Takara Sake

Takara Sake is located in Berkeley (map). (Well, actually they’re from Japan and just have a location in Berkeley.) Their main brand of sake is Sho Chiku Bai, which you see a lot at 99 Ranch.

I went here recently with some friends in March of 2023.

The outside of Takara Sake in Berkeley
A machine, presumably for bottling, used at Takara Sake today
The tasting room of Takara Sake

Sake Museum

Takara Sake isn’t just a brewery and tasting room, it also has a museum of sake. The museum mainly showcases the process of making sake and some tools used to make sake in the 19th century.

Takara Sake museum showing tools used to make sake in the 19th century
More tools
Even more tools

Tasting

They’ve got a fairly spacious tasting room.

The tasting itself is fairly interactive. The woman working there explained a lot of the different terms used in sake, like what “junmai” and “dai ginjo” mean.

Overhead mobile in the tasting room
Table at the tasting room. Shows rice with different levels of polish. There’s also a spittoon.
Three bottles of Sho Chiku Bai. The center one has been aged for 15 years. The one on the right is their sake aged in a bourbon cask.
Cups laid out for tasting, and a bar in the background. A paper on the table describes their different sakes.
Different types of sake poured in glasses
A cup used to drink sake. The woman working there mentions that the lines are used to judge the cloudiness of the sake.

I definitely recommend this place. It’s a fun place to learn about sake and try different kinds.