Sake Revolution 2022 Recap: Our Year in Sake

Hello everybody and welcome to Sake Revolution. This is America's very first sake podcast and I am one of your intrepid hosts. My name is John Puma. You probably know that by now, but in case you don't, I'm the, uh, guy on the show who's not the sakes, samurai, I'm the other one.

And I'm your host Timothy Sullivan. I am a Sake Samurai. I'm a sake educator, as well as the founder of the Urban Sake website. And every week John and I will be here tasting and chatting about all things sake and doing our best to make it fun and easy to understand.

Tim, it is that time of year again,

Happy New Year, John

We made it. We made it to the end of 2022. We're, we're seeing, uh, I wanna say that, uh, 2023 is in, eye

Yes,

and uh, I think that one thing I've noticed is that, uh, nobody's talking about how 2023 is gonna be their year. I think that, I think 20 20, 20, 21, 22, I think it's got everybody scared and, uh, this is how things have gone. Now everybody's like, oh, you know what, let's just, uh, see how this one goes. I'm not

Let's muddle through and hope for the best

for the best. Yeah. Uh, but, but it was, I think for, for us, generally speaking, for us, we had a, we had a good year Um,

a revolution perspective, I think we had a really good year.

it was a good year for the show. Uh, we had a, a lot of, um, a lot of fun episodes, a lot of great people.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, I did the numbers. We had 22 guests on our show over the course of this year, 22. I mean, we also had that, that is counting that, uh, that big hundredth episode guest gala that I think we had. Eight people on that

Well, that should count. Double

All right. Uh, well, yeah, it's, we had 14, I think without the, without the hundredth episode 22 with the hundred episode. That's great. I, it, that was a feel good episode. I really had a fun time and I think this is a feel good episode two, that's generally how I, I like these little, uh, celebrate the year, celebrate milestone kind of episodes. They're a lot of fun to do.

Yeah, we've done this two years previously and we just could not miss it again this year.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've had 44 episodes this year, which tells you we're not quite weekly, but we're really close.

We're trying our best

We try our best. We definitely try our best. And, uh, a couple other notes that we, that I came across when I was looking at, looking at what we've done this year. We started a three new series.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, we started the Extreme Sake Series, which has been. Yeah, Um, but one thing about the Extreme Sake series is I think at least like number one, we, we've done the most of that, of all of our new series, um, because there's a lot to explore there. It's a, it's a meaty topic. There's a lot to see and, and taste.

And, and it's, it's also really fun to hunt down the, I, I felt like, like, I was like looking for those extreme sakes and you really have to research them, find them, where can I get them? So that was. Really fun behind the scenes was finding these extreme sakes and then introducing them to all our listeners so that I think we had a lot of those episodes cuz it was just really fun for us behind the scenes.

Yeah. Yeah. And then, um, we also started the Sake Vessels series this year, which has been also a lot of fun to kind of, it's, it's, it's evolved into this, can it be better than the Wineglass Challenge?

Yes.

And I, I think that, I think the wine glass is the winner and undefeated champion. but I do think that we're learning that these vessels bring different things to the table, and they're a lot of fun to experiment with, which I, I'm getting to learn a lot about these vessels, about like the history of them from you and also like practically how they compare directly with other types of, of sake vessels. It's a lot of fun to taste like that.

Yeah, and I think it's, it's raised my awareness of sake vessels too. Anyway, it was just so interesting to kind of a new awareness of sake vessels and uh, that's been a fun series for sure.

Yeah. Uh, and then, and then the last one I wanna mention that we started this year is that crosstalk series where we've been talking to other sake podcasts. Uh, and that has been, you know, also a lot of fun. It's been a, a good time to, Speak to other people who are doing what we're doing and, and find out about how things, what the sake scene is like in their part of the world. That's been a lot of fun. And, and we're not done there. We still, we still have a couple more to go.

Yes, there's been new podcasts coming along and, and it's great to see the universe of sake podcasts expand and grow. So, and it's fun to stay in touch with everyone, and we're the only ones in the US still right now, but, That helps us reach out across and go to other countries, like you said, and see what's happening. And everyone has their own enjoyment in their regions, and it's fun to see what's different with what we have here in the States.

