HIRORIN glass

The story behind HORORIN glass

In my previous life, I worked at a Japanese sake brewery for 16 years.
One night, as I was bonding over drinks with my colleagues, I noticed there was a difference in the way the sake tasted when I was drinking the sake in a ceramic cup to when I was drinking it in a glass cup. At the time, I chalked it up to my being drunk but the next day, when I compared them side by side, I noticed a discernable difference with the same sake. Looking into the matter, I found that the difference was attributable to the effect of the ceramic.

A sake sommelier, who happened to be a friend, confirmed that this was not all in my head--that it was well known among sommeliers that a way to enjoy sakes was to change up the vessels you served it in. When you think about it, there are dedicated glasses on the market for wine and beer. Wine and beer enthusiasts enjoy switching up their glasses for different effects. Sake on the other hand, has the ochoko (sake cup) but no glass designed for drinking sake cold--only glasses that mimic the shape of the ceramic ochoko and glasses that look like a wine glass made small. These glasses are not designed with function in mind, designed to make the cold sake more flavorful and pleasurable. This was such a shame. So I asked a glassblower that I knew in Iwate to create a glass with ceramic mixed in for serving cold sake, only to be told, "That's not possible". "Even if you were to grind ceramic into a powder and mix it into the glass, the difference in the temperatures of glass and ceramic as it cools will cause fractures. Glass doesn't work well with other materials, and it won't hold up." But I'm nothing if not tenacious so I visited him every so often and asked him again and again only to be rebuffed each time. I had almost given up when I was put in charge of the US market and ended up spending up to half of the year in the US.

While in the US, someone asked me to hold a sake seminar at a restaurant in San Diego.
After some thought, I decided to give a talk on the theme that was top of mind: "Differences in taste depending on the material of the cup: ceramic, glass and plastic". The seminar ended in great success with 18 out of the 22 Americans in attendance leaving the seminar very impressed by the differences in taste, asking if this was common knowledge among the Japanese. This strengthened my resolve for making a glass mixed with ceramic. I returned home to Japan and visited the glassblower again. He wasn't enthusiastic about it, saying "I really can't. You really don't give up, do you." But he also asked about my ideal shape for the said cup. I took this opportunity to describe the shape and the size of the cup I was imagining and explained, "I want it to be tulip-shaped and about this large. All existing cold sake glasses are too small; you take a few sips and it's gone. You are having to constantly refill it. Americans, when handed these small glasses swallow it whole like a shot. I want them to sip at sake, to really savor it." As I was talking, one of the other blowers behind me was making a glass exactly the size I was imagining. I pointed to it and exclaiming, "This, this is the perfect size." The glassblower laughed and said he was making a wind chime not a drinking glass. But I thought that a drinking glass shaped like a wind chime was so poetic, a "glass that made sake sing" if you will, and asked him to use that shape for my sake glass. Having said that, I went home without drawing out a promise from the glassblower that he will try making my sake glass. After ten days of anticipation mixed with disappointment, I received a call from the glassblowing shop telling me to come whenever I was nearby. The next morning, I drove into the shop, and there it was, the first prototype held up by a grimacing glass blower saying this was the best anyone could do. (I almost punched the air.)

The glass blower told me, "Making this drinking glass took one craftsman five days. What do you think will be the price at cost?" I replied, "Assuming labor costs of \10,000 per day, 5 days times \10,000 so around \50,000?" He replied, "Definitely more than that but even if we assume \50,000 per glass, do you think it would sell? Is there demand for this kind of special drinking glass? What would it sell at? We'll really start talking once you figure that out." He then gave me this prototype and another glass of the same shape without any ceramic in it for comparison purposes. I took the glasses around Japan and the US and had people compare sake out of these two receptacles.

All the people who tested it out responded positively exclaiming: "Why is this different?" "The wine tastes different, whiskey feels smoother in this other glass". I also figured out that people were willing to pay \5000 per glass but no more than that. A year later, I came back to Japan and visited the glassblowing shop again. The glass blower asked me, "Did the glasses sell? How much did it sell for?" I told him that there was demand but only at \5000 per glass. "\50,000 to \5000, that's 1/10 of the cost. What are you going to do?" I bit my lip, unable to come up with a good answer. I was about to give up and go home when he asked me if I really intended to sell this product, if I was willing to fight for it. I told him, "Yes, absolutely." He nodded, and told me that "Fine. I'll make the glass for you at whatever price you name if I can make the glasses whenever we have some downtime and don't have to commit to a certain volume." And that's how this glass came to be.
Now that the glass craftsmen are used to it, we can ask them to make a certain number of glasses and they will, though it takes some time for the glasses to be delivered.

I hope your experience with sake is made even more pleasurable and relaxing with Hirorin. Please enjoy.

※The effects depend on the individual; some people do not detect a difference in taste or in mouthfeel. Many people find that it makes whiskey, shochu (distilled spirit), brandy, vodka and even tap water in addition to sake and wine, smoother and more sensuous.

TAKUMI Global

Hirohisa Kikuchi