We Made a Blog

A solid 100 degrees Fahrenheit on any given New York thermometer on Wednesday, and We Made a Blog made an after-work beeline for a nice, cold…thimbleful of sake. Really.

Semi-secret underground sake bar (and now you see why we couldn’t think of anything cooler) Sakagura celebrated the Japanese Tanabata festival with a sake tasting. The usual astronomical fairytale of parted lovers meeting only under an alignment of stars (with an extra flight of fancy in the form of magpies, represented at Sakagura by bird-shaped cookies), Tanabata is celebrated, like many festivals, with alcohol.

Sponsored by Hakkaisan Brewery (a boutique outfit located in a snowy outskirt of Tokyo), four sakes were proferred, including one, Daiginjo, not available in the United States. It was flown in along with guest of honor and president of Hakkaisan, Jiro Nagumo.

Friend of Sakagura and the brewery, Tim Sullivan (Tim-san) wore a dove-grey yukata (summer kimono) that seemed as impervious to wrinkling or wilting in the damp heat as his smile and friendly demeanor as he poured the sakes into the commemorative cups provided to the guests. He first poured us Honjozo, a fortified sake that had a bolder taste than most. After our tentative sips turned into appreciative gulps, we inquired what it was fortified with. A heartier grain of rice? Wheat? More alcohol, as it turned out. Fortified, we moved on to Tokubestu Junmai. Created from the melted snow that slips off Mount Hakkai, it was the closest to sparkling sake can be without actually being, well, sparkling. Separate flavor profiles announced themselves simultaneously on the tongue.

We took a sake break to sample the appetizers. Finger-friendly edamame were popular with the milling cocktail-hour crowd. Crudite had a Japanese bent with the addition of okra and daikon to the usual batonnet of vegetables and a sesame seed-dressed dip comprised of red snapper and miso paste, redolent with umami. Plump, flaky smoked salmon was snapped up as fast as the chopsticks necessary to eat it were and chunks of savory chicken were so moist they barely withstood the skewers they were served on.

After an official greeting and toast, Nagumo-san began doling out the Daiginjo from a squat cobalt bottle. It was exactly of the transcendent quality you’d expect would cause the country to hoard it from export.

We closed out our sake sampling with a delicate sensation of Junmai Ginjo on our palates. Turned out into the heart of the hot, hot city, we were braver for being saked and sated.