What kind of SAKE do you like? Dry type? Fruity type? Sweet type?
It is great you can describe your favorite type of SAKE, however, the taste of SAKE is very complicated and delicate, so that it is almost impossible to describe it with “dry type, “fruity type”, “sweet type”. Also, how do we feel the taste is extremely varied.
Now, you might say “how can I find the one I like before tasting?”.
One solution is to ask bottle shop owner or staff in bars and restaurants. However, you don’t always find those well-educated people.
The other solution is to understand the meaning of SAKE’s SPEC such as SMV, Acidity and Amino acid rate, which roughly tells us taste of that SAKE.
Of course, the SPEC can’t 100% describe the feature of SAKE, however I am sure this helps you to meet the SAKE matches your taste.
1.SMV
SMV stands for Sake Meter Value which measures the density of sake compared to water and define the dryness and sweetness of SAKE. SMV is expressed with “+” and “-“, and the average is +1.5.
More acurately saying, SMV measures the amount of sugar and alcohol contains in SAKE. The more SAKE contains sugar, the lower the number SMV is. It means the SAKE with lower SMV basically has sweeter taste. Besides the SMV of SAKE with higher alcohol percentage tends to be lower, since the amount of sugar contains in SAKE is diluted by alcohol.
In the meanwhile, I would like you to know that SMV swings much with just a small amount of sugar, which is difficult for human to tell the difference.
2.Acidity
The acidity measures the amount of lactic acid, succinic acid and magic acid and so forth contains in SAKE.
When I say “acid”, you might picture the sourness, however, the acid in SAKE doesn’t only describe the sourness. The acid contains in SAKE forms the outline of taste. The SAKE with higher acidity tends to have very rich and mellow taste.
On the other hand, SAKE with less acidity is apt to have the light and simple taste. This also highly effect to how we feel about the taste between dryness and sweetness. “1.5” is the average of acidity.
3.Amino acid rate
The amino acid rate measures the amount of amino acid over 10 kinds contain in SAKE.
The average is 1.0, and the SAKE with higher rate has milder and richer taste. If you want to drink the lighter SAKE, please find the SAKE with less than 1.0 amino acid rate.
However, lots of breweries does not disclose this SPEC.
Some breweries do not disclose any data, since some people tend to be biased by the number. How people feel is extremely different, so that please take these SPEC as just a reference to choose the SAKE.
I hope you can always meet the one you like!!!