Sep 30, 2010

Attraction of Taruzake (Casked Sake)

Recently, I checked old video data I took before, and found footage of kagami-biraki (ceremonial way making a toast with sake). Since I thought this can be a good movie, I edited the data and uploaded it to the Youtube site.

The movie I presents in this post was taken when we had a Christmas party for kimono lovers in 2008. A generous sales person from OZEKI Co. Ltd. (famous and big sake brewery in Japan) kindly prepared a big cask of sake for us, and we could have this wonderful experience.

The Japanese often celebrate happy events with kagami-biraki. In kagami-biraki, a wooden cask filled with sake is prepared. People crack open this cask and then make a toast with the sake.

A cask for kagami-biraki is usually filled with inexpensive regular sake, and regular sake is in many cases light and quaffable. Actually, I do not easily become tired of drinking regular sake. So, although I usually like rich and bold sake like muroka nama genshu or full-bodied sake such as yamahai, I sometimes feel inclined to drink regular sake.

Since the cask is made of cedar, the sake takes scent of cedar in the cask. Magic of cedar scent turns the cheap sake into something completely different.

Regular sake drunk as casked sake is fresh, flinty, and crispy, and gives you briskness. This is due to the scent of cedar that the sake takes while it is prepared in the cask.

Oh, after watching my video, I became to deliriously crave casked sake.

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