A Plum Job: Discovering Umeshu

Episode 163. Word on the street is that travel to Japan is surging! One of the joys of travel to Japan is returning with a suitcase full of sake! But how best to do it?! This week, John and Timothy discuss the ins and outs of bringing back sake from Japan.  What's allowed and what's not!  Where to buy sake and how to package it.  Import duties and duty free shops!  If you want the lowdown on our experience bringing sake home from travel to Japan, this episode is for you. Let's UNPACK these topics and taste some of the sake (not for sale in the U.S.) we brought back ourselves.     #SakeRevolution

Episode 162. With 2023 drawing to a close, it's time to take a look back at the sake year that was.  Join us this week for some casual sipping and some discussion on the highlights, surprises and challenges of this past year's sake adventures. Tim and John both let us know their favorite sake stories and their favorite episodes from the past year. Do you know which episode was our most downloaded from 2023?  Let us know in the comments and we look forward to another year of great sake and many kanpais. Happy Sake New Year! #SakeRevolution

Episode 161. This week, John and Timothy explore another brand profile: Masumi from Miyasaka Jozo in Nagano Prefecture. Most well known as the birthplace of Association Number 7 sake yeast, Masumi has a long history dating back to 1662.  Located on beautiful Lake Suwa, Masumi is a brand that is well known outside of Japan.  The brand name of "Masumi" means transparency or truth and traces its origin to an ancient bronze mirror, which is a treasure of the local shrine and is the proverbial "mirror of truth".  Masumi also recently updated their label design and sake portfolio to tie into their legacy as the home of number 7 sake yeast - a yeast that has gone on to become the most widely used sake yeast in the industry. Let's explore the flavors and history of Masumi together!  #SakeRevolution

Episode 160. It's time to get wild again! Wild about sake rice, that is.  Wild Rice is our series where we look closer at different strains of sake rice and what makes them unique.  This time around, we look to a rice native to Hiroshima Prefecture - Hattannishiki.  Known to not grow as tall as other sake rice, but still have a well developed shinpaku (starchy core) Hattannishiki is a fairly modern rice, as it was developed in the 1970's. Let's dive in and see what flavors Hattannishiki has in store for us! #sakerevolution

Episode 159. Week in and week out, our standard gear for tasting and evaluating sake is a simple wine glass. This works really well and almost everybody has one nearby. But in Japan, there are a wide variety of shapes, materials and sizes used to make cups for drinking sake. That got us wondering if we should take some other cups out for a test drive and compare them to our usual stemware. This week we are exploring Guinomi. This style of sake cup is a larger sibling to the standard ochoko, holding more sake per pour and often having a more rustic texture. The "GUI" of gui-nomi is an onomatopoeia for the glug-glug-glug sound, indicating perhaps a sake cup that is well suited for gulping sake!  How does this cup stack up against our standard wine glass?  Tune in this week to find out! #sakerevolution

Episode 158. Enough playing it safe! It's time for another walk on the high wire that is our extreme sake series! This time, the guys skirt the law and explore the rough and ready style of home-brew style sake known as Doburoku. While Home brewing of doburoku has been outlawed in Japan for over a hundred years, Doburoku can be produced legally in specially designated Doburoku zones across Japan and by facilities with an appropriate doburoku production license. Doburoku festivals are also held annually at dozens of shinto shrines around Japan each year. While it has bold flavors of rice, yogurt and a tangy, higher acidity, it is really the texture that makes Doburoku extreme. This is truly an "unfiltered" brew - no pressing of the mash at all.  Bring your fork as doburoku is funky and chunky! In addition, the alcohol is low due to a shorter fermentation period.  Buckle up and lets dive into another extreme sake!  #SakeRevolution

Episode 157. For our final episode recorded live at this year’s American Craft Sake Festival, we are happy to bring you another U.S. sake brewer interview. This time, we visit with our pal Byron Stithem, owner and brewer at Nashville’s Proper Sake Co., and the owner at Rice Vice, the attached sake bar and restaurant. Byron has lots to celebrate… as he sat down with us, he had just stepped off the stage after receiving the Silver Medal Audience Choice Award at the American Craft Sake Festival for the second year in a row. This comes on the heels of Rice Vice being named one of the 2023 Best Bars in America by Esquire Magazine. When it comes to our tasting, we were lucky enough to sip on “The Diplomat”, Proper Sake’s flagship sake. By tasting this sake with Byron, we happily sailed way to “Yamahai Island”, where flavor, aroma and umami are hard earned, but absolutely delicious. What is that Yamahai aroma all about? Well – you’ll know it when you smell it! Kanpai, and congratulations Byron! Special thanks to SBANA, the Sake Brewers Association of North America, for organizing the festival and to North American Sake Brewery for hosting the event location. #SakeRevolution

Episode 156. Again this week, we revisit our field trip to the American Craft Sake Festival held this year in Charlottesville VA and bring you another U.S. sake brewer interview. This time, we get a two-for-one as we interview Blake Richardson and Nick Lowry of Moto-i Sake Brewery, which is based in Minneapolis, MN. Founded by Blake in 2008, Moto-i has been creating delicious sakes that are served locally and super fresh on tap. Blake works as Toji and Nick tells us how he graduated from customer to Lead Brewer, following his passion for making great sake. It’s a fun and friendly conversation culminating in a tasting of their delicious flagship Junmai Ginjo “Another Dalliance”. Listen in and be sure to visit the Moto-i Brewery, taproom and restaurant if you are anywhere near Minneapolis – it’s not to be missed! Special thanks to SBANA, the Sake Brewers Association of North America, for organizing the festival and to North American Sake Brewery for hosting the event location. Look for other interviews from the American Craft Sake Festival in coming weeks. #SakeRevolution

Episode 155. Our visit to the American Craft Sake Festival was awash with brewers, but one non-sake booth in particular caught our eye.  Without rice, there is no sake and we had the chance to sit down with Whitney Isbell Jones of the world famous Isbell Rice Farm in England, Arkansas.  Whitney grew up on the farm and tells us the story of how her family discovered Japanese rice varieties and how they eventually became global experts in growing premium sake rice varieties in particular. While us city boys think of space in terms of square feet, Whitney explains how the Isbell rice fields are expansive in size - the largest being up to 90 acres each! In addition to growing specialty sake rice strains for the U.S. market, Isbell Farms will soon have a hand in milling sake rice as well.  It's exciting times for rice and sake in the States and we enjoyed our chat with Whitney about all things short, medium and long grain!   Special thanks to SBANA, the Sake Brewers Association of North America, for organizing the festival and to North American Sake Brewery for hosting the event location.  Look for other interviews from the American Craft Sake Festival in coming weeks!
#SakeRevolution

Episode 154. Taking a quick detour from our American Craft Sake Festival series, we're sneaking in a seasonally appropriate episode before it's too late.  "Natsu Sake" or summer sake, is a new-ish genre of brews meant to take the edge off of the sweltering summer heat, all while letting us enjoy the flavors of sake in the summer.  Often presented in clear or frosted bottles with cool-toned blue-ish labels, these sakes definitely give off a chill vibe.  With lower alcohol as well as clean, crisp and refreshing flavors, these sakes shine when served icy cold.  As the dog days of summer are a traditionally slow time for sake sales, these cool Natsu Sakes are meant to inspire us to drink a chilled nihonshu instead of a cold brewski or that wine spritzer over ice.  More and more summer sakes are hitting shelves here in the States, just as temperatures are hitting record highs.  Let's take advantage and chill out with some wonderful natsu sakes.
#SakeRevolution