Life hack site @DIME has the answer if you’re worried about how to take sake to your cherry blossom viewing party – aluminium bottle cans.
After some assertions that sake is what comes to mind when drinking to the flowers, rather than shōchū, highballs or wine, and some patriotic flag-waving about the Japanese for sake, nihonshu (日本酒) having the word “Japan” in it (no, really?) the article gets to the point.
Produced by Nihonsakari, the 200 ml cans are shaped like bottles, including a cap that can be put back on (although you might want to keep them upright after opening just in case). As previously covered (You can with a can) cans aren’t traditional packaging for sake but are actually a great way to protect slightly delicate styles like unpasteurised nama. The article continues to point out that the resealable cans are more convenient for hauling around outdoors than bottles and paper or plastic cups which have to be bought, carried, passed around and then tidied up. (In Japan, land of the vending machine, you’ll find can recycling boxes every few hundred meters in most urban areas and without fail at convenience stores.)
The nama genshu inside comes in three varieties:
- nama genshu honjōzō with luxurious depth and umami and solid flavour
- nama genshu daiginjō with floral aroma and fresh flavour
- nama genshu junmai ginjō with its distinctive aroma and flavour
At 200 ml, the bottles are also slightly larger than the usual 180 ml (1 gō) size, so the extra 20 ml feels like a little bonus.
Links
- Original article (Japanese, @DIME, 28 March 2018)
- Nama genshu can product page on Nihonsakari site (Japanese)
- Nihonsakari product page (English) It’s all done with pop-up so I can’t give individual links, but go to the honjōzō, ginjō and daiginjō categories on the left and look for the bottle-cans.