This is a podcast to chronicle my journey into the world of sake and other Japanese drinks, food, culture and history. While I have a sake qualification (International Kikisake-shi), I still consider myself as a novice in the sake world. I have plenty to learn about the drink and I want to share this experience with my listeners through personal accounts, interesting facts about sake and interviews with sake experts.
The new episode of Sugidama Podcast is about rice, the essence of sake. What type of rice do exist, what is the difference between table and sake rice, key sake rice varieties and interesting facts. Download and enjoy! If you like the episode please leave a review in Apple Podcasts or share the episode with your friends. Kampai!
The importance of water is difficult to overestimate. It’s second only to the brewer’s skill and as important as good rice and koji. But honestly, given good water, a skilful toji can make excellent sake from even table rice. But I am not sure if even a genius of a toji can make a delicious sake from low-quality water.
What could be more disappointing than ordering something, waiting for it with excitement and then realising that it’s something you don’t like. It happens quite often unfortunately and buying and ordering sake is not an exception. So in this episode, I would like to give you a few tips on choosing sake and also talk about some parameters you will find on the bottle beside a milling ratio. And my tips of course are based on my own experience.
There are plenty of books about wine or whiskey. You go to any bookshop and you can always find something. Unfortunately, there are actually not many English language books available…
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…
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…
