DRINKING JAPAN: IT’S NOT JUST SAKE. WINE, SAKE, BEER, SHOCHU, AWAMORI, WHISKY, DENKI BRAN, HOPPY Letzte Chance

Good drinking is a multidimensional experience. A finely produced wine or whisky, for example, will engage the drinker’s four senses as he/she considers and evaluates such aspects of the drink as flavor, smell, appearance, and mouthfeel. This dimension should appeal to every serious sybarite. But the drinking experience is enhanced exponentially when one knows something about the history of the beverage, the culture from which it has emerged, its production process, and its marketing. In Drinking Japan—It’ s Not Just Sake, we have provided our readers with all of this information and more. This intellectual dimension makes one a more interesting person, to be sure, but it may also provide input to the third dimension. The Irish call it “craic,” which is the pleasure that good conversation and pleasant company bring. Of course, one can always talk about the weather or the latest blip, boom, bust, or belch from the stock market, but isn’t it more interesting to discuss whether your Chardonnay is oaked or unoaked, your sake predominantly sweet or dry, or how long your whisky has been aged? «,