Sake tasting: 6 styles dry-to-sweet + pairing bites

Most visitors meet sake exactly once: a small warmed cup at some restaurant, harsh on the palate, followed by the conclusion that sake isn't for them. That was almost certainly the cheapest bottle on the menu, heated to hide it — the equivalent of judging wine by cooking wine.

These two hours run the full width of the spectrum. Six pours in a deliberate order: junmai, dry and angular; ginjo, scented like white fruit; daiginjo, milled past halfway so it lands light and clean; nigori, cloudy with rice sediment; one long-aged amber bottle that drinks closer to a spirit; and a chilled, gently sweet style for anyone still convinced they don't drink sake. Each comes with a snack chosen to match, because sake is almost always built to be drunk alongside food rather than alone.

In between, just enough theory: what the milling percentages actually name, why some bottles improve warm while others are ruined by it, and how to read a label so you can pick for yourself in a shop later. You won't leave an expert — you'll leave knowing which branch of the family you like.