Your sake is in the post

It’s not the first time the newsletter has featured FARM8, a Niigata-based business dedicated to regional revitalisation and promotion of local food production in Japan–they developed an innovative small plastic pouch that makes sake easy to carry and enjoy in situations such as hiking or camping.

The company set up SAKEPOST, a sake subscription delivered by post, in Nov 2021, alongside a customer rating system to collect comments and ratings of the characteristics of each sake (displayed as a spider graph). They work with over 90 sake breweries around the country, repackaging their sake and delivering boxes of three or six 100 ml single-serving pouches every month.

Each pouch only has basic information about the sake inside, allowing subscribers to taste the contents free of any preconceptions about the brand or brewery. Subscribers then scan a QR code on the pouch to find out exactly what they drank.

Their database already contains 160,000 entries from users evaluating the 200 brands carried by the subscription service, and as of 1 Oct 2024 the data is being used to highlight which sake have been rated as having similar characteristics to each other.

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A rather hipster subscriber with a suspiciously American mailbox.
(SAKEPOST site)

Questions in the rating function include “What was your first impression of the aroma?” and “What flavour did you get on the first sip?”, with 4 or 5 answers to choose from. Aggregating these subscriber ratings then allows SAKEPOST to suggest labels with similar aromas and flavours to ones a user already likes. 

Another feature is “Sakagura POST” where subscribers can send comments, tasting notes, messages of thanks, recommended snacks, etc. to the breweries. The breweries can also respond, making it a platform where breweries and drinkers can connect–so far over 10,000 comments have been sent through the brewery messaging service. SAKEPOST also provides brewers with the aggregated ratings and comments, providing valuable feedback on what people think of their sake.

One advantage of the almost-blind-tasting format is that it allows small local breweries that are relatively unknown to reach consumers who otherwise would never have heard of them, or never chosen them over more well-established brands.

SAKEPOST offer an “everyday sake” set for JPY 1,210 (tax included) (EUR 7.30/USD 7.80) + JPY 264 shipping per month, a “ginjo sake” set for JPY 1,980 (tax included) (EUR 12/USD 12.90) + JPY 264 shipping per month, or both sets for JPY 3,190 (tax included) (EUR 19.25/USD 20.80). Minimum subscription period is 3 months.
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日本酒定期便SAKEPOSTは「飲んだ感想投稿機能」でユーザーから集まった16万件のリアルな味わいデータベースを基に、200銘柄を超える日本酒から好みに合ったお酒選びをサポートする新機能を展開… (10 Oct 2024, Foods Channel, Japanese)
SAKEPOST (Japanese)