The unique process of making premium Japanese sake is uniting cultures from worlds away through a single drink.

A Road Trip Close to Home about two hours north of New York City will bring you to the Town of Hyde Park, home to Dassai Blue Sake Brewery.

It's the largest on the East Coast, where the art of premium sake is brought overseas from the fields of Dassai, Japan.

"Our sake ingredients are only water and rice, and we are making all the sake by hand," Dassai Blue president Kenzo Shimotori said.

Sign up for a tour, and in about 30 minutes, you'll learn what sake is and all that goes into making it.

"You can really see our fermentation room or the room where we make the koji rice, there are just all these different things that we want people to learn and experience," senior brand manager Jocelyn Heyward said. "So we have a lot of pictures, a lot of tools, a lot of rice examples, so people can really understand what sake is all about."

And a lot of it has to do with time, skill and passion.

"There's this handmade quality to it," Heyward said. "And it's through the way we wash our rice in really small bags, all of the rice is spread out over the tables to dry properly and this is all a hands-on process with all of our brewers, and there's just a lot of attention to the human element to it."

Dive deeper into Japanese culture, from the history of rice farming to table settings and more.

"People are unfamiliar with sake, but it is a really important beverage in Japan that we're trying to introduce people to in the United States," Heyward said.

Your tour is followed by a tasting of the drink you just learned so much about.

The dine-in destination is also a place to enjoy true tastes of Japan with the whole family.

To learn more about Dassi Blue Sake Brewery in Hyde Park, click here.

To book a tour and tasting, click here.