Nice. Nice. I agree a hundred percent. It's been, it's been a lot of fun. now I'm gonna recommend that we do something a little bit different today, Tim.

What's that?

Um, since we're having a little bit of a celebration, I think we should have a little bit of a drink with our celebration.

Ooh, let's.

All right. So, uh, since this is a little bit of a special episode, uh, we're gonna have a little bit of a special sake. this is actually a sake that I brought back from Japan. And when I saw it, I'm gonna tell the story real quick about how I came across it. everybody at home, you need to, you're gonna learn a little something, a little trick for getting sake earlier in the day.

Yeah. Now this, I was so happy to get this small bottle from you, John. What a nice gift. Thank you so much. This is, uh, Nagisa no Uta, as you said, and I looked up what that means in English, and I think it means Nagisa is like the beach or the shore,

Mm-hmm.

UTA is song, so maybe it means Song of the Shore or Song of the Beach, something like that. Yeah.

That sounds great.

and we should mention this is not common for us, but this is a sake that is not for sale in the us. Normally we make a point to profile sakes that people in most of the country can get their hands on, but today's kind of a special occasion. We have a little gift that you were kind enough to bring from Japan, so we are going to enjoy it.

breaking the rules just for one day.

for one day.

Yeah. Uh, so yeah. so why don't we open up this, and. Give it a taste.

Yeah, but I promise no singing from me.

no, you promise. Okay. We got this in the glass.

All right. Cut it in the glass.

right, so we've got it in the glass in the, the first thing I'm noticing. So it is very clear.

It's translucent, you know, you can see through it. There's no particulate. Uh, there may be just a hint of a yellowish tinge to it, but it looks pretty, pretty water white to me. Uh, should we give it a smell?

Yes. Hmm.

Hmm. You're gonna laugh when I tell you what I'm smelling

Uh, I'm, I'm ready.

We've talked about this before, but do you get any hint of circus Peanut

Hmm. A little bit. I'm getting more, uh, a little bit more like a, a, like a milky kind of lactic yogurty on the nose. But yeah, there is

there's a sweet, there's a sweet, for me, it's like that Marshmallowy Circus peanut kind of smell and it has, has a inference of sweetness to it, but there is something creamy as well. Yeah, I, I pick up on that too.

yeah. It's nice.

Hmm.

It's a little bit different. This isn't your, your typical, uh, fruity fruit bomb.

Right. Yeah.

All right, well, let's

Good taste. Hmm.

Well, this is interesting

It has, you know, noticeable sweetness when you take a sip.

Yeah. And, but the, the finish is a little, it's not like dry dry. It's not Karakuchi dry, but it's a little bit on the dryer side, especially compared to the beginning. The finish I got, I get this little bit of dryness on the finish. There's hmm, not nearly as much of that lactic quality as I. Expecting when I smelled it,

Hmm.

but there's a lot more, uh, a lot more complexity here than I was expecting.

Yeah.

Yeah. I think that when I've had, uh, Kamikokoro in the past, usually there's stuff, it's kind of like, it's showing shows all its cards right away and it's kind of like this is what it is and this is a lot more, I hate to use the word interesting, but it's, it is definitely an interesting, there's a lot to dig through here. There's a lot of like interesting stuff happening.

Yeah. For me on the on the palate, I really get that sense of like a marshmallow flavor. There's sweetness, there's richness.

Yeah. And it does, it does bounce between those in a way. There's definitely an, uh, a taste experience that brings you from sweetness. over into like a little bit of, a little bit of richness and then like a dryer finish.

Yeah. One thing they're doing really well here is balancing that initial sweetness out with a dryer finish so it doesn't leave your palate all like over sweetened or. Too coated with sweetness. It finishes cleaner, as you said, and dryer, and that makes for a more enjoyable sipping, I think.

Yeah. It's definitely fun to sip that is. That is, uh, an undisputable fact.

But this is, this is very different from other Kamikokoro sakes that I've had, and I've not had a lot of their range. You know, we love their peach yeast unpasteurized sake, which, Just right up there for me. And we've, I've also tasted one of their Junmai Daiginjo sakes, which is, was just so beautiful. This one has a little bit more oomph, a little bit more. It's sweet. And it's not a classic earthy sake.

