More People in UK Saying 'Kampai' to Sake
The popularity of sake, the Japanese rice wine, is increasing in the UK.
Known as Japan's national drink, in recent years it has become more popular in other countries too.
Japan's sake exports increased every year from 2010 to 2022, including a 37% increase in exports to the UK between 2021 and 2022.
And while exports slowed in 2023, the drink has already become a more common sight in British restaurants, where around 90% of the sake consumed in the UK is sold.
The growth in sake sales is probably helped by the increasing amount of money Brits have been spending on Japanese food, which increased from about $1 billion in 2017 to over $1.5 billion in 2023.
And sake may now even be moving outside of restaurants. In May, The Observer reported that British supermarket chain Waitrose had seen a 241% year-on-year increase in the number of searches for "sake" on its website.
But it wasn't until recent years that sake became well known in Britain.
When Erika Haigh opened a sake bar in London in 2019, people who came in off the street didn't know what to make of the drink, she told The Observer.
But that's changed. "You can now go on a sake pub crawl across London," Haigh said, adding that you'll now find sake on the menu even in restaurants that don't offer Japanese food.
And some of the sake that's available in Britain is actually brewed there. The Kanpai brewery was set up in London in 2016 after its owners visited Japan and enjoyed sake in a bar in Kyoto.
Kanpai — also spelled kampai — is the Japanese word for "cheers." And if people in the UK keep drinking sake, they might be hearing that word a lot more often!
