London Sake · Mobile Bottle Scanner
Scan the barcode on any sake you’ve bought from London Sake and the scanner gives you our preferred serving temperature and a handful of food pairing recommendations.
This is a mobile scanner — open it on your phone’s browser, not a desktop computer. Nothing to download, no account. It will ask permission to use your camera — that’s the scanner itself. No photo is uploaded or stored.
What you get
Where we’d pour that particular bottle first — somewhere between fridge-cold and properly warmed. Treat it as an opening move, not a verdict.
A few dishes we’d put with that bottle. Pairing follows the style of the sake — a delicate daiginjo, a broad junmai, a wild yamahai and a sparkling all want different things on the plate.
Every scan surfaces two standing codes as a thank-you: 10% off the bottle shop and 20% off your first month of the sake subscription.
How it works
No download, no account, no typing in barcode numbers.
Go to scan.londonsake.com on your phone, in Safari or Chrome. It’s built for mobile — there’s nothing to install, but it won’t work on a desktop computer.
Your browser asks once. Tap allow — the camera is how the barcode gets read.
Frame the barcode on the back label. Up comes a suggested serving temperature and food to try it with.
Why blue to red
Unlike other drinks, many sake can be enjoyed across a remarkably wide range of temperatures. Served chilled, floral aromas can be restrained and the finish crisp and sharp. Warm that exact same bottle to 40 °C, and the cold softens, allowing it to unfold into a rich, smooth, and deeply savoury expression. Neither is wrong, just different. Experimentation is strongly recommended and one of the unique joys of sake.
Others are naturally brewed to be enjoyed at certain temperatures, and our scanner will help guide you along the way.
In Japan, tradition honours eleven separate names to codify these subtle thermal shifts, running from −5 °C (Mizore-zake) to 55 °C (Tobikiri-kan).
Learn more about sake and temperature.
"Sake slushie" — below freezing, verging on a slush in the glass.
"Snow chilled" — fridge cold, tight and crisp.
"Flower chilled" — where most ginjo and daiginjo sit.
"Cool chilled" — aroma opens up, texture still fresh.
Room temperature, in the old sense — a cool cellar, not a warm kitchen.
"Sunbathing warm" — barely warmed, comforting rather than hot.
"Skin warm" — rice character comes forward.
Gently warm — traditionally where aged koshu opens up best.
"Slightly hot" — rounds off the sharper edges of genshu and yamahai.
Hot. Sharpens the finish, cuts through rich food.
"Extra hot" — bracing, and deliberate.
Camera & privacy
The camera is the scanner. It reads the barcode live through the viewfinder rather than making you type in thirteen digits. Without permission there is nothing for it to read.
No. The barcode is decoded on your phone, in the browser. No picture is saved, and no picture is uploaded — only the barcode number is used to look the bottle up.
No. It’s a web page. If you want it to hand, use your browser’s Add to Home Screen option and it will open like an app.
No — it’s a mobile barcode scanner. It reads the barcode through your phone’s camera, so open scan.londonsake.com on your phone rather than a desktop browser.
Bottles sold by London Sake. We write the temperature and food suggestions ourselves, bottle by bottle, so a scan can fail for a few reasons: it isn’t a London Sake bottle, we’ve stopped stocking that one, or the producer has quietly reprinted the label with a new barcode.
Either way, we’d like to know about it — report the barcode and we’ll look into it.
iPhone / Safari: tap aA at the left of the address bar → Website Settings → Camera → Allow, then reload.
Android / Chrome: tap the padlock in the address bar → Permissions → Camera → Allow, then reload.
Hold your phone over the barcode and see where we’d start.