/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>18197712
Sake is hit/miss.
Even in Japan, it’s an insanely regional thing. The only national brands of sake are either insanely cheap (like Ozeki one-cup shit) or expensive, like Dassai.
99% of sake you find in US liquor stores or “Japanese” restaurants is terribly overpriced for what they’re selling.
The only rules of thumb are to look for certain “classifications”.
“Junmai” = unalduterated sake. Not that non-jummai is automatically bad, but it simply means it’s made of only rice, water, and koji. Think of it as the sake equivalent of “Bavarian purity law”.
Then there is “ginjo” and “daiginjo”, which are based on how much of the rice is milled away.
So an oversimplification (but still usable rule of thumb) would be to say “Junmai Ginjo” = Premium, and “Junmai Daiginjo” = Ultra Premium.
My personal favorite sake is Dassai 23 (pic related), but my wife and I only buy it for special occasions.
Unfortunately it’s way overpriced in the US, due to it having become very popular in Japan over the past few years. So even in Japan, supply is short, and exports are limited.

>>17585659
Gekkeikan is the Franzia of sake, as >>17585805 said.
Dassai, however, is almost universally regarded as one of the best “large” breweries. It’s an extremely good junmai daiginjo, and one of the most popular “non-micro/regional” junmai daiginjos in Japan. The 23 is what my wife and I drink on “special occasion” type days since it’s a bit pricey to be a daily drinker.

If you genuinely didn’t like the Dassai, it’s quite possible that sake in general just isn't something that appeals to your personal taste.

Can you be a bit more specific on what you didn’t like about it, or what you’re looking for?
There are all sorts of non-junmai sakes with various flavors and levels of sweetness. “Junmai” is just the sake equivalent of “Bavarian purity law”, and means the sake is made with only rice, water, koji, and yeast. Many people find non-junmai with other flavors to be more approachable.

>>17515386
Definitely give a junmai daiginjo a shot sometime.
It’s basically the same thing but further refined because of the rice-milling, so it’s smoother and “cleaner” tasting.
It’s sometimes hard to find depending on where you live though, as a lot of people don’t know enough about sake to know why it’s more expensive, so stores can have trouble moving it.
Pic related; my favorite sake, period. My fiancée and I have it on special occasions. It’s extremely hard for us to ever find outside Japan, though.

>>15418219
Dassai is my one true sake love. We drink the 23 on special occasions.