Taste with KJ - SAKE DAY Welcome Sake with Late Summer Salads

This month’s Taste with KJ features the epically tasty KID Junmai Daiginjo made by Heiwa Shuzou from Kainan City, Wakayama. We are incredibly lucky that this sake will be featured as our Welcome Sake for SAKE DAY’s 20th Anniversary event on September 27th!  Thank you to Heiwa Shuzou, Sake Suki and Fifth Taste for your incredible generosity!   

In honor of this spectacularly fruity and lush sake, I decided to pair this banger with late summer salads. I imagined its plush papaya and strawberry-filled palate with soft acidity would be a successful match with a few of my partner’s favorite salad standbys.

In the US, it's required that alcohol is sold through the three-tier system. Importers serve as the first tier, distributors as the second and either restaurants, bars and retailers as the third. Fifth Taste is one of the leading sake distributors in the nation who works with Sake Suki, an importing company that brings in some of the most exciting sake available today. They work together to bring us many fantastic sake including Heiwa Shuzou's KID brand. 

As for Heiwa Shuzou, it was founded on the grounds of an old temple in 1928. They chose this location for its Koyasan Nansui, the name of the valley's high quality, soft spring water. The name KID is an abbreviation for the words "kisshu" and "fudo" which refer to the region itself and it's environment, respectively. The name KID also represents the brewery's playful and energetic spirit. 

KID Junmai Daiginjo is by far my favorite of their lineup. Besides its prominent strawberry and papaya vibe, it has notes of melon and sweet basil. My partner Mike is very creative and also picked up astronaut ice cream* (strawberry flavored) and passionfruit honey. 

Besides its innate fruitiness and delicate sweetness, what I noticed the most was the sake’s elegant and waterlike texture. It also has a tiny spritz which is appealing. This is glou-glou sake for sure!

*Astronaut ice cream is freeze-dried ice cream with the liquid removed. It can be stored at room temperature and is available at many science museum gift shops. Try it here if you’re curious!

1st salad pairing: Cucumber with chopped tomato, fresh garlic, balsamic vinegar, italian parsley and a dash of salt and pepper 

Mike said these were great together, but the pairing doesn't budge or evolve. The balsamic vinegar combined with the sake creating a golden raisin note. It was reminiscent of the 1990’s raspberry vinaigrette craze. It was nice and fruity too, with no harsh edges. 

I thought the sake covered the vinegar, but the garlic pops back up from under the cascade of sake. It’s a fine pairing, but not one I would seek out. The mid-palate meshes both the fruit and garlic which give it a sweet/savory effect. 

2nd salad pairing: Chickpeas with feta, red bell peppers, red onions, italian parsley, balsamic, olive oil, and garlic

Mike felt the sweetness of the red bell pepper cut through the sweetness from the sake and canceled it out. The strawberry notes from the sake settled down here. This is a much better match and showcases the sake’s delicate acidity. It cleans your palate with a good finish where no flavor is left lingering. The parsley in the salad mixes with the basil notes in the sake. The fruity simplicity of the sake matches this complex tasting salad. It was almost like adding a fruit component to the chickpea salad itself. 

I felt this pairing turned into a dried strawberry bomb, coming from the slight pop from the balsamic element and the fresh garlic. It was not as extreme as the cucumber salad that had even more garlic, so it worked much better. Both pairings were good though and this one could be even better at a colder serving temperature of 45F (we started at 55F, cellar temp). 

Pictured here is what we call Mike’s Famous Guac. It is the absolute perfect blend of all guacamole ingredients, with no tomato as filler; only various handpicked peppers to enhance the flavor. This guac makes an appearance at every big spring and summer gathering and gets gobbled up way too fast. Like we say, share it… if you can!!!

