To any who don’t know what sake bombing is, the nutshell of it is a tall can of Sapporo and several pitchers of sake. Pour some of the beer into a tall glass, as much as you want to chug, and then pour some sake into a shot glass. Place two chopsticks across the top of the glass, balance the shot of sake on the chopsticks. Someone shouts “One, Two, Three” and everyone chants, “Sake sake sake, BOMB”. On “bomb” everyone hits the table, sake shots fall into the glass, beer sprays everywhere and everyone chugs. Rinse and repeat.
A little background: I began college this fall in upstate New York, lived the entire rest of my life in northern Virginia.
As I stated, this whole activity was completely foreign to me. I had certainly never heard of it before moving up north, and I haven’t met a single other student from out of state who knew about it before coming here. In fact many of the students from in state had never heard of it either. However, here at my college at least, it’s practically a daily subject. Almost everyone I know goes sake bombing every saturday night.
So what’s the dope? How widespread is this practice in America? While we’re at it, any amusing variations on the sake bombing theme to be shared and enjoyed?
At my bar (SoCal), the sake glass is simply dropped into the mug of beer (beer of drinker’s choice) at the end of a chant. The itamae (always of course drinking as well) cheer “SAKE!” while the crowd cheers back “BOMB!”. This is done thrice. Needless to say, everyone’s pretty ripped by closing time.
I’ve never seen the chopstick thing you mentioned.
I’ve never actually done the sake bomb, since every time I’m at a Japanese restaurant that would tolerate it we’re either on a time schedule or half the group is underage. That said, it seems to be pretty common, since almost every time I go to a Japanese restaurant, there is at least one group sake bombing.
The local variant seems to be the chopsticks across the glass, with half the group pounding the table on “sake” and the other half pounding on “bomb,” everyone drinking whenever their shot glasses fall in.
Seems very familiar with the ‘Dr. Pepper’ alcoholic drink: mix equal parts beer and coca-cola until the mug is 3/4 full, then drop in a shot glass of amaretto and chug it down, great at parties.
Interesting–I’d always heard that if you dropped a flaming shot of 151 rum into a beer, you’d wind up with something that tasted rather like Dr. Pepper. Dunno for sure–I never once saw anyone try such a stunt.
