London Sake · Mobile Bottle Scanner
Chilled or warmed?
Ask the bottle.
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.
How it works
Three taps, about ten seconds.
No download, no account, no typing in barcode numbers.
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STEP 1
Open the scanner on your phone
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.
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STEP 2
Allow camera access
Your browser asks once. Tap allow — the camera is how the barcode gets read.
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STEP 3
Hold it over the barcode
Frame the barcode on the back label. Up comes a suggested serving temperature and food to try it with.
What you get
A temperature to start from
Where we'd pour that particular bottle first — somewhere between fridge-cold and properly warmed. Treat it as an opening move, not a verdict.
Food that goes with it
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.
A couple of discount codes
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.
Why blue to red
Playing with temperature
Sake is drunk across a sixty-degree range. No other drink asks this much of you. The same bottle can be a different drink at 8 °C than it is at 45 °C — one sharper and more floral, the other rounder and more savoury. Neither is wrong. Japanese has eleven separate names running from −5 °C to 55 °C, and those names are what the blue-to-red scale in the app is built from.
Learn more about sake and temperature.
- みぞれ酒Mizore-zake
- −5 °C
- 雪冷えYuki-hie
- 5 °C
- 花冷えHana-hie
- 10 °C
- 涼冷えSuzu-hie
- 15 °C
- 常温Jo-on
- 20 °C
- 日向燗Hinata-kan
- 30 °C
"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.
- 人肌燗Hitohada-kan
- 35 °C
- ぬる燗Nuru-kan
- 40 °C
- 上燗Jo-kan
- 45 °C
- 熱燗Atsu-kan
- 50 °C
- 飛び切り燗Tobikiri-kan
- 55 °C
"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
What the camera permission is actually for.
Why does it need my camera?
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.
Are my photos stored or sent anywhere?
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.
Do I need to install an app?
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.
Does it work on a laptop or desktop computer?
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.
Which bottles does it recognise?
Bottles sold by London Sake. We write the temperature and food suggestions ourselves, bottle by bottle. A barcode we don't hold shows a short "not recognised" screen with the option to report it, rather than any bottle details.
I tapped "Don't Allow" by mistake.
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.
Got a bottle in front of you?
Hold your phone over the barcode and see where we'd start.