The origin of sake is covered in mystery. In order to get some clarity, I have spoken to Natsuki Kikuya, who is a certified sake and wine professional, educator and…
The story of Moto is really fascinating. You can imagine what it means to open a bar and not just a bar but a sake bar three months before the UK went into a complete lockdown for more than 2 months and then again in November. But let’s listen to her story.
Amazing interview with Oliver Hilton-Johnson is a Sake Specialist and Director of Tengu Sake, a sake imports, wholesale & retail company. Tengu Sake supplies quality Japanese sake and spirits to some of the UK’s finest restaurants and bars and is the recipient of the International Wine Challenge’s ‘Sake Merchant of the Year’ award 2016 - 2019. In November 2019 Oliver was named as one of the ‘Future 50’ drinks industry professionals to watch.
The second part of the exciting two-parter about how sake is made. I never stop admiring the skill and craftmanship of sake brewers. They manage to create a beautiful drink…
A guest post today, a review of Kuncho Nigori Nama Genshu from Jordan Smithcroft, is a sake enthusiast and writer, being WSET Sake Level 1 certified and working towards his SSA Sake Sommelier status. Kampai!
Here my recommendations for the 5 best sake for rainy and cold late autumn days. But you can drink these sake during winter too. And on crisp and sunny days! These sake will go great with comfort food. Some of them are amazing on its own. If you decide to follow my recommendations (and I don't see why not!), let me know what you think. Kampai!
This episode is the first in the series of interviews with very interesting people from the world of sake. I am asking them for tips and advice about how to start buying and ordering sake without any fear to be embarrassed. Satomi Dosseur is a sake professional and educator living in London. Moreover, she is a founder of Enshu Limited, which runs a great and very interesting sake specialist course (Kikisake-shi), which I took and greatly enjoyed a few years ago.
There is something magical in sake brewing. Sake is a process-driven drink compared to wine which is driven but its main ingredient, grapes. While ingredients play a very important role…
I know it took a bit longer to produce this episode. But I am very happy that it is published on World Sake Day. For the last few years, I was celebrating it by going to various sake tasting, meeting friends I had not seen for a while and chatting about new sake trends, experiences, plans and how sake is getting more popular. Alas, not this year. I guess a lot of sake lovers will celebrate this day at home or logging into a virtual drinking party or sake tasting. Let's hope that the next year will be much better and we will see each other as they say now "offline" and drink an ochoko or two for each other's health. Kampai!
Now it's time to catch up with my blog posts. I have spent a lot of time writing and recording the first few episodes of my podcast. If you have not listened to it, it's available on the website as well as on all podcasting platforms. Just search for Sugidama Podcast :-). This post is a slightly abridged version of the first episode about the common sake myths. Sake is still a mysterious drink for many people and as all mysterious objects, it's surrounded by those myths and legends. Some myths are true but a lot of them are plainly false. Read on and see for yourself. And if you want more details, please listen to the podcast. Kampai!
