When Shinobu Kato first tried sake as a young man in Tokyo, it tasted harsh and sharp to him. He hated it. But, he recalls, an older colleague told him that he was drinking cheap, poorly made sake. As he was introduced to better styles, Mr. Kato grew to...

Sake is a traditional Japanese alcoholic drink that has been gaining new fans all over the world. However, in its home market, Japan, the drink is losing its appeal among consumers. According to Genki Ito, the founder of Tippsysake, a US website that imports and sells sake, there are...

Japanese sake is becoming the ‘it’ drink at the Bay Area’s trendiest restaurants All signs are pointing to a sake boom. As the Japanese drink becomes easier to find, Bay Area beverage directors, sommeliers and other industry experts are promoting it to a wider audience. For a long time, sake in...

Until recently, guests at Ya Ge, a Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Taipei, mostly paired their food with European or Australian wines. Those desiring a stronger kick would go for Taiwanese-style wines like the white Kaoliang or the yellow Shaoxing. In the last few years, though,...

Thanks to prominent sake distributor figures pushing the envelope and creating a flourishing market for the fermented rice beverage, Singapore has a thriving sake scene.   When not being around sake and donning their happi coats, it’s hard to imagine these three men dedicating themselves to improving Singapore’s sake industry.   Adrian Goh...

Sake is a simple drink in terms of ingredients but deep in flavour, culture and brewing process and the sake import market is thriving amid a slump in most imported drinks. The versatility of sake is one of it’s unique points- it can be drunk hot or cold and...

For those of you who have visited Japan you may be aware of chu-hi, you will find an abundance of different flavored chu-hi in convenience stores and supermarkets however you may be less aware of the new trend: Fruit Sake. Chu hi is what we would call alcopops, coolers or...

--------------------------------------------------------------- Japanese Sake export: Latest data from May 2022 Happier news all round! Showing a 166.4% increase year-over-year; the total value of Japanese Sake exports reached 401.78 million JPY , while the total volume of exports reached 32,053 KL (Trade Statistics of Japan) in 2021. This record-high growth for the 12th consecutive year...

USA Sake Market Overview The USA Sake market continues to be the global number one importer of Japanese Sake. 2016-2017 saw an increase of 16% 2017, with a dollar value increase from 800 million yen to 6 billion yen. This is an increase of 1.7 times from 2007 levels. Sake...

  Is the Australian Sake market a key target for Sake exporters? Demand in Japan for Japanese Sake has (unfortunately) been decreasing recently, partly due to changing palates of the younger population and because of the increase in popularity of wine, and more recently Craft beer. Statistics from the Japan Sake...