Monday, April 27, 2009

Sake with 50 percent fewer calories debuts

RIKUZENTAKATA, Iwate -- A Japanese sake maker here has released a sake with 50 percent fewer calories than standard rice wine.

Respected sake brewer Suisen Shuzo is aiming the new brand, called Hana no Yoi, at calorie-counting women and middle-aged to older customers worried about their weight.

Click here for the entire article at The Mainichi Daily News, along with the Japanese version of the article.

So how many calories are in a glass of regular sake? From esake.com:

What is the sugar content of sake, and how many calories are there in a typical serving of sake? There are between 180 and 240 calories, or 20 to 27 grams of carbohydrates, in 5.5 oz glass of sake. Protein and fat are negligible. During the brewing of sake, the yeast cells eat the natural sugar created by the starches in the rice and give off alcohol and carbon dioxide. The starch-to-sugar conversion, and the fermentation of that sugar, take place simultaneously in the same tank. This makes sake unique; in other beverages the conversion to sugar occurs first, and fermentation later. Also, another important parameter to be aware of is the Nihonshu-do . Also called the Sake Meter Value (abbreviated SMV) in English, this is the specific gravity of a sake. It indicates how much of the sugars created from the starches in the rice were converted to alcohol, and how much remained to contribute to sweetness. By ancient convention, the higher the number, the drier the sake. What is the range? In theory, it is open-ended. In practice, + 10 or so is quite dry, -4 or so is quite sweet, and +3 or so is neutral. Keep in mind this parameter is affected by acidity, temperature, accompanying food, and a host of other factors so that it is limited in its usefulness.

1 comment:

the soul of japan said...

50% fewer calories...? That's the last thing Japanese women need.