No problem. I, I definitely get the impression from this, if it just, it tastes like they're having a little fun, you know, like they're, they're doing something a little bit different. They're getting, uh, they're, they're having a good time with this one. I don't know. That's, that's what came across to me. I don't know. Yeah. Very nice. Uh, I'm glad I brought it back. This is a, this is a fun one to sip,

for sure.

but, uh, now that we've had a sip of some sake, let's talk a little bit more about 2022.

Yeah, I, I wanted to ask you,

Mm-hmm.

your highlights for the year, your your favorite sake we featured on the show, and also if you had a favorite episode of all the ones that we did over the past year.

Mm. Alright. Well, I think that for me, one of my favorite episodes this year was the, the time that we had, uh, Nancy and Michael, who wrote, uh, exploring the World of Japanese craft Sake, we had, we had such a great time with them that we had to make two episodes out of it. And honestly, I could have gone like another hour just talking to them about sake. They were. Interesting. And I just, I just had fun nerding out with them about it. It was really a good time.

Yeah, it was really fun to talk with them. That was our first and only two-parter and I think that it was really called for in that scenario. So I'm so glad we got to taste with them. And their book is amazing. And if you haven't looked at their book yet, be sure to. Pick it up and if you're interested in sake, it's kind of a must have book. So that, that really was a fun e couple episodes for sure.

Yeah. What.

Oh, well,

Well, do you think I'm gonna let you ask me that and then not return?

you know, I had two episodes that I really liked. The interview that I really liked was talking to Kenta Goto, the bartender and. We made a cocktail together on air, you and I made a sake cocktail live on the show and that was really fun.

Ah, but before you go into the runner up though, I have a quick question. Since that episode, have you made more. Far East Sides at home.

I've done it at least twice since that episode. Usually when I have company over, I'm like, I can make a sake cocktail

Um, I, uh, I made one for Myshell. I was like, oh, this, I thought it would tasted delicious. And I was like, this is gonna be right up her alley. And she absolutely loves it. And it got requested around the house very often, so I had to make it quite a few times until We ran out Shiso leaves. cuz you do have to go through a few of them cause you gotta muddle a bunch of them and then you gotta, you have one for the garnish on top. It's beautiful. It's really a great, a great cocktail.

Yeah, so that was fun. And I think a runner-up episode for me that I really enjoyed was the Survival Japanese, for Sake Bars.

Yes, that is. Oh, that's a really good pick. I like that.

Yeah,

Mm.

I put together the cheat sheet PDF with all the, you know, uh, broken down Japanese you can use, and now we can travel to Japan. Finally again. And I hope that people will find that episode and use those terms that we talked about, that you and I learned the hard way and. Tourists to Japan will bring that sheet to the sake bar and get really delicious sake and have a fun, engaging experience when they're there, like you and I have done many times over the years.

I, I could not agree more. and honestly, I had to brush up my Japanese a little bit before I went.

Yes,

And so I also, referenced that episode. I went back and reviewed it back in October before we went to Japan. And uh, and it came in handy. It was very helpful I think. And uh, and uh, and I did have plenty of delicious Japanese sake when I was there, so it worked out.

It worked. That's awesome. Now, did you have a favorite sake that we featured on the show? Something

Well, I've been, I have been agonizing over this little bit so I, I, for me, I wanna say it is a little bit of, uh, I have a cop out answer. How's that?

That's fine. This is a safe space, John

Good. Okay, good, good, good. So on the one hand I was really excited and it was very delicious when we got to have, uh, Jikon on the show.

Yes.

was really great. but, I also thoroughly enjoyed when we had the three saga sake. From the saga sake event and the, just the differences between all three of them and how they showed off the range of sake flavors, that was just so exciting for me. And all three of them were really fantastic in their own way. it was a wonderful way for, for people to experience sake. And so that really stuck with. So it's kinda like my favorite sake that I had individually was probably the Jikon.

