FOR SAKE'S SAKE

In a corner of Singapore, a sake brewer has been quietly crafting competition-grade sake. Founder of Orchid Sake Brewery Reuben Oh is now ready to break out after his latest expansion

- WORDS FARHAN SHAH PHOTOS ORCHID SAKE BREWERY

I MET REUBEN OH FIVE YEARS AGO.

The pandemic-induced lockdown had just been lifted then, and people were clamouring to go out and eat, drink, and be merry. I was in a similar mood and while I drank too many bottled cocktails at home waiting for restrictions to be lifted, there was something magical about nursing a drink in a bar.

That's where I found myself one night—seated at the counter of now-defunct tapas bar Sake Labo. Oh was the sake sommelier then and introduced himself to me. We hit it off almost immediately, his bottomless knowledge of sake only matched by his cheeky charisma. I returned to Sake Labo several more times in the next few years and Oh and I became friends.

He always told me about his dreams of opening a sake brewery, sincerely believing that our city had the means and knowledge to create a Singapore-made sake that could rival Japan’s best. And the madman went and did it, opening Orchid Sake Brewery in February 2024 after spending two years before that shuttling between Japan and Singapore to learn as much as he could about sake.