I love Sake! Clear and fresh tasting, there are so many different types of Sake available for our enjoyment. Sake is rice wine and it's brewed from polished white and brown rice to which the freshest spring water and Sake yeast is added. It's available filtered and unfiltered( my favorite!) and is most traditionally served hot in a ceramic bottle and very little ceramic cups. I've recently discovered that I like it better chilled and I do prefer the unfiltered variety. The unfiltered Sake is a lovely pearly white and is sweeter to my taste. Sake is fermented to an alcoholic content of 20 percent and then cut with more spring water to bring it down to 15%, so it's really a light and luscious beverage. It's also gluten free for those of you who are watching your gluten intake , so it's a beverage that can be drunk easily!

More recently, I have discovered that Sake has become the perfect substitute for Vodka in my cocktails. I love to mix a clear chilled sake with a bit of fresh cucumber juice and a touch of Pernod for a delightfully bracing aperitif. Garnished with a spiral of sliced cucumber, this is a delicious drink to have before dinner because it's not alcoholic enough to dull the appetite, but deliciously stimulating to the palate. Fruit juices seem to mix well with the unfiltered blends of Sake, savory juices are better with the clear varieties. I'm not sure why but it could be that the inherent sweetness of the non-filtered wine blends well with the sweetness of the juice.

Whole Foods has many different varieties of Sake, some with a hint of floral, some with touch of fruit. There are several that are as dry as the finest gin and sake is a wonderful substitute for vermouth in a classic vodka martini. I like to use a splash of very dry Sake in a dirty martini because I think that it gives the cocktail a cleaner taste.

My favorite drink for fall is a Sake and pear juice cocktail and it's very simple.

You will need:

1 large jigger of pear juice

2 large jiggers of Sake

1 good splash of Poire WIlliams (a delicious pear eau de vie)

1 or two slices of ripe pear that you have dusted with cinnamon and granulated sugar

Place all ingredients except for the fresh pear into a stainless steel shaker filled with ice and stir gently.

Place the pear into a clear crystal martini glass and strain the cocktail into the glass. Enjoy by a fire and with very romantic and cozy company. This is actually a very good cocktail to serve with a fresh cheese plate studded with blue cheese , brie and walnuts. I hope that you enjoy it!