Artisan Sake Maker

I really do appreciate the effort here. The thing that makes Vancouver most charming to me is that it embodies how the world would look when West + East actually collide and combine. It doesn’t devolve into yellow fever (actually this is shown in the clear high % of mixed couples where the guy is Asian and the girl is white. It’s a society where one part of a race isn’t essentialzed nor sexualized and you can see that people are more race-​blind than ever) and it doesn’t trivialize itself into something Oriental meant to marginalize a minority. Instead, you have a community where everything complements one another. Everything from food to drink to fashion is an actual melting pot– one that I can’t even find in a city as cosmopolitan as NYC.
Anyway. Rant and soliloquy aside this place was super average, and while I like that sake’s being made in a place as far away as Canada, it’s just frankly not up to par. It’s super cheap though thanks mostly to the decaying Canadian dollar. Worth it if you want a quick buzz as you’re browsing Granville Island but not worth making a designated trip for.

It is nice to have a sake maker. And they sell rice and sakekasu as well.
We have been looking for good reasonable rice here in Vancouver, so I tried their white and brown rice.
On the label, it looks like they are proud of using Hokkaido rice variety.
But Hokkaido is not really known to have good rice.
Hokkaido offers very good seafood, vegetables, and milk products. But never rice.
Sure enough their rice was not good. The quality, taste, and texture, over all it was so so.
Brown rice even had hard shell on it.
But it is $ 9 for a very small bag. Not worth it.

This place is a real gem! If you’re walking by, you’ll probably miss it and not know how close you were to tasting some really great locally made sake.
You can sample their sake for a nominal cost, then buy the ones you like. I tried 3 — crisp mild taste, cloudy clean taste, mildly sweet plum taste — all really great! Wish I had some sushi/​sashimi to go with it!

I love when you are strolling down a street thinking to yourself, «well there is nothing here, but look a small alley way, let’s head down there», only to find a diamond in the rough. Stumbled upon this gem after mozying around Granville market. Two trio tastings with sake bubbly to top it off. Do not miss out on this place if you enjoy sake!

3.5 Star
We were lucky as we walked into an empty Artisan Sake Maker on a Sunny Fall afternoon. We were able to do a sampler $ ⁵⁄₃ and chat with the staff a little about their sakes. 10 minutes after, the store was packed with a walking tour group of 15!
I really like the idea of how Artisan Sake Maker has started some initiative including having locally rice operation and how production are centre upon «sustainability, all natural and locality.»
We sampled all 4 available that afternoon for $ 5+$ 2:
Osake Junmai Nama
Osake Junmai Nama Nigori
Osake Junmai Nama Genshu
Osake Junmai Sparkling Sake
All the above was fruity and really easy drinking. The price is right as Nama at $ 15 or so for 375 ml. Just my personal taste as the sake did not really wow me.
Conveniently located on Granville Island, so as a tourist, one would probably be in the hood anyway. Worth coming if there is no tour group because this place becomes a mad house with only 1 storefront staff!

Who knew there’s an Artisan Sake Maker in Vancouver? I bookmarked this place before our trip and when we were on Granville Island we stopped in. First things first, this place is quaint and cozy. Yes, I mean small. This is definitely not the type of place that you can roll into with 30 people because there really isn’t space for that many people.
Anyway. We were able to sample about 4 different sakes and they were all good. None were really sweet (which I loved) and they were all good. The prices to purchase bottles were reasonable and they had different sizes. Since we were traveling we opted for the 375 ml size to be able to fit in our luggage with all the other booze we brought home.
The woman that led us through the tasting was great. You could tell she was very accommodating because she was taken aback when we let her completely lead everything. Hey, I’m no sake expert so why not leave it to the expert? Anyway, this place was awesome and I’d buy their stuff here if I could.

Spent the day on Granville Island touring all the local watering holes.
We ended the day here with tasting flights. The lot of us ended up sharing three different tasting flight. As we were the only ones there, we got a lot of personal attention and a lot of information about the sake we were drinking.
Between the three of us we all had different opinions as to which ones we liked.
I suggest coming down here and trying it for yourself.

Came here for a sake lesson last year even though I don’t drink. I am a foodie and I love learning anything and everything about food. Good lecture and wonderful host.

