Shiboritate: Young Freshly Pressed Sake

Shiboritate

On a personal note, whenever I visit a sake place I aways go for Shiboritate. 

This is the freshly made very young sake that has a little lees leftover in the final product.  Some are a little gassy, too.  I love the fresh fruity notes I get on the nose, and the light delicate flavors on the palate.  Sometimes you can pick up hints of cotton candy or even a little pino colada if you have keen a  sense of taste.   

Youth Gone Wild

I love the youthfulness at play in Japanese sake... Like with how  the little nervous goose bumps before you know you're about to do something wrong.  Shiboritate is sake that is refined, yet brash and audacious.  Adventurous.  Sexually irresponsible.  Bold and full of potential.  Limitless.  Boundless.  Reckless and dangerous.  Brash.  And most of all, saucy!  Just like I love saucy foods and saucy languages.  Saucy AV actresses that have an unusual swagger about them.  

When Koji is added to the yeast starter and the moromi mash, it helps convert the rice starch into glucose.   Like the guy  representing the koji and the girl representing her yeast(y) goodness and the moromi mash being the result of  the combination of the two - no pun intended.   Releasing her womanly sweetness, the very nectars of life itself;  liquid bliss floweth.  In the end, it is all about chemistry.

The sweetness in the white radish (daikon), is simply divine and it compliments most Japanese sake,  especially winter white radishes that retain more sugars than standard radishes.  For me, a few days of being left in soupy broth enhances the flavors of that succulent white daikon.   It fills the whole mouth on every bite.   

This hanami season, remember, simple is best.