Now that sake has entered American culture and the wine world with such vigor, everyone wants to know, “what is the best glass for sake?”  The good news, or bad news, if you want easy answers, is there is no perfect glassware for sake!  The only hard-and-fast rule is to use glass for chilled and room temperature sake, and certamic for heated.

When you go to a sake bar in Japan, you will often be brought a tray with many different glasses from which you can chose.  Ah, personal preference, choice, individuality–what amazing things!  Chosing sake glasses is wonderful–to select among the array of colors, shapes and designs is a great part of sake culture.  Most of the glasses are small, but always bigger than the little sake cups many people know, called “o-choko”.  These, and their partners, tokuri (the carafes), are perfectly fine for heated sake, and heated sake is perfectly fine.  However, they are not suitable for good, warmed sake or good, chilled sake.

Wine glasses are fine for sake; however, sake glasses are the best.  Sake glasses have developed out of sake history and culture, and stemware is not intrinsic to it or Japan.  Stemware came late and in very limited quantities to Japanese culture because traditional Japanese attire consists of robes with long, open sleeves.  These can easily knock over stemware.  Japanese interior design is also low to the ground, so stemless glassware follows this direction. 

Not only is a wine glass a bit unnatural for sake, you also don’t need to play the oenophile and swirl with great aplomb.  Sake is delicate and will reveal its aromas perfectly well when just sniffed up-close, in an open glass.