A sake and soju night at the Aqua Resort Club

A rare night of intimate cultural experience happened at Aqua Resort Club Thursday with a Japanese sake and Korean sojun and jinro special.

From 6pm to 9pm on April 6, ARC’s Vino Bar and Lobby Lounge overflowed with sake and soju to the pleasure of guests.

Yoshimi Yanagisawa, ARC Food & Beverage sales manager, said she was overjoyed to see many people enjoying the evening.

The special promo includes an all-you-can eat appetizer—sashimi, poke, and vegetable sticks with miso—and an all-you-can drink alcoholic beverage from Japan and Korea–sake, shochu, sojun, and jinro.

For all these treats, guests only needed to pay $25.

“We’re quite impressed with the turnout. It’s actually a one-night trial to see if people like it. We may do it again soon,” said Yanagisawa.

DRINK WITH STYLE

She said the night shows the fusion of modernity and tradition as exemplified in the drinking of sake and jinro cocktails.

“Everybody thinks sake is an old tradition but we want to show them that you can do a lot these times with sake. You can drink it in style. There’s a stylish way of drinking sake,” said Yanagisawa.

ARC served sake cocktails during the night—blue cave, samurai rock, sake martini, and red sun. Korean Jinro cocktails were also available—grapefruit with jinro and jinro kappa.

Yanagisawa said Thursday night’s event was a first on the island.

“It’s never been done here on island,” she said.

The whole night was all about fusion of something old and new.

As people sipped their sake and chatted with friends and associates, a video of contemporary Japanese music played in the background.

The sense of blending “old and new” was all the more pronounced with the service staff dressed up in ‘retro’ kimono, which showed their legs in black stockings.

“It’s not the way to wear kimono. You don’t wear it to show your legs in black stockings. But we’re reinventing it. It’s a mix of old and new things,” explained Yanagisawa.

During the night, sake was served the traditional way—generously. It was served in a small sake glass inside the masu, a wooden box-like cup.

The glass was filled to the brim so that a large amount of it overflows and fills the masu.

Once the glass is emptied, whatever is left in the saucer is taken as well.

Sake is a beverage fermented from rice. It is popularly called rice wine but since it is from a grain, this would make it more of a beer than wine.

But sake is non-carbonated and tastes more like wine than beer.

Yanagisawa said sake is uniquely different from wine. It is not distilled and is far from being close to gin and vodka.

Sake simply means an alcoholic beverage. It has between 15 to 17 percent alcohol content.

Yanagisawa said more people actually prefer sake than hard drinks because it is healthy.

“It smoothens the skin. Many beauty products were made of sake,” she said.

It is usually good with fish and other light dishes.

Experts said that beyond the normal pros and cons of alcohol consumption, sake is free from sulfites.

“It is also light and comparatively free of hangover-causing congeners,” experts said.

Further, premium sake is free from additives and preservatives.