Arrive Magazine - July/August, 2009

Cocktail
Sake’s
Summer
Breakout

This summer,
infuse sake
with litchi,
pineapple, pear,
strawberries
or vanilla for
a simple and
subtly flavored
cocktail.

Move over gin and vodka, Japan’s tasty export
makes a refreshing summer choice at the bar—
whether infused with fruit, mixed in a cocktail
or served chilled and straight up
BY JOANN GRECO
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILLY KIDD

It bears a name ripe for the punning and a taste that can be t weaked to carry tantalizing hints of lemongrass or litchi, plum or raspberry. So it’s no wonder that sake—the highly alcoholic Japanese drink brewed from polished rice—has been turning up in so many summer cocktails.

For mixologists, sake’s inherently neutral flavor, like that of Champagne or vodka, makes it the ideal base for blending. “The classic components of any good cocktail are some combination of sour and sweet, and sake is highly acidic, so it covers the tart end,” says Anjoleena Gri;n-Hoist, wine director at Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel. “Sake lends a bite, a mouthwatering extra that makes a cocktail stand out.”

At Izakaya, the hotel’s stylish Japanese pub, sake bottles enjoy pride of place in a dramatically lit wine room, and the beverage sidles into everything from sidecars to margaritas. To further enhance the mood, the restaurant adds Japanese flourishes by, say, applying togarashi (a seasoning made from seven spices, including red chili peppers) to the rim of a classic margarita glass.

Izakaya, like other fine dining spots, reserves its ultrapremium sake purely for sipping, and instead uses variations like namazake (a very fresh, nonpasteurized sake) and shochu (a distilled, rather than brewed, beverage made from rice as well as potatoes or barley) in its mixed drinks.

Although New York’s Megu does pour sake into its saketini—a 50/50 blend of sake and vodka with a cucumber garnish—it, too, opts for shochu otherwise, according to beverage manager Terence Miller. “Shochu is a natural product of Japan, with a lot of power and kick, even though it’s about half the proof of rum or vodka,” Miller says.