Sake Cruise ’09: How to Taste Sake

Today was our second full day at sea. No stops, no ports of call, sailing all day, all night.

You might think that this leads to a feeling of being bored and all cooped up, but quite on the contrary, the staff organizes lots and lots of activities: games, lectures, dancing, bridge, tea, concerts, comedy, and of course, SAKE TASTINGS!

Most days I’ve been visiting Faye, our friendly server at the “coffee connection”. This is a coffee bar area located mid ship on deck 6 that offers coffee, tea and snacks pretty much all day long. I’ve found myself hanging out here quite a bit as it is a comfortable place to sit and work on my presentations and lecture handouts.

Today’s lecture was “how to taste sake”. Some of the guests got a giggle out of this title asking – we’ve been tasting sake for two days already! This lecture was not just about drinking sake, but appreciating sake, too. We reviewed what to look for when tasting sake including nose, color, palate and finish. We tasted:

Akita Dewatsuru kimoto Junmai
kiminoi Junmai Ginjo Yamahai
Murai Family Daiginjo

We also had an in-depth discussion of sake temperature. Is all hot sake bad sake?! Not by a long shot. The guest and I enjoyed a fun hour together discussing all these points. since we are on our way to Japan, there is an extra level of interest in learning about sake and there were lots of questions which I just love.

Tomorrow is more cruising, more sake and crossing the international date line! Hello Tomorrow!