Going With the Grain

Origami Sake honors the craft of sake making with a distinctly Southern spin

Unless you’re in the rice industry, the fact that more than 50 percent of the nation’s rice comes from Arkansas most likely doesn’t mean much to you. It didn’t mean much to Arkansas native Ben Bell either, that is, until his first sip of craft sake (an alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice) in 2004 ignited a personal passion and an idea that could change what it meant to be from “the rice state.” A few crash-course Japanese lessons and a plane ticket later and Bell was on his way, resume in hand, to learn from the top sake masters in Japan.

“I didn’t get the job,” Bell jokes, adding, “I definitely oversold that I spoke Japanese, so they offered me a tour instead. Once they saw how much I knew about sake, though, they offered me a two-week training course.” Bell came home eager to learn more and became one of the first American Certified Sake Professionals before moving back to Japan to work for two years at the Nanbu Bijin brewery in Hot Springs’ sister city, Hanamaki. He returned to Hot Springs with a plan to start a sake brewery and give his home state the craft product it deserves.

“A lot of people have this foolish idea that there’s nothing special about their home,” says Bell. “‘At home’ is the default, and everything else is exciting. I was lucky in that I’ve been able to travel internationally, and everyone asked me about Arkansas. That got me thinking about my home, and I couldn’t let go of the dream to start sake in the rice state.”

With the help and vision of entrepreneur Matt Bell (no relation), the two sold their first bottle of Origami Sake in 2023 and opened the state’s first-ever sake brewery in Hot Springs. Using sake rice from Isbell Farms in England, Arkansas, and water from the Ouachita Mountains aquifer—sourced from a well dug on-site at the brewery—nearly the entire brewing process is a local endeavor.

“Having good water is crucial for making sake, and our water in Arkansas is one of the best water sources you can have,” Bell says. “We don’t have to do anything to it to make the sake we are making. It’s soft water, with some minerals that are good for yeast, which we get from a Japanese company who produces dedicated strains of sake yeast.”

In less than two years of being open, Origami Sake is already being poured in Michelin-starred restaurants in New York City and California, even winning a gold medal at the Tokyo Sake Challenge. Their four brews—White Lotus, A Thousand Cranes, Angelfish, and Zero (the first nonalcoholic sake in North America)—can be found in 30 states, and is also getting onto the shelves at Kroger, HEB, and Albertsons.

“I always wanted Arkansans to take this as something we can have local pride in,” Bell explains. “We’re the number one rice grower in the US. We know we grow it, but I don’t think we look at it as a cool, local thing. By turning a commodity like rice into a craft product, people start to get interested. It builds on something locally, and it creates connections around the world. That was always the big-picture goal, and I’m seeing that happen.”

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