Many people will ask me, "Zheng Xiaota, what wine goes well with Japanese food?"

My answer is often beyond their expectation, "It's best with Japanese sake!"

whatever it is, the original match is always the best!

Every local traditional food and every classic food collocation has been screened and verified by nature for thousands of years.

otherwise, why not something else?

Therefore, Japanese food is matched with Japanese wine, and European food is matched with European wine, which is a "natural match" for eating and drinking.

Of course, you may already be familiar with Japanese cuisine, such as sushi, tempura, sashimi and miso soup. The stories and eating methods of these delicacies will come as soon as you open your mouth, but you may be a little unfamiliar with Japanese sake.

in my opinion, Japanese sake is much simpler than wine.

wine, grape varieties, brewing methods, producing areas, and English wine labels are often a headache. Japanese sake is different. You can understand it just by looking at the wine labels. They are all in Chinese!

in this article, I will talk about Japanese sake. What should we know?

how to introduce Japanese sake when eating Japanese food with girls or younger brothers?

Japanese sake was passed down from China.

Its origin was between the 3rd and 4th centuries, after rice from China was introduced into Japan.

China's Biography of the Japanese in Wei Zhi in the Western Jin Dynasty is less than 2, words, but it mentions Japanese sake.

This is the first record of Japanese sake in history books, and the time is about 28 years.

at the dinner table, when it comes to early Japanese sake, I think you should be mentally prepared, at least swallow the food in your mouth first, or it will be bad to spit it out.

The predecessor of Japanese sake is chewing wine.

people chew raw rice in their mouths, then spit it out and put it in a jar for fermentation.

Because there are enzymes in saliva that break down starch, it can produce sugar and then ferment it into alcohol.

At that time, this kind of saliva wine, no, no, no, was chewing wine, and its status was comparable to that of Maotai in China now. It was a high-grade wine that Japanese dignitaries rushed to drink, and ordinary people only had to look at it.

This is a wonderful thing in the history of human food culture!

Until the 8th century, when China's koji-making method was introduced, Japanese people's mouths could finally stop. Since then, the present way of sake brewing has gradually formed.

You know, that small glass of Japanese sake on the dining table seems unremarkable, but it took the Japanese hundreds of years to figure it out!

Of course, it's not enough for you to just talk about the origin of Japanese sake, but also to mention the brewing method of sake.

Don't make a mistake. Japanese sake is brewed in the same way as Shaoxing yellow rice wine, not like China white wine.

China liquor is distilled liquor, which is the same as brandy and whisky. After the grain is fermented, it is distilled, concentrated and extracted, which is how the high alcohol content of more than 5 degrees comes from.

(Refer to reading, Is Japanese sake "China white wine"? )

Japanese sake is brewed wine. After rice is steamed, it is put together with distiller's yeast (as shown below) for parallel secondary fermentation-the starch in rice is converted into sugar.

At the same time, alcohol was produced by fermentation, and sake was born.

This process is similar to the practice of Shaoxing yellow rice wine in Zhejiang. There is also a legend that the Japanese brought Shaoxing yellow rice wine back to Japan after the brewing law meeting.

of course, it's simpler.

Japanese sake is just rice wine or sweet wine often brewed in rural areas in China!

When drinking sake at the dinner table, don't say that sake tastes just like it!

If the girl opposite knows some Japanese culture, she will really roll her eyes.

to put it simply, there are two flavors of Japanese sake, sweet and pungent.

Many Japanese sake labels also have the words "sweet mouth" and "sweet mouth", so when drinking, pay attention to the label of sake and you will get a general idea of the taste of this bottle of wine.

sweet sake is better to eat, and it is a little sweet to drink, which means there is more sugar in sake.

but Xin kou, don't simply understand it as "spicy" on the surface of the word.

pungent taste means that it is not sweet, which you can imagine as "dry white" in white wine, with little sugar. It will be refreshing and smooth to the mouth, just like a cool breeze in summer.

some Japanese sake also has a flavor similar to mint, which is called yuwei.

when drinking, you can savor it carefully to see if there is this fragrance.

Last time a few financial friends had a dinner party to eat Japanese food and suggested drinking sake, a girl was so scared that she kept saying, "Japanese sake has great stamina that she dare not drink it".

we almost laughed ourselves down.

I had to explain in detail, "The alcohol content of Japanese sake is only about 15 degrees, which is almost the same as that of red wine, but it is far from that of white wine, which is often 5 or 6 degrees."

