Hi Vincent,

Thank you for the question.

As a general rule, the best product for cooking isn’t cooking sake, it’s sake you can drink just like you mentioned. The difference between cooking sake and regular sake is quite confusing but at the same time, important because cooking sake is categorized as a seasoning, not an alcoholic beverage. This means that salt is added to cooking sake just to reduce the tax rate and deliberately make it undrinkable. But unfortunately, the name “cooking sake” is quite misleading. I personally only use pure sake with no salt added.
For the cleanest flavor in your dishes, it’s best to use drinking-grade Junmai-shu (pure rice sake). Even the cheapest brand of Junmai-shu will give you a lot better result compared to cooking sake.
For a more comprehensive understanding of sake in cooking, I highly recommend checking out the “Sake 101” article (https://sudachirecipes.com/sake-101/)!

Yuto