brings to mind a gin and tonic with less of a bite. The drink is one of the most popular items at Sake Hall Hibiya Bar, an establishment in Ginza, Tokyo, that specializes in sake cocktails. At roughly 8 percent alcohol, it's about half as strong as straight sake.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jul 13, 2012
Sake production, literally from the ground up
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jun 8, 2012
Wine Challenge brings sake contest to Japan
At 9 a.m. on the morning of May 28, the 40 judges who had been invited to arbitrate in the 2012 International Wine Challenge sake competition convened in the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association building in Tokyo's Shinbashi district. Conversations in English and Japanese floated around the room as the judges — who represented 12 countries in Asia, Europe and North America — sipped their coffee and mentally prepared for the task ahead: the tasting and evaluation of 689 sakes over the course of two days.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
May 11, 2012
How I learned to stop worrying and love the shochu
Nearly 10 years ago, shōchū was all the rage in Japan. In 2004, shipments reached an all-time high, and producers were struggling to keep up with the exploding market. Everyone was drinking it — everyone, it seems, but me.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Apr 13, 2012
Do girls just wanna have weaker sake?
When it comes to sake, I consider myself something of a traditionalist. If anything, my tastes veer toward the masculine: I tend to favor ricey, muscular styles like kimoto and yamahai over a delicate daiginjō. Funny, then, that I should find myself enjoying a girly new sake at March's FoodEx exhibition in Tokyo. The sake, called Hime Kokochi Shuwarin, was slightly cloudy, fizzy and sweet, with a puckering tartness in the finish. At only 3 percent alcohol — as opposed to the 15 to 16 percent found in regular brews — it was about as strong as a beer.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Mar 9, 2012
Tohoku's sake breweries one year on
The narrow, winding road that leads to Senkin Shuzo, a small sake brewery in the tiny town of Iwaizumi, Iwate Prefecture, is icy and treacherous. The train lines that used to connect Iwaizumi to Morioka, the nearest major city, were closed after landslides dislodged the tracks last summer. Yuri Yaegashi, whose husband, Giichiro Yaegashi, is the brewery's ninth-generation president, meets me at Morioka Station, and on the two-hour drive through the mountains along Route 455, she tells me that they've had an unusually high number of visitors in the past year.
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