Oregon Craft Saké Company Presents Saké Cocktail Guide
15 February, 2012
Forest Grove, Oregon – SakéOne, America’s premium saké company, is proud to announce the release of their inaugural Saké Cocktail Guide. The Oregon craft saké company has been crafting signature saké cocktails for 14 years. Though it has become increasingly customary to find chilled, high quality, artisan saké served on it’s own, saké adds depth and body to cocktails at a lower alcohol level than the classic spirits or wine ingredients.
Beverage enthusiasts have long touted that saké has no measurable sulfites, no measurable gluten, it’s lower in calories than spirits, adds flavor and body to traditional recipes and it can be used to create amazingly diverse cocktails. Largely due to the appealing levels of acidity, alcohol, body and flavor, saké works seamlessly with spicy, fruity or floral flavors in cocktails.
Eager to gain outside perspective and inspiration from America’s most renowned mixologists, SakéOne asked their all-star mixologists to taste four diverse styles of saké (genshu, undiluted G saké, Momokawa’s Organic Junmai Ginjo, Momokawa Pearl nigori saké and flavored Moonstone saké) and come up with a collection of recipes. From San Francisco to New York by way of Portland, OR, each mixologist fashioned innovative and flavorful saké cocktail recipes. These recipes have been compiled alongside SakéOne’s private collection of recipes developed over the years to create one of the most innovative and phenomenal saké cocktail guides to date. Mixologists featured in the cocktail guide include: Lucy Brennan, owner of Mint/820 in Portland, Ryan Magarian, president of Liquid Relations in Portland and co-founder of Aviation Gin, Jordan MacKay, wine & spirits writer, author and beverage innovator, Sarma Melngailis, One Lucky Duck Founder & CEO and Pure Food & Wine Owner in New York City, Chris Johnson, certified saké sommelier and owner of Bao Noodles Restaurant in New York City and last but not least, the team at SakéOne’s kura in Forest Grove, Oregon.
Incorporating cocktail ingredients as original as Monin Jasmine Syrup (in Brennan’s Pear Flower cocktail) to maple syrup, coarse crystal date sugar and cayenne pepper (in Melngailis’ Master Cleanse-Tini), the cocktails are as complex and thoughtful as their names. “Because SakeOne is an intersection of Japanese tradition with American execution, I chose as names for these drinks a few titles from one of my favorite directors, Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa. Besides creating samurai and cowboy films as we know them, Kurosawa was interested in Western subjects and tropes,” says MacKay, “These films’ titles became the names of the cocktails… Celebrating that common communion between the Japanese and Western palates.”
On Tuesday, February 28th, join SakéOne and special guest Lucy Brennan (owner of Mint/820 in Portland) on their BrandLive channel http://live.sakeone.com/outside-the-shaker as they discuss all things saké including infusing cocktails with premium saké. Guests will be invited to share recipes and ask Brennan questions live while watching her craft her signature saké cocktails. One of the most innovative cocktail minds, Brennan has been honored as one of Playboy Magazine Top 10 Mixologists and Food & Wine magazine’s Top Five Mixologists, to name a few of her many accolades.
The booklet is free and available by e-mailing info@sakeone.com with Saké Cocktail Booklet in the subject. Trade and Media can e-mail VP of Marketing Dewey Weddington directly at dewey-weddington@sakeone.com.
About SakeOne
SakéOne is America's premium saké company and importer of some of Japan’s finest sake. Founded in 1992 as an importer, SakéOne has been crafting strictly junmai ginjo quality saké at its state-of-the-art kura (brewery) in Forest Grove, the heart of the Willamette Valley: Oregon’s craft beer-brewing and winemaking mecca, since the early 1990s. In 2010, SakéOne’s Momokawa “Ruby” Junmai Ginjo earned a silver medal at the prestigious all-Japanese U.S. National Saké Appraisal, no small feat for an American saké producer. Though SakéOne clearly honors tradition, their Oregonian pioneering spirit is constantly evolving and has truly come to define Oregon craft saké. For more information, please visit www.sakeone.com.
For media inquiries and interviews with saké expert and SakéOne Vice President of Marketing Dewey Weddington, please contact Charles Communications Associates at press@charlescomm.com or 415|701-9463.
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