Leaving her home country for London in the early 2000s, the young psychology student began working in the hospitality industry to make ends meet. As a result, she “fell down a rabbit hole,” becoming engrossed first in fine dining and wine and then into a love-affair with the rice-based brew from Japan.
There were some mass-produced sake brands on the shelves of Budapest Asian shops (much of it, she says, actually produced in the United States). But of the type to match, say, a fine single malt Scottish Whisky, there was none.
“I couldn’t find any premium sake that I was used to in the U.K., so it was my dream to have a small company to import some of the premium stuff here,” she tells the Budapest Business Journal.
It took considerable time and effort, but after linking up with compatriot Dóra Tallián of World Sake (see box), the pair formed FineSake Budapest under the umbrella of local drinks importer Collectivewarehouse, and launched their marketing crusade in 2021.
It was good timing. With the rapid growth of high-quality restaurants in Budapest in recent years and broadening awareness of culinary variety, restaurateurs actively sought new products to satisfy customers’ changing demands.
“If you look at the market, fine-dining restaurants, the whole situation of gastronomy at the moment […] definitely [in] the last decade, there’s been a really big boom. People are more open, chefs travel more and get inspired by other cultures, a lot of the time by Asia,” Juhász says.
World Sake’s focus on smaller, traditional, high-quality breweries means the products do not come cheap. FineSake Budapest’s retail prices vary between HUF 8,000 and HUF 45,000 per bottle, with the average around HUF 16,000. Inevitably, this means the commercial customer base is predominately up-market outlets. But that is not without its benefits.
“In these hospitality venues, people are passionate and professional; they understand how important it is to [have] education, deep product knowledge, how you care for your product,” Juhász argues. And for good reason: Like the best wines, sake needs care to preserve its flavors.
“Sake is quite sensitive: you need to keep it stored cold and in the dark at all times, even in our own warehouse. And you have to be very careful delivering it,” she stresses.
Both Juhász and Tallián put many hours into educating sommeliers and restaurateurs about the intricacies of brewing sake, typically introducing one or two sake brewery owners or toji (brewmasters) to Hungarian clients every year.
“I’m not aware that any other sake distributor has done this before. It creates an extra form of attachment, emotionally, and they get all the extra information [personally] that they wouldn’t get otherwise from the website,” says Juhász.
The effort is now beginning to pay off. FineSake Budapest claims 40 regular customers, and sales are growing 30-40% annually.
“What’s amazing for me is that every month now, several places call me and say: ‘I’ve heard from so and so that you’re the best for sake. I want some interesting sake; where can we buy it?’ People are actually coming to us now from word-of-mouth,” beams Juhász. “For me, that’s amazing, [it’s] sort of organically happening, organically growing.”
Dóra Tallián, the Hungarian-born European Union regional manager with German-based World Sake Imports, strives to clear up the “huge confusion” surrounding Japanese sake. Together with Panka Juhász, the two have run numerous master classes in Hungary designed to cut through the myths and false understandings surrounding the rice-based drink, which exists in a vast variety of forms and flavors.
“First of all, it’s fermented, not distilled. OK, you can have it from a short glass, but it’s not a short; you should drink it as a wine, sip by sip. The Japanese tend to use wine glasses for sake,” Tallián says.
Furthermore, premium sake, made from carefully prepared Japanese rice, is “supernatural,” with no preservative additives, by law, so it must be kept cold and in the dark to maintain quality.
“That’s why there is so much bad sake on the market in countries where sake drinking is not so popular; there are products lying around on shelves of restaurants and supermarkets, and when you pour them, they have this old smell and yellowish color. There is nothing attractive about that,” Tallián laments.
As a result, many peoples’ first taste of sake has been a disappointment, giving the drink a bad name for some and making marketing an uphill battle “Until premium sake was introduced to the market with very clear instructions to always store it in the refrigerator, not on the shelf. Sake is not going to wait for your son to reach his 18th birthday; it’s not for that! It’s supposed to be fresh,” Tallián underlines. Local beverage culture and beliefs can be another barrier.
“It’s always very difficult in countries which are really proud of their wine or beer […] they’ll just not understand the flavors of sake,” she says. In the last decade, however, with younger people traveling more and prepared to try new beverages, a broader appreciation of this Japanese specialty is growing.
Perhaps the biggest surprise for Panka Juhász in the past three years has been the success of Kinoshita Brewery’s Tamagawa sake. Tamagawa (it translates as “Jewel River”) is the creation of Philip Harper, an Englishman and the sole foreigner to be awarded the title toji, or sake brewmaster.
“To be accepted by the toji community in Japan, it’s quite exceptional,” says Juhász.
Both Juhász and Tallián rave about Harper’s products, saying his style is “very bold” with “lots of unexpected flavors for those more used to classical sake.” However, Juhász feared “Not everybody would be into it,” and initially ordered just a few cases to test the market, only to find it sold well. As a result, she now has four different Tamagawa sakes in the portfolio, two of them top-sellers.
“It just goes to show that until you try it, you don’t know,” Juhász says. “I think it’s the Hungarian palate; we’re more used to spicy, big, bold flavors. Maybe that’s why it’s very popular.”
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of December 13, 2024.
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