Japanese sake takes the spotlight at Braveheart Sake Originals

[SINGAPORE] While spirits are the typical base for cocktails, Braveheart Sake Originals shows how the Japanese rice wine can be used in far more than a mere saketini.

Located on the second storey of a Tanjong Pagar Road shophouse, the dedicated sake cocktail bar is founded by entrepreneurs James Li and Ong Jun Quan, who serve as its chief mixologist and sake sommelier, respectively.

Their interest in sake was sparked by a visit to Sake Matsuri, South-east Asia’s largest sake festival, in 2023. The event opened their eyes to the many varieties of sake, and the myriad ways it could be enjoyed.

The duo decided to open Singapore’s first bar specialising in sake-focused cocktails – which are uncommon because they are challenging to make, says Li.

This is due to sake’s lower ABV, which stands at an average of 14 per cent – slightly stronger than wine, but lighter than spirits. When used as a cocktail base, sake thus runs the risk of being overpowered by other ingredients.

“The range of sake is huge, meaning there are many flavours we can play around with,” says Li. “All we had to figure out was how to present these flavours in the form of a cocktail.”

Li and Ong note that many Singaporeans have limited exposure to sake in cocktails, as they typically drink it in Japanese restaurants or izakayas, where it is served on its own.

Part of Braveheart’s mission is to make sake accessible, as the duo believe the rice wine has high barriers to entry.

Says Ong: “Ordering sake can be very intimidating; all the labels are in Japanese.”

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This sense of approachability extends to Braveheart’s 33-seater space, decked out in homey furnishings. Mismatched furniture in orange and green add warm pops of colour, while an eclectic array of ornaments and mini sculptures adorn shelves.

Going bold on flavours

The bar’s name, Braveheart, is a portmanteau that captures Li and Ong’s approach to mixology: being brave in pushing boundaries with sake while honouring its heart, in the sense of heritage.

That ethos comes through in its cocktail menu, with 11 signatures across two sections. All but one incorporate sake.

The first section, Common Ground, recreates the flavour profiles of four familiar alcoholic beverages – beer, wine, champagne and whisky – using sake.

“This eases people into the idea that sake can be used to create such unique flavours,” says Li.

Take Lager, a blend of fresh-pressed sake, chartreuse and bitters that retains the distinctive maltiness of its namesake while having floral and herbaceous notes.

“We chose lager because it is a gentler type of beer and an easier entry point than, say, a stout – which is chocolatey, nutty and very heavy, and so would likely overwhelm the sake,” he explains.

The biggest challenge was constructing the beer’s signature foamy head, which Li took months to nail. To achieve this, sake lees from a local brewery are cooked and strained, then whipped with a housemade hops tincture, hopped grapefruit bitters and egg white.

Meanwhile, in Whisky, slightly reduced fresh-pressed sake is added to sherry wine, lapsang souchong, wood-infused chartreuse, house bitters and a few drops of smoked saline.

Reducing the sake lends the drink the silky and oily mouthfeel characteristic of whisky, says Li. Smokiness is derived from the lapsang souchong and wood chips, which are steeped in the chartreuse for a week.

Paying homage to tradition

The second section of Braveheart’s menu, Shin Tradition – with “shin” being Japanese for “new” – sees Li and Ong draw from classic Japanese cocktails and their own experiences.

Lucky Bamboo reimagines Bamboo, a two-ingredient cocktail invented in the 1890s at the Grand Hotel in Yokohama. At Braveheart, Bamboo’s sherry and dry vermouth mix is slightly reduced and paired with sake for a fruity, aromatic drink.

Then there is Shin Classico, the bar’s riff on the lesser-known but more recent Pantheon: a sweet-sour tipple originating from Tokyo in 2019.

The original combines Scotch whisky, Benedictine and lemon juice. Braveheart’s version uses entirely different components – pickled ginger sake, honeyed ginger liqueur, gin and citrus – to create the same sweet-sour profile, but with a spicy kick.

“We wanted to pay respect to the classic cocktail, but also serve something that’s more citrusy, refreshing and bright with rounded honeyed notes,” says Li.

The bar’s top-selling cocktail is Wild and Free, an original creation inspired by Li’s love for Scotland – a country he has visited five times in the past 16 years.

It brings together an unlikely combination of sweet sake, Japanese whisky, peated scotch, French strawberry liqueur fraise de bois, rouge vermouth and smoked saline.

Here, sake is not the star of the show, but instead a “mediator” for the disparate elements, says Li.

“The sake tempers the loud, messy notes of peated whisky and the viscous sweetness of wild strawberries. It is a harmonious cocktail; customers are always surprised by how well the flavours work together.”

The outlier is Red Wolf, the only tipple without sake. Infused with three different liqueurs, the rum-based drink was born out of Ong’s desire for a robust, punchy concoction that embodies the strength of a wolf, his spirit animal.

The duo experimented with rum-sake pairings, but found that only lighter rums could be used without overwhelming the rice wine. As these would not deliver the bold and complex flavours Ong was after, sake was left out of the final recipe.

Making sake approachable

For those who prefer pure sake, Braveheart’s Sake Splendour menu offers an accessible introduction to the rice wine.

Designed to lower the barriers to entry, the menu places 15 different sakes across a pyramid spectrum of four flavour profiles: fruity; umami; cereal; and milky. Each sake is further colour coded by intensity: light, medium or rich.

Sakes are also listed under simplified names rather than their full Japanese labels, and accompanied by short tasting notes.

“We want to offer an experience to sake that’s approachable, fun and not intimidating – it’s about going back to the basics of tasting, which is about flavours,” says Ong.

All sakes can be ordered by the cup, carafe or bottle; guests can also opt for a flight of several to taste. In addition, the bar organises sake-tasting experiences for corporates and private events.

For something other than rice wine, Braveheart offers spirits by the glass and bespoke mocktails.

Open from 3 pm daily, the bar serves pour-over single-origin coffee, speciality teas and soft drinks throughout the day – for those who find it too early for an alcoholic drink – and into the night. A small menu of bar bites rounds up its offerings.