In a city obsessed with Carolina Gold, Chris Schoedler is hoping we focus on a different kind of rice: Sake rice.

Schoedler is a Kikisake- Shi, or a certified sake sommelier to the rest of us, and he’s the only one in the state, according to Sake Service Institute of Japan, his certifying organization.

For Schoedler, co-owner of Charleston’s Sushi-Wa, it’s all about the rice. Paying attention to the way rice that originated the sake was treated is the difference between a sake with nuance, and the cheap stuff many order with Asian food. Some people think sake is just rice wine, but Schoedler says there is a world of difference between what most of us are used to and the real deal.

“I used to drink the typical Japanese steak house sake, which I know now is terrible,” Schoedler said. “People drink bad sake and they think all sake gives a hangover. It’s not true.”

Schoedler says he’d “already fallen down the sushi rabbit hole” when he started down a different rabbit hole that led to learning more about sake.

What he learned, after about 40 hours of class time, studying with flash cards and “lots of drinking sake” on the road to certification, was that the sake rice has an outer layer of fats and proteins and a starchy core. The amount the rice is milled determines how much of the fat and protein, which gives a fuller mouth feel, is left. The rice is coated with a rice mold called koji and combined with yeast and water to create a starter like a bourbon mash that, in turn, is fermented and then filtered and pasteurized to kill off excess yeast and mold.

The process is akin to brewing beer with one key difference, besides the grain: beer has a two-step process converting starch to sugar in one step and then sugar into alcohol in another. With sake, the conversions occur simultaneously.
Sake will have between 15 to 20 percent alcohol, compared with beer’s 3 to 9 percent.

Each recipe is a bit different, and Schoedler says you can taste the difference, depending on how much of the exterior is left during milling.

“The flavor profiles range from clean and crisp to tropical fruit forward to aged and funky like aged soy sauce and mushrooms,” he said.

Sake quality ranges from Junmai, which has only rice, yeast, koji and water to the Futsu-Shu, which adds distilled alcohol to the mix. Futsu-Shu is regular sake and can use a lesser quality rice, have flavorings like pineapple or lychee, and more of the alcohol, which is what gives the hangovers.

“There are some good sakes made in the U.S., but if you look for premium sake made in Japan, that puts you in a premium category that’s been regulated by purity laws,” Schoedler said.

If you’re used to sake served hot in a little ceramic jug, Schoedler suggests trying it slightly chilled instead. The heating can mask the fruity aromas.

Schoedler isn’t the only one going down the “sake rabbit hole.” The New York Times quotes the Japanese Sake and Shochu Makers Association as saying that U.S. sake imports from Japan have more than doubled in volume from 2012 to 2022, to more than nine million liters per year.

Schoedler says he wants to start a sake bottle club at Sushi-Wa and to build up sake connoisseurs. These would be people who know that sake doesn’t have to be confined to a sushi restaurant.

“The biggest misconception is that you should drink sake only with Asian food,” Schoedler said. “The food pairing possibilities are endless. Compare it to wine: It has a low acidity and a savory component that wine doesn’t touch. I love sake with pizza. It will elevate anything savory.”