Yeah, the, the Jikon was a very popular episode as well. As far as downloads are concerned, it's a popular brand and people look for it online. So every time I've had Jikon since then, I've enjoyed it. It is amazing sake. And the, the Saga sake set. We had Jessica Joly on the show and she introduced us to those three sakes from three different producers that kind of made this set of three different saga sakes. I agree with you completely. They were so different.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that, that, that set is such a phenomenal way for people to, for new people to experience sake from go like, oh, well there's sake tastes like this. There's sake tastes like this. And then there's this completely, you know, bring out the. The Koshu you know, and there's a completely different one over here that's that umami driven, um, mushroom bomb. Uh, it was just really interesting and just so it was so much fun to, to go through.

Yeah, I agree tho. Those were great. Now my favorite sake is also gonna be a little bit of a cop out. Is that okay?

oh. Yes. I, well, you know, I can't really, Call you out.

So episode 113, we did a branded episode featuring drum roll please com. Kamikokoro which

wait a minute,

So we mentioned earlier, we're tasting Kami Kokoro, Tokubestu Junmai today, but we had that peach yeast unpasteurized sake. And that's just, it is in the Hall of Fame for me. you know, I order that by the case, have it shipped in by the pallet and and it is something I really, really love.

I could be wrong here, but Tim, you're, to my knowledge, you're not the kind of guy who does that. You don't really buy like a case of one sake usually.

no, my, my jam has always been to try as many things as I can and when I go to a sake shop, I usually grab the bottle that I've never tried before. If there's one there, I want to, that's the one I want to grab cuz I wanna try new things. But sometimes you just need that tried and true favorite treat that you know you're just gonna love.

and, and this Is that

And this is that, this is one of those, there's, there's, there's a short list for sure. But this one, it was so great to do an episode dedicated to that brand and that was just like, it just for me, it just can't fail. So that, that is one of my favorites for sure.

I don't think that's a cop out, Tim. I think that that's, That is enthusiasm

Yes, I got that. I got that.

definite, definitely enthusiasm. Uh, that's nice. That's really cool. Yeah. So in addition to Sake Revolution, events of the year, uh, a lot of things happened in sake as well, just outside of our show. We, joy of sake, returned. That was, uh, a blast that we had a lot of fun there. You and me walking around with our Sake Revolution T-shirts, and tasting all manner of sake. We had Version 1.0 of the advent calendar happened this year. We had just a few episodes ago, we had Paul on the show.

Well, I got the Advent calendar and I was traveling a bit in December and I didn't dedicate each and every day to opening it up, so I did kind of. Cherry pick cups here and there and I didn't get to drink the uh, 720 yet from the 24th, but I'm just gonna spread it out a little bit into January and enjoy the cups at a little bit of a slower pace,

I think that's fair.

but it was still a lot of fun. And Namazake Paul did a great job with the Advent calendar, don't you think it was a fun, fun thing to do in December?

Listeners may remember that we had, a couple of preview cups on the show. I think at the time that we had done the show, we didn't have the boxes yet. they got the actual, advent calendar boxes and that thing was huge. It was absolutely massive,

in the best way.

it, Needed to be in order to keep everything secure and, and beautiful. And it was really easy to work with and was really a lot of fun. Um, I got, I got sick during one of the weeks, so I couldn't, I had like a, I had like seven days worth of cups that we're sitting there and I was like, oh no, what am I gonna do? And then once I was feeling better, we, uh, we made kind of short work of the, of the backlog

Good, good, good.

but it was nice. It was a lot.

yeah, it kind of sat, I put mine on my. Dining room table and just, it was kind of like a Christmas decoration. It was like a

uh, all right. We, we put ours under the tree.

Oh, that's nice too.

Yeah. Under the tree. And then every morning we would just open it up and take the cup of the day and put it in the fridge so that by the evening it's ready. It became part of my work ritual.

That's awesome. Yeah. So we did have that advent calendar. anything else happen in the world of sake this year.

I have one other on my list here. And, and despite being a, a fan of the, uh, New York Mets long suffering fan of the New York Mets, Legally set foot into Yankee Stadium without bursting the flames. a, a major sake brand is now advertising on the billboards at Yankee Stadium, which is something I never thought I would see in my lifetime. I've always thought that was like sake out to people who don't know about sake. You have to do advertising in places.

Hmm. Well, you can't help wonder about the ROI on that type of advertising.

