Sake rice
Brewers say sake is made in the rice field. Here are the varieties you'll see on labels, what each brings to the glass, and bottles to try.
Most sake is brewed from shuzo kotekimai (酒造好適米), rice grown for brewing rather than eating. Compared with table rice the grains are bigger and lower in protein and fat, and most have a large opaque starch core called shinpaku (心白). That core lets brewers polish the grain heavily without it cracking, and lets koji mold work into the grain evenly.
Rice is only one part of a sake's taste — water, yeast and the brewer's choices matter as much — but each variety has a recognizable lean. The counts on this page come from bottles our US retail partner lists by rice.
Varieties
Yamada Nishiki
The “king of sake rice”: Hyogo's most famous variety, behind most award-winning daiginjo.
五百万石Gohyakumangoku
Niigata's sake rice: the backbone of light, dry, clean “tanrei karakuchi” sake.
美山錦Miyama Nishiki
Nagano's cold-hardy rice: clean, crisp and gently dry sake.
雄町Omachi
Japan's oldest pure-line sake rice, from Okayama: earthy, rich and full of umami.
出羽燦々Dewasansan
Yamagata's own sake rice, bred for the prefecture's soft, fragrant ginjo.
八反錦Hattan Nishiki
Hiroshima's sake rice: clean and dry with a crisp edge.
秋田酒こまちAkita Sake Komachi
Akita's ginjo rice: soft, smooth and gently fruity.
亀の尾Kame no O
A 19th-century heirloom from Yamagata, brought back from near-extinction: tangy, rich and characterful.
愛山Aiyama
A rare Hyogo rice with a huge shinpaku: sweet, rich and juicy.
越淡麗Koshi Tanrei
Niigata's modern rice, crossing Yamada Nishiki with Gohyakumangoku for refined daiginjo.
Flavor profiles and rankings: Sakenowa (さけのわ) open data, built from drinkers' check-ins in Japan.