Vanilla ice cream gives you a particularly good look at aged sake. Take a spoonful on its own, then sip an amber-colored koshu, or aged sake. A bottle with nutty, caramel-like notes can make the vanilla taste a little deeper. Now drizzle a teaspoon of the same sake over a fresh scoop. The aroma reaches you as the ice cream melts. You’ve tried the sake two ways with almost no work, and you may already have a favorite.
There’s a bottle made for exactly this. Shiraki Brewery in Gifu, the producer of Daruma Masamune, sells a sake specifically for pouring over ice cream. If you’re shopping for a more versatile bottle, ask for a rounded, gently sweet aged sake with toasted or caramel notes. A crisp, dry sake can be a fine drink on its own, but after a spoonful of sweet ice cream it may come across as sharp. With dessert, start by matching how sweet the two feel together, then think about aroma and texture.
Vanilla and black sesame ice cream
For vanilla, use a small scoop and try the aged sake as both a side pour and a drizzle. Let the ice cream soften slightly before you start. For black sesame ice cream, try a sip of the same koshu on the side and see how its toasted notes sit alongside the sesame. If you’d like a different texture with vanilla, pour a chilled, lightly sweet nigori. The cloudy sake adds a soft, creamy feel of its own. Try it alongside the ice cream so you can taste both textures separately.
Dark chocolate and brownies
Start with a piece of plain dark chocolate around 65–70% cacao. Let it melt a little, then take a small sip of a sweeter aged sake. Hanahato’s eight-year-aged kijōshu from Enoki Shuzo in Hiroshima is a bottle to look for. To make kijōshu, the brewer uses sake in place of some of the brewing water, often producing a richer, sweeter drink. Here that sweetness can round out the chocolate’s bitterness, while the aged notes bring to mind caramel or dried fruit. Try the same pour with a brownie. If the frosting overwhelms the sake, take a bite from the unfrosted edge and compare.
Cheesecake and fresh fruit
For a lightly sweet baked cheesecake, try a rounded, gently sweet kimoto sake with enough acidity to keep the next bite lively. Kimoto describes the way the fermentation starter was made. Ask for a bottle with the right flavor and sweetness for the cake. If you’re serving ripe pears, peaches or a simple fruit tart, move in the other direction and try a lightly sweet sparkling sake or a fruity ginjo with enough sweetness for the fruit. A tart with jam and thick pastry cream may call for a fuller, sweeter pour than a plate of sliced pears.
For a quick dessert tasting, buy vanilla ice cream, one bar of dark chocolate and one bottle of aged sake. Try the chocolate first, then finish with the ice cream and the small drizzle. Two bites and one pour are enough to see how the same bottle can play a different part in each dessert.