"Japanese sake makes people feel full of stamina because it is sweet and delicious."

"It's easy and sweet to drink, and before you know it, you'll drink too much. It's like lying on the sofa and watching Story of Yanxi Palace after work, with a bunch of snacks beside you. You're so happy to watch it, but before you know it, the waist of the bucket comes out."

The girl was made to laugh, and then she was relieved to drink.

drinking Japanese sake, the word "polished rice" can't be bypassed.

you have to understand it if you don't understand it, but it's also simple, which means the fineness of rice. To explain it again, it means the degree to which a rice grinds off the surface.

(For details about the step of polished rice, see "step of polished rice" and "degree of polished rice" on the sake label. What do you mean? )

Then why is the word "polished rice step by step" so important?

Because it usually represents the quality of a bottle of Japanese sake.

milled rice step-by-step, that is, milled rice degree. The smaller the number, the more expensive and the better the quality of this bottle of Japanese sake.

This is also shown on the wine label of sake, and some of them are also written as "cut a few points".

Take the most famous Rex Sake in Japan as an example, there are three types of refined rice, 23%, 39% and 5%.

the price of 23% milled rice (divided into two parts and three parts) is often two or three times that of 5% milled rice.

here, it is also important to remember that the smaller the milled rice number (for example, 23%), the lighter the fragrance, while the larger the number (5%), the more mellow the umami flavor.

However, you will also be curious, "Why does the more surface rice grinds off, the better it means?"

For sake brewing, the most important thing is the rice core, which is the opaque part in the center of rice.

Mi Xin contains a large amount of starch, which is the main component used to brew sake. The purer the Mi Xin is, the more starch it has.

At the same time, the technology of grinding off the outer part of rice tests the equipment of the factory, which also leads to the high brewing cost and high price of Japanese sake with a high percentage of polished rice.

In Japan, sake is a highly mature industry, and some famous brands have emerged.

unlike wine, different countries have many local brands, and each country has its own way. Instead, wine selection pays more attention to grape varieties and producing areas.

Zheng xiaota, I am a teacher who teaches Japanese sake class, and I have dealt with various sake brand companies.

So, I know the characteristics of some common sake brands in China.

If you have a heart, if you remember something, you can talk to the girl at dinner and win some goodwill.

rex sacrifice sake is famous for its polished rice degree, and it is a great breakthrough in the history of sake.

The authentic sake of Chrysanthemum is characterized by its pungent flavor, and it is also brewed by the ancient method of "raw vinegar brewing".

Yueguiguan sake is characterized by pure rice wine, which can smell the sweet taste of rice.

There are also raw wine and raw stored wine of White Crane, which have the fresh taste just out of the cellar.

Compared with Japanese sake brands, it is more important to know the grade of sake, which is a magic weapon to distinguish the quality of sake at the dinner table (it is written on the sake bottle! ）。

However, Japanese sake of some quality is divided into two grades: pure rice wine and sake with alcohol added.

pure rice wine, which is brewed without alcohol, ranks from low to high, followed by pure rice wine, especially pure rice wine, pure rice wine and pure rice wine.

Sake added with alcohol during brewing is also divided into four grades, from low to high, namely, this brewed wine, especially this brewed wine, Yin brewed wine and Da Yin brewed wine.

In taste, the brewed wine with brewing alcohol will be "spicy" and cool.

It is more suitable for Japanese dishes with more grease, such as sashimi, which is like a sponge to gently absorb the greasy feeling in food.

Pure rice wine is more rich in rice flavor, and tastes sweet and delicious. When it is matched with sweet cooking food, it seems that a bomb has been dropped in the crater, and the delicious taste is suddenly released.

when eating Japanese food, don't forget to ask the store to serve some pig cups, as shown below.

drinking sake in this way is full of ritual and adds a bit of Japanese flavor.

When making a toast to a girl, you can easily say, "pure wine costs, for the golden cup, ten thousand coppers a flagon, the jade plate is so ashamed that it costs thousands of dollars", which suddenly makes your image much taller.

when the girl takes a sip and wants to put it down, what you want to say is not "I'm not happy today, just drink it up!"

instead, "oh, let a man of spirit venture where he pleases, don't make the golden bottle empty … to the moon", and when the word "empty" is spoken, make another gesture that means "drink it up".

whew, it's terrible to have no culture, and it's even more terrible to have culture!