Awesome sake made right in Canada at great prices AND super friendly staff. My husband and I had no idea what to get so the staff steered us in the right direction with the different tastes of sake. They explained all of them very well, asked us questions about our preferences, and picked out our sampler. I loved all of them but the sparkling sake was my favorite.
There are also some small snack items you can buy to eat while tasting your sake!
My only regret is that I didn’t get to try the ice cream! Oh well… Guess I gotta go back!

Rarely does one find a high level of art in a single product matched by an equally excellent presentation.
The food pairings of inventive expressions of traditional japanese snackfoods supporting multiple small batch sakes offered in sample sizes offer up a unique gastronomic experience. If you go to Granville Island on a sunny day and miss this experience your stay was unnecessarily clouded. Kampai!
Gesamtkunstwerk indeed!

I was so happy to find a sake maker here in BC.
I’ve missed tasting good stuff.
By the way, they have sakes, sake tasting, kasu, beauty products made from the bi-​products of sake making, hand and face care products, marinade…
My mom bought a skin lightening/​tightening face product and I bought sake, marinade and kasu.
Kasu and miso paste will make you the nicest Miso Soup. :)

Yes, it’s only $ 5 for a tasting, but the experience is a bit harried and disorganized. When I arrived on a Friday afternoon, the place was packed with tourists, and with only one person manning the store, I just took whatever I got and went with it.
Samples are also very small, and maybe because the place was so rushed, I didn’t really learn about the sake or the production except for the description of the sake being filtered or unfiltered.
If I were to return, I’d make reservations for a group tour of the facilities after hours. Maybe then the experience would be more enlightening.

10 stars!
I really enjoy this little sake shop, I’m so glad they promote sake in Canada! Their Osake Fraser Valley Junmai is 100% BC sake –rice is grown and harvested there. It’s a light sake and I particularly like this one (just my personal taste).
The owner and the wife are very nice people. It is HERE that introduced me to the art of sake. The lady greeted my boyfriend and I happily and talked about the sake we were able to sample (3 for $ 5!!). She was so friendly and very approachable. She even encouraged we try a different sample from each other, and of course I’d steal my boyfriend’s glass for a sip, so we actually sampled 6!
These made great souvenirs. When I returned to Ontario (Mississauga) I immediately placed my order online to have them shipped to my wonderful boss and colleagues as gifts. All bottles can be purchased on their website (unless they run out).
Sparkling sake was recommended SO OFTEN by people we talked to in Vancouver. I wanted to write this review AFTER I’ve opened and tried my new (3 bottles of) Sparkling Sake.
Sake is my new wine. I even brought a sake bottle to a BYOW (ine) Unilocal event and it was loved by everyone.
Thank you so much, Masa Shiroki, for bringing your passion to Canada!
The ONTARIO Sake Company offers a tour of their modern-​looking facility (but it’s not a good tour). Unlike the Ontario’s, customers of Artisan Sake Maker can only visit the store front –with one small table inside and some outdoor seating.
I do prefer the Artisan’s sake over Ontario’s.
Unfortunately:
— It took one month for my order to be processed. The online shop is actually just an email system –lots of back and forth email conversations (ex. if a sake was out of stock, changing my list, payment…) They take about 1 – 2 days to respond to your email.
— The shipping package was not done properly for mine. The bottles were rolling around, the postman actually asked me to open the box in front of him –just to make sure everything is okay. LUCKILY everything was okay!
THE SAKE:
The Sparkling Sake is very delicious and very light. And SO good when cold! Osake Fraser Valley Junmai is honestly my favourite (the NOT-​nigori version), it’s a little sweet, light, and refreshing?
The shipping to Ontario for 7 bottles was just $ 23!

Friendly hole in the wall sake shop with affordable $ 5 sake tastings. The osake signature sake was my favorite. Very light and crisp, yet fruity. The staff helped explain how each sake was made and how the processes differ from traditional methods.
I also appreciate how the shop aims to be sustainable by repurposing the sake mash byproduct for ice cream (the chocolate was delicious and even more tasty than normal ice cream) and eye creams.

