The origins of the Saketini cocktail are not clear. It is said to have been invented by Matsuda San, a chef from Queens who introduced the drink at the New York World’s Fair in 1964.

After the World’s Fair the recipe for the Saketini was lost and the cocktail led an all but forgotten life until the -tini craze in the 1990s. Even though the Saketini was invented long before this the cocktail historian David Wondrich still puts the Saketini (maybe a but unfairly) in ”that sickly and dismal tribe” of chocolate martinis, mango martinis, and appletinis.

Another possible origin story is that the Saketini was invented at the first Benihana restaurant on West 56th Street in New York City. Benihana was founded by 25-year old Hiroaki Aoki the same year as the World’s Fair, 1964, and the cocktail is said to first having been made that same year.

The sake cup was designed in 1958 by Japanese glassware designer Masakichi Awashima.