Japanese sake shines at Braveheart Sake Originals
In Singapore, a new bar is betting that the rice wine can stand on its own as a cocktail base. Braveheart Sake Originals, located on the second floor of a Tanjong Pagar Road shophouse, is being billed as the city-state’s first dedicated sake cocktail bar. Founders James Li and Ong Jun Quan — chief mixologist and sake sommelier, respectively — opened the 33-seat space after attending Sake Matsuri, Southeast Asia’s largest sake festival, in 2023. The event showed them the range of rice wine varieties and how the drink could be used differently.
Why sake cocktails are rare
Sake’s lower alcohol content — about 14 percent on average, slightly stronger than wine but lighter than most spirits — makes it tricky to work with.
Other ingredients can easily overpower it.
“The range of sake is huge, meaning there are many flavours we can play around with,” Li said. “All we had to figure out was how to present these flavours in the form of a cocktail.” The duo saw an opportunity to make the rice wine more approachable in Singapore, where it’s mostly drunk neat in Japanese restaurants or izakayas.
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Lowering the barriers to entry
Ong noted that ordering the rice wine can be intimidating because labels are in Japanese. “We want to offer an experience to sake that’s approachable, fun and not intimidating,” he said. The venue’s homey decor — mismatched orange and green furniture, shelves of eclectic ornaments — is meant to reinforce that sense of ease. The name “Braveheart” is a portmanteau that blends being brave with sake while honoring its heritage, according to the duo.
That ethos is reflected in the cocktail menu, which has 11 signature drinks across two sections.
All but one contain sake.
The first section, called Common Ground, recreates the flavor profiles of beer, wine, champagne and whisky using sake as a base. “This eases people into the idea that sake can be used to create such unique flavours,” Li said.
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Building a beer head with sake lees
One example is Lager, a blend of fresh-pressed rice wine, chartreuse and bitters. It retains the maltiness of lager while adding floral and herbaceous notes. The biggest challenge was the foamy head, which took Li months to perfect. He cooks and strains rice wine lees from a local brewery, then whips them with a housemade hops tincture, hopped grapefruit bitters and egg white. Another drink, Whisky, uses reduced fresh-pressed rice wine with sherry, lapsang souchong, wood-infused chartreuse and smoked saline to mimic the silky mouthfeel of whisky.
New takes on old classics
The second menu section, Shin Tradition — “shin” means new in Japanese — draws from classic Japanese cocktails and their own experiences. Lucky Bamboo reimagines the 1890s Bamboo cocktail from Yokohama’s Grand Hotel, pairing the rice wine with sherry and dry vermouth. Shin Classico riffs on the lesser-known Pantheon, a 2019 Tokyo creation that combines Scotch, Benedictine and lemon juice. Braveheart’s version uses pickled ginger sake, honeyed ginger liqueur, gin and citrus to achieve a sweet-sour profile with a spicy kick.
The establishment’s top-selling drink is Wild and Free, an original inspired by his love for Scotland. It mixes sweet rice wine, Japanese whisky, peated scotch, French strawberry liqueur, rouge vermouth and smoked saline. Here, the rice wine acts as a “mediator” that tames the peated whisky’s loud notes and the strawberry liqueur’s sweetness. “Customers are always surprised by how well the flavours work together,” Li said.
One drink without sake
The only cocktail without sake is Red Wolf, a rum-based drink infused with three liqueurs. The sake sommelier wanted a bold, punchy concoction. The duo tested rum and rice wine pairings but found only light rums worked without overwhelming the rice wine, which didn’t deliver the strong flavors Ong was after.
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So they left the rice wine out.
An accessible sake list
For guests who want pure rice wine, the Sake Splendour menu offers 15 varieties arranged on a pyramid spectrum of four flavor profiles: fruity, umami, cereal and milky. Each is color-coded by intensity — light, medium or rich — and listed under simplified names with short tasting notes. All rice wines are available by the cup, carafe or bottle, and guests can order flights. The venue also hosts rice wine tasting events for corporate and private groups.
Beyond the rice wine, Braveheart serves spirits by the glass, bespoke mocktails, pour-over coffee, specialty teas and soft drinks throughout the day. It opens at 3 pm daily and offers a small menu of bar bites. They say they want the rice wine to feel less like a niche product and more like something anyone can explore — one cocktail at a time.
