Sake review

Ok, I'm not a sake connoiseur. We drink the house brand when we go out. I'm much more conversant with single malt scotch.

That being said, I went out with friends last Saturday to a sushi restaurant that had a pretty extensive (and expensive) sake list, and we decided to buy two bottles to see what they were like. One bottle was unfiltered sake, which I hadn't tried before; the other was a filtered sake that was said to have won awards. Both were served cold. Neither was very good.

Here's what we bought:
Unfiltered
Kuromatsu-Hakushika
Nigori Sake
Snow Beauty
Product of Nishinomiya Hyogo, Japan
Produced by Tatsuuma-Honke Brewing Co.
Alcohol: 15-15% by volume

Filtered
Hakushika Junmai Ginjo
Product of Nishinomiya, Japan
Produced & Bottled by Tatsuuma-Honke Brewing Co.
Alcohol: 15-15% by volume

The problem with the unfiltered sake is that it tasted pasty to me -- but also had such a strong taste that it was difficult to drink. The pasty texture reminded me of pepto bismol.

The filtered sake had less taste than I'm used to in sake. Maybe it's because it was served cold -- that might tone down the "nose" on the sake. It really was overwhelmed by the sushi, though, which is not a good thing.

We wound up mixing the two half-and-half to get something palatable, which is probably a major crime in Japan. But at least we got through dinner.