Best sake made outside of Japan is in Holbrook

If you want to drink high-quality sake (a rice wine) with sushi, the best way is to get it straight from the original source in Japan.

However, if you’re in the United States, the best sake there is made right in the Route 66 town of Holbrook, Arizona, at a place called Arizona Sake.

Fox 10 in Phoenix has the story about Atsuo Sakurai, who originally hails from Yokohama, Japan, and makes his sake in his garage:

“I want to make sake by myself. I tried in my dorm. But this is illegal in Japan though. But I tried,” Sakurai said.
Sakurai says he had so much fun, he got a job at a sake brewery after college. And fast forward ten years later…
“I got married to my wife. She’s American, so ok, let’s go to the states,” Sakurai said.
In January 2017, Sakurai got his Arizona state license to make Junmai Ginjo. It’s a simple sake that only uses rice, water, yeast and koji, a fungus used in sake. […]
And just one and a half years after getting his license, Sakurai’s sake has been featured in numerous high-end restaurants in Arizona.
His Arizona sake was also awarded as the World’s Best International Sake made outside of Japan.

Here’s the entire video segment:

Ironically, there are no Japanese restaurants in Holbrook. But Super Fuels in Holbrook carries the sake in its refrigerated case. Arizona Sake is not pasteurized, so it must stay cold.

The Phoenix New Times reported:

Josh Hebert serves Arizona Sake by the bottle and glass at Hot Noodles Cold Sake in Scottsdale. “People go nuts for it,” he says. “It has that kind of just tropical fruit nose, but it really comes across being more balanced than that. The texture is just creamy and rich …”

With microbreweries popping up by the hundreds each year across America, it seems it was only a matter of time before the same thing would happen to other alcoholic beverages.

(Image of Arizona Sake via Facebook)