Sake

Sake

Sake is a rice wine from Japan. The clear or whitish cloudy alcoholic beverage contains about 15-20 percent alcohol by volume. The term sake is often used in the Occident as a synonym for rice wine. A product related to sake is mirin, a rice wine with higher sugar and lower alcohol content, which is used exclusively as an edible condiment. In terms of production, sake-rice wine is less similar to wine than to beer, since the sugar has to be extracted before brewing. The alcohol content of sake-rice wine is higher than that of wine made from grapes. However, it is not considered a beer or beer-like drink for tax purposes. Sake accounts for about 4% of Japanese alcohol consumption, with a downward trend - beers have the largest share.