Season 1, Episode 9. What is nigori sake? Cloudy, Murky, Coarse, Milky... there are lots of ways to describe what we call "nigori" sake.  This of course is the milky-white, and sometimes sweet, cloudy sake you may have seen around.  But, don't enrage the Samurai... there is one word we don't use to describe it... that is "unfiltered".  With the rice starch sediment floating around the bottle, we understand why, at first glance, you might think this could be "unfiltered" sake, but sake fans in the know understand that all premium sake in Japan must, by law, pass through a filter to be sold legally as sake. In reality, nigori is a coarsely-filtered sake.  Truly "unfiltered" sake is actually illegal in Japan! This true unfiltered sake is known as 'Doburoku' - sold by special permit only - and is a chunky, rice-y affair that is the equivalent of drinking unprocessed sake fermentation mash.  John and Timothy wade into the opaque world of nigori to see if they can bring any clarity to the understanding cloudy sake.

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