The product we used:
Hot Sake
If you're an avid imbiber of spirits, you probably know well the taste of a nicely chilled beer or a room-temperature red wine, but have you ever filled your heart with mirth through a hot adult beverage?
Outside of perhaps hot chocolate or coffee with liqueur, hot alcoholic beverages are fairly rare in American culture. Hot buttered rum is one of the rare hot alcoholic drinks popular in the US. Europeans have all kinds of hot alcoholic drinks, like mulled wine (hot spiced wine), krupnik (honey-spiced vodka), and rakomelo (honey-spiced grape pomace brandy).
Japanese love their drinks, and among them is hot sake. Sake, heated between 30-55c, changes flavor and the odor also strengthens. At lower temperatures, the odor is softer–sometimes giving off the aroma of rice and koji. At higher temperatures the flavor turns drier and the aroma sharper. Combined with the variety of different sakes made with different ingredients, there is an entire higher plane of drinking pleasure open to exploration if you so desire.
The Tin Connection
That's where tin comes in. Tin has four important qualities that have historically made it a favored material for serving hot sake. First, tin smooths out the flavor of the sake by dissolving the naturally occurring fusel oil that builds up in the sake during the brewing process.
Second, it's a very beautiful, shiny silver. Who doesn't love a nice shiny metal? You can stare at your cup and ponder the mysteries of the universe for days.
Tin's heat conductivity is another important quality. Because tin conducts heat so well, one vessel can be used to both heat and serve the sake, reducing waste and the possibility of accidents when pouring into another vessel.
Historically, copper was the preferred material for serving hot sake both for its warm glow and superior heat-conductivity, but in the Edo period, tin was introduced from China and usurped copper's role due to one more important quality: tin is resistant to oxidation. Copper forms a green patina if left unmaintained, but tin naturally resists oxidation, thus eliminating any work to maintain it.
The Emperors Choice
Tin also became the preferred material for making divine offerings in shrines and temples, possibly due to both its anti-oxidation properties and bright white-silver appears, making it a “pure” metal. Tin vessels used for divine offerings were known as “suzu”. In the Imperial Court today, sake is sometimes referred to as “osuzu”, showing how tin replaced copper even in the Emperor's court.
How to Make Hot Sake
So now that you're ready to start drinking hot sake like a Japanese Emperor, it's time to learn to make it. The good news is that it is easy.
Tools
- Tin “chirori” sake warmer
- A pot for boiling water
- (optional) a thermometer
Boil water
First, boil some water. It's important to note that you shouldn't put the tin sake warmer in the water while it's boiling–the delicate flavor of the sake will be lost.
Instead, after bringing the water to a boil, turn off the heat.
Hang Sake Warmer
Fill a tin sake warmer up with sake, then hang the warmer off the side of the pot using the handle. The warmer should be about half-way submerged in the hot water, with much of the sake still above water-level.
Check temperature
As I wrote earlier, the aroma and flavor can change significantly depending on the temperature. Sake connoisseurs have names for sake heated to different temperatures with their own unique characteristics.
Heated Sake Names and Characteristics
| Name | Temperature | Characteristics |
|---|---|---|
| Hinata-kan | Around 30c / 86f | The aroma gently stands out |
| Hito-hada-kan | Around 35c / 95f | The aroma of rice and koji begins to appear |
| Nuruk-kan | Around 40c / 104f | The aroma becomes prominent |
| Jo-kan | Around 45c / 113f | The aroma sharpens |
| Atsukan | Around 50c / 122f | The aroma is sharper, the flavor dry and crisp |
| Tobikiri-kan | Around 55c / 131f | Drier flavor, sharper aroma. Beyond this temperature results in flavor loss |
To fully enjoy discovering the rich variety of aromas and flavors that hot sake has to offer, you'll want to have a kitchen thermometer to measure the temperature of your sake. Of course, in the beginning, you can run simple, “gut-instinct” experiments, but if you want to get the most out of your sake and tin, adding the thermometer to accurately measure temperatures will be a must.
Drink and be Merry
Remove the tin sake warmer from the pot, dry it with a cloth, then serve.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
This will be our last post before the new year. To all the lovers of Japanese culture and cuisine, we at Globalkitchen Japan would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! If you received some Japanese tinware as a gift and came here wondering what to do with it, let us know in the replies if you found this article helpful.
