Sake
Japan's ancient rice brew — not a spirit but a fermented drink of polished rice, water, koji and yeast, as deep and varied as wine. Ingredients: sake rice polished to remove outer layers (the finest daiginjo grades polish away half the grain or more), pure water, koji mold that converts rice starch to sugar, and yeast. Method: 1) Steam the polished rice, cultivate koji on part of it, and ferment everything together in a rare parallel fermentation. 2) Press, filter and pasteurize. 3) Serve chilled in a small ochoko cup poured from a tokkuri flask — or gently warmed for richer styles. The experience: from bone-dry and crisp to fragrant, fruity and umami-deep. History: sake has been brewed for over a thousand years and remains woven into Shinto ceremony — weddings, New Year and the breaking of a sake barrel lid, kagami biraki, to bless new beginnings.