Life In 19x19

I know very little about Sake except that I do rather enjoy it, hot, with a game of Go when the weather is cold and wet. I have only had few occasions to drink it.

Can anyone suggest a decent online store that sells decent Sake and would ship to London or, alternatively, a shop in central London that would sell it? What is good?

I see it available on Amazon but have no idea what is good. Some indication of that would help, too.

You are in Cape Town and you want it shipped to London. Would that be London, UK, or London, Ontario?

(Thought I would play devil's advocate with my 666th post. )

Hi Charlie, do you mean Sake ?

You use this google translate link and press the Listen button to hear a (computerized?) pronunciation of Sake

Sorry. Sake, yes.

Edit: that location is out of date - I am in London, U.K.

Edit (the second): I should probably update my location. Perhaps I secretly long for the good old days: sun, braai, wine and mountains instead of persistent drizzle, traffic, football and double-decker buses.

That's really odd, Charlie. I would have assumed that in a metropolis as large as London, UK you would have absolutely no difficulty finding sake. Have you looked?

Here in the US, even in small cities (population 10-20K) you would find at least some sake for sale, even if not a large selection.

It's definitely for sale - no question about that. I'm looking for something decent, though, and don't know how to distinguish one bottle with far-eastern characters on it from another.

I'm looking for recommendations.

To avoid the obvious response, if you just head out into London and start buying and trying, you go bankrupt pretty quickly.

Oh… Sake.

I ♥ hot Sake … one of the finest ways to get drunk

Perhaps try this Google search http://www.google.com/search?q=asian+food+store+london, it also shows a Google map for your convenience I’m sure that any Asian store owner will be happy to to explain the different sorts of Sake to you.

If this helps … kanpai!

Greetings, Tom

I second this request for good sake recommendations!

I have a pretty good idea where to buy it in London (there are Japanese food shops around, like Arigatou in Soho and Atari-ya in Ealing). Also specialist booze purveyors of various kinds.

But no idea what I am looking for/at.

[edit: Actually, an old friend is going to be in town in a couple of weeks, and he has adventurous taste in alcohol. It was his idea for us to start playing Go, and we have only played online since then. Playing in person over my new board with a bottle of sake would be pretty much ideal.]

I have to say that if you are going to drink it hot, it doesn't really matter which kind you buy...

Try it at just-over-blood-temperature. Or chilled in hot and humid weather, if ever we get such a rare event.

I don't know about the Japanese supermarkets in London, but many sake brands do small bottles as tasters. And you could try asking the people in the store.

You might want to try posting this in a forum that has something to do with alcohol. I highly doubt that there are avid drinkers here that know a lot about different sake.

Maybe this site will give you some ideas on what to look for in sake.
http://www.sake-world.com/index.html

Dante31 wrote:You might want to try posting this in a forum that has something to do with alcohol. I highly doubt that there are avid drinkers here that know a lot about different sake.

Oh! I think you may be surprised.

Dante31 wrote:You might want to try posting this in a forum that has something to do with alcohol. I highly doubt that there are avid drinkers here that know a lot about different sake.

Sure because interest in other aspects of Japanese/Korean/Chinese culture is very rare in the go community...

Echoing Boidhre's point I have recently started enjoying Matcha as an adjunct to my Go studies...highly recommended.

Umeboshi <3