I hope it's good. I I, I don't know if they actually serve the sake at Yankee stadium.

that's,

I think they may have it in some of the premium seats. They may sell some sake, but I don't think you can just go up to the, the regular concession stand and get like a beer and a sake.

Hmm.

would be, that's what we need. That's the future. That's gotta be, that's, yeah. We definitely need to get sake in places that are not just, uh, Japanese restaurants. So we'll see.

Yeah. Well, before we wind up, we do have one more. Unfinished piece of business, jp.

oh. do we?

We actually made resolutions for 2022, our famous, our our,

Didn't

we say, infamous revolution resolutions. And, uh, I don't know if how we're gonna do this year, shall I refresh your memory.

sure.

Okay. So, John Puma's resolution. For 2022 in regards to sake can be boiled down to one word documentation.

Yeah.

So you wanted to keep more notes and document more of what you were drinking. And my resolution was to drink less, but higher quality.

Hmm.

Huh? Okay, so we'll, we'll go to you first. how'd you do John

Um, lemme tell you, I started off the year strong. It was, I was taking lots of notes. I had a book I was filling up, I was doing real well. problem is like once you get that, once you get the, the one situation where you forget after that it's easy to keep forgetting and. I did have a mild resurgence when I went to Japan. I was logging the sake I was drinking in an app, uh, so that I could try to fill in the entire map of Japan with how a sake from every Prefecture.

Wow.

yeah. Not bad.

So you, so you did documentation in 2022.

Uh, yeah, I just didn't consistently do documentation. I just, I have sporadic documentation. I started the ear strong. I ended the ear strong, but in the middle, not so much.

Yep.

Yeah. And, and how about you? Are you drinking more high quality sake?

I think one, one thing I have done is what we mentioned a moment ago. Ordering some brands that are high quality, something I love, and just having those really delicious comfort sakes on hand. So I have stocked up a little bit more on the higher quality sakes that I know I'm gonna love and just want to treat myself to sometimes. And I prefer that to buying bottles willy-nilly that I've never had before. And sometimes they turn out to be really horrible. So,

And they backfire on you, Tim, but hey, when they, when they don't, when you, when you end up not liking them, they become candidates for the extreme sake Series,

extreme dislike

Oh, no.

No. So I feel like I have focused more on higher quality sakes, but I think when you reach a certain point you know what? Brands are really special to you, and I did make an effort to have some of those on hand for. Days when you just want to check out. You don't want to be the sake researcher anymore. You just want to enjoy yourself with something really special. So I did, I did make an effort to do that.

Alright, that's good. I, that's, that's, that is pretty good, Tim. I'm very impressed. That's

Well, I think we both, we both did okay

Uh,

resolutions,

eh,

eh?

I I am not satisfied with my performance. I will tell you that I drank a lot more sake than I recorded. Um, unfortunately.

So, John, what do you think? we gonna do resolutions again for 2023?

So, Tim, here's what I think we should do. I think yes, the answer is yes, yes, we should, and I think what we'll do is we'll open up our next episode with these resolutions and what we really want, wanna think about them, give it a little bit of time. Get some good ones that we can do. I want success. I want us to be successful, and I wanna have a little fun with it. And so we'll open up the next episode with our resolution with our revolution resolutions. It just flies off the tongue,

off the tongue.

and we'll, um, we'll talk about it then.

All right. That sounds good. We'll give ourselves a little, little time to think and reflect and come up with something really good.

All right.

All right. Well thank you John so much. Thanks for the wonderful Kami Kokoro hand carried from Japan. Appreciate that and and, uh, great to taste with you as always. Another fantastic year in the books. And I wanna thank our listeners again, so much for tuning in. Thanks for hanging with us this whole year. A special shout out and hello to all our patrons. If you'd like to join our community on Patreon and support Sake Revolution, please visit patreon.com/SakeRevolution to learn more.

Now as, uh, Tim mentioned, this is a listener supported show, uh, but there are other ways to support us. You can leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts. It really does help. other people discover our show. They like go to Apple Podcast and type in sake. This is the thing we want them to find, right? So reviews are what drives that. That's what makes it happen. So until next time, please grab a glass. Remember to keep drinking sake and Kanpai. Happy New year,