When we paired KID with our famous guac, Mike said the sake came off very strong,  but didn’t shy away from jalapeño, habanero or onion flavor. It stood up to the intense notes in the guac and stated ‘this is my flavor!’ The papaya notes became a bit more mealy, almost like a sweet potato. The pairing would be fantastic with the addition of a baked sweet potato with butter and guac to top it off! Adding brown sugar to the potato without the guac is also a great option. KID’s little spritz became more obvious due to the habanero spice. 

I thought the pairing worked really well, but the booze blasted up when combined with habanero and jalapeño. It felt like a dark pairing and reminded me of coal or cocoa powder. It wasn’t bad, just a goth level pairing for fruity Heiwa. The spice clash made the pairing really interesting. The darkness I speak of is really a spice clash where the flavors deepened and sharpened, creating an ominous feeling. The brightness of strawberry and freshness of avocado both disappeared. This pairing took KID from J-Pop to Dark Wave.  

What we Learned

What stayed the same through all three late summer salads was that Heiwa KID Junmai Daiginjo is really strong and holds it own against powerful flavors that exhibit sourness, spice, and/or herbaceousness. Other sake would morph more, some in a negative way. Overall, this sake held its own and maintained integrity of flavor through every dish. The sake wasn’t compromised by the powerful ingredients which included parsley, cilantro, onion, habanero, jalapeño, balsamic and feta! The salads with balsamic vinegar meshed more easily with this sake.  

As we were now about 1 inch from the bottom of our Heiwa bottle, we whipped out some balsamic vinegar to pair with Heiwa on its own. The result was a beautiful strawberry vinaigrette effect. This sake can easily be used as a component for a fancy salad dressing. 

Heiwa KID Junmai Daiginjo could also be used as a pairing with strawberry shortcake or it could be used to drench the cake layers, then top with whipped cream and fruit. This sake goes well from the beginning of a meal straight to the end!

Mike was reminded of the Cartoon Network show Adventure Time and said, "If the strong fruit princesses had their own military with castles and stuff… they'd be prepared if the fermented vinegar kingdom came to fight! I’d be a great battle and the fruit wouldn’t cave or be defeated" (this is what I deal with 🤣). This sake does not waver! 

I tried my hand at fantastical metaphors and said, “With the balsamic, the sake takes you on a cart ride down into Gringotts Bank and stops abruptly at your vault. It is an electric chocolate track with blue raspberry energy."

Because we are foodies (and drunk at this point), the muse arised which made us try more wild pairings. Next up was Heiwa Shuzo KID Junmai Daiginjo with apple cider vinegar! 

We took a nice swig of KID and then bottomed up a shot of apple cider vinegar, which always tastes like a moderately faulty natural wine or an extreme cider. It wasn’t terrible with the sake! KID tries to harness the vinegar, but it can’t. It is an unsuccessful lion tamer. Yikes. 

Mike said the vinegar taste lasted too long and made the sake celery-like, plus it wipes out its fruit and sweetness. 

Note: If you take a shot of vinegar first, it completely obliterates the sake!

Lastly, we tried KID with pure distilled white vinegar. Mike said it was like having a muscle man date Strawberry Shortcake (the ‘80s character). The relationship doesn’t work out. We hoped the vinegar would work, but the acidity blasts it out. I thought it got lemony and wildly acidic. Like pouring battery acid on a cocktail dress. 

Here is Mike’s guacamole recipe for all of you to enjoy! Try this guac and your life will never be the same! 🥑

MIKE’S FAMOUS GUAC 

6 RIPE AVOCADOS

2/3’s OF A MEDIUM RED ONION

2 MEDIUM JALAPEÑOS

1/2 HABANERO

HANDFUL OF CILANTRO, CHOPPED

JUICE OF 1 LIME

SALT TO TASTE 

- REMOVE SKINS & PITS OF AVOCADOS

- MASH UP THE AVOCADOS SLIGHTLY

- CHOP UP ONION, PEPPERS, CILANTRO

- MIX INTO SMASHED AVOCADO

- SQUEEZE A LIME

- ADD SALT

-TIME FOR A FINAL MIX

- EAT IT AND TRY TO SHARE IT