There’s an app for everything these days. Too bad most of them aren’t very useful and many of us just delete them from our phones. Luckily for sake fans, there’s a new app that shows a lot of promise. If this one keeps improving, we’re certain it will have a permanent place on your phone.
The “sakefan World” app is designed to help sake fans who don’t have Japanese-language skills. Even if you do read Japanese, though, you may find this app useful. One of its main functions is to scan those hard-to-read sake labels and tell you what the sake is. If/when it recognizes the label, it provides considerable information: the name, its measurable characteristics (like abv, etc), its taste profile, the brewery and other products from the brewery that are listed in the app. I skeptically tried to scan a label by Tsuki-no-katsura in Kyoto and was surprised when, in a matter of a second or two, it popped up on the screen with all kinds of other information.
Naturally, this app depends on the sake being in the database. I scanned a few bottles that were not. The good news is that the company in charge of the database also prints the sake bottle labels for many of the breweries in Japan; the database is more robust than you would expect. It will be interesting to see how well the company works with non-client breweries to expand the offerings.
The tasting notes are from “an expert” though the app doesn’t identify who this is. Maybe it’s the breweries themselves providing the notes. Even if that’s the case, the tasting notes are helpful and I didn’t find myself in any serious disagreement with them. Certainly, palates are going to be different from person to person. Sometimes the notes offer pairing suggestions, too.
There are other key features of the app. The home button takes you to a page that has short articles (“guides”) on various sake regions around Japan, along with rather attractive images. Sometimes, a video is included. The guides have subsections about select breweries in the region, places to eat and other attractions. Like the sake-label scanner, it is incomplete but certainly convenient and useful.
Alternatively, you can browse sake labels and breweries (with listings of their offerings). See something you like? You can add it to your collection, which the app stores for you. This is helpful if you see things you like and don’t want to forget them.
Finally, there is a glossary with some terms that you, as a sake fan, probably already know. Many terms that a newbie might find helpful are surprisingly not listed. As with other sections, this seems to be a promising work in progress.
The app is free. It does ask for access to your phone’s camera to scan labels. It also asks for access to your cellular data. My guess is that it is mining data about your location (like most sophisticated apps do these days for Big Data purposes). I disabled it and the app still worked. I’ll definitely keep this one on my phone for the time being…
