The Shiba Dog is a simple recipe from the Hakushika Sake company, but it’s elegant in that simplicity. Sake and grapefruit juice are a pleasant combination, and low-proof enough to justify some leisurely day drinking.
Since the ingredient list is so short, you’ll get much better results from a higher-quality sake and fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice. Pink or white grapefruits are equally delicious, but we recommend against designer varieties like the Oro Blanco, which are bred to be very sweet, not bitter, and unfortunately quite boring in a drink like this.
Many spirit-and-grapefruit cocktails benefit from a salt rim, but we tried it with the Shiba Dog and found that the salt muted the delicate flavors of the sake a bit too much for our liking. A very light dusting of salt on one side of the glass is as far as we’ll go.
