What’s the most syrupy way to get lit in the East Bay? Takara’s Koshu plum sake is great warmed up, served over ice, or sipped straight from the bottle. For $6 you can take home a 750 ml bottle, sweet as bubblegum but packing 12 percent alcohol, a deadly combo. At Takara’s airy tasting bar, open daily from noon to six, you can try any of its twenty-odd sakes, including the West Coast’s first organic sake, half a dozen varieties of mirin, three plum-flavored libations, and seven varieties of hard liquor distilled from rice, barley, buckwheat, and even sweet potatoes. While you sample, watch the rubber-aproned workers, ankle-deep in glistening fresh sake, preparing shipments bound for cities nationwide and as far away as, well, Japan. There’s even a museum dedicated to the fine art of sake brewing, which features ancient wooden tubs, spoon and rakelike implements, educational displays, a ten-minute promotional video, and bits of sake shrines from the home country.
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Koshu Plum Sake