A delightful little shop on the otherwise oppressively touristy Granville Island. Artisan Sake Maker benefits first from the outright novelty of sake made in Canada (!), by Canadians (!!) with Canadian-​grown rice (!!!). Compound this with staffers who are both charming and professional to boot, and you have a ‘don’t miss’ spot on this rather frenetic little rock.
Oh, did I mention they also make some pretty fine ice cream? Well, yes they do!
VERDICT: If you’ve gone to the trouble to go to Granville Island, and you don’t stop by here, you might be a moron. Just sayin’…

Great friendly service from the lady who owns this place. She was so kind and explained everything to us. We got a sampler and she gave us the history of each sake. The ones with the melon notes were my favorite!
Definitely check out this place if you’re in the area!

Fantastic little nugget in Granville Island! If you are a fan of either sake, rice wine, or white wine, I highly recommend you stop by and check them out.
The owner wasn’t there, but there were two ladies working hard at the store. Both are very knowledge about sake and are both very nice/​courteous. Feel free to ask them about anything and they will happily tell you!
I always thought their sake tastings would be pricier, but it’s only $ 5 for three sakes! Each tasting sample is enough to fill maybe 1 – 2 sake cups (hard to tell, they’re served in small wine glasses). You can let the ladies know that you want to sit outside by the patio area and they will bring each sake out to you.
I ended up getting two trio samplers, so I had a total of 6 sakes. A lot of them are very unique, as they have floral or fruity notes like white wines.
If you like crisp white wines with fruity notes, the Osake Junmai Nama is fantastic. If you like something more clean, dry, and having more of a rice wine flavour, you’ll love the Osake Junmai Ginjo Nama Nigori Genshu.
Artisan Sake also has a number of Sakekasu products (Sakekasu are the lees leftover from sake production), ranging from juice, icecream, and cosmetic products. I had the raisin Sake kasu icecream, and man was that good! You have to like the taste of sake to really like it, but pair it with a sake and it’s as good as it gets on a sunny day in Granville Island.

Had a great time doing the $ 5 tasting. Learned a bit about sake, met some nice people and it was a sunny day out. What more could you want?
They are producing things made with rice from Japan as well as from local sources. Where exactly and what local means, I’m not sure. The nice guy working that day told me the name of the area, but I was not familiar with it. But love the idea of trying to use different and local regions to produce interesting and different flavors. I knew different types of rice had different flavors and characteristics, but interesting to see the terroir of the rice come into play with their products. Watch out though, by bottle had a fair bit of gas in it and I lost a bit opening. They warned me of this but still tricky to deal with.

It’s a little place nestled in a back alley styled street with some cafes and artsy-​fartsy shoppes. It was certainly a refreshing place for me to try and I will gladly return.
The owners educated us all about the products and where they were from including how they were grown and made into sake. I was very impressed with their customer service but what really blew me away was the sake itself.
I tried the sampler so that I got a good idea of what all their product line is but I was most blown away by the last one that I tried — a champagne-​like sake. It was smooth and went down like water.
Since you’re not likely to come across many of these, I’d definitely recommend this for anyone who has an interest in sake or wants something off-​beat to do in the Granville Island area.

So a group of us find ourselves in Granville Island with only 40 minutes to spend. While two friends rushed into a café to use the washroom, I noticed the ‘Artisan Sakemaker’ store right next door and got excited. I dragged two other non-​washroom-​needing buddies into the sake store to «quickly check it out while the others use the washroom!»
Once inside, I was on the ball. I asked for the trio tasting, and the sake man indulged me — equally on the ball — producing glasses for me and my buddy to taste. He poured, explained, we sipped. He poured again, we sipped again, we marvelled at the sake. Washroom-​going friends joined us in the store and asked for trio tastings also. Soon enough we were a group of sake tasting, giggling, photo taking, out of control tourists. I am not sure if this was supposed to be a quieter more contemplative experience, because we sure caused enough ruckus to clear out the store of any other customers. The sake man happily indulged us and sold us some sake infused chocolates when we were paying at the cash.
In all seriousness, this was a great experience. I have never been sake tasting, and it was interesting to clearly taste the differences between the different sakes they had available. I even tried a sparkling one, which was my favourite. Too bad I couldnt buy any bottles because I couldnt carry it back home with me in my carry-​on!