As you know by now, our beloved East Bay cafe Bartavelle has closed. It's a huge loss for our tight knit community and we're organizing a fundraiser to help them reach their Gofundme goal to help ensure they can pay all their vendors (and other debts incurred from running a small business - no easy feat!). Please join us on Sunday, October 13th to celebrate and send off Bartavelle Cafe in the loving and gracious way they deserve. They have shown our community nothing but love for 12 years, in three separate spaces no less (!), and we want to say THANK YOU BARTAVELLE ..read more

Shirataki Shuzo makes sakes that embody the tanrei-karakuchi (light and dry) style of Niigata. You may recognize their Jozen line of sakes by their iconic faceted bottles. They sparkle on the shelves and usually come in all types of colors. For the special summer edition honey yeast sake, the bottle is adorned with an adorable illustration of a bear clutching a honey pot with bees buzzing around him. To get more insight into this bottle, I asked Takaki Matsumoto (Toji/Brewmaster) of Shirataki Shuzo about this sake (pictured right). Yoko: What is the concept behind this sake? Matsum ..read more

Honeybee on a plum blossom in Oakland on a spring day. Photo by Yoko Some of you may know that I am a beekeeper. I’ve been keeping bees for about 10 years now. It is my passion outside of Umami Mart. So when I found out about honey yeast being used to ferment sake, I wanted to do everything I could to get it into the U.S. for Sake Gumi members. I couldn’t believe there was a bottle out there which encapsulated my two passions: bees and sake! Working directly with Daijiro Hosaka and Takaki Matsumoto of Shirataki Shuzo (who visited us in 2023) in Niigata, it took one year to get this ..read more

It was a exceptionally warm and sunny day in Oakland for our first ever Awamori Festival in August. It was a success! After spending five days in Okinawa with Yoko back in February, I brought back a suitcase full of bottles and treats to share with y'all. We invited our friend Nick Korn, an awamori and spirits expert from Boston, and we were ready to throw a fun party! Oakland showed up for it!  Awamori is Japan's ancient spirit, dating back to the 15th Century. It must be made in Okinawa using black koji and rice. Aging awamori in clay pots is a part of the traditi ..read more

On my recent trip to Japan, with my daughter in tow, I was able to confirm a few things about shochu: that while drinking it with soda is all the rage, I still love an oolong-hi, especially in the summer heat, and it continues to be my drink of choice (although a Kaku whisky highball would be a close second). I mostly ordered oolong-hi’s, a tall glass of dark tea filled with ice and a nameless shochu, because it’s what I could order at any child-friendly restaurant – the yakitori shop, Cafe Gusto, the local kaiten sushi spot (for excellent conveyor belt sushi). There was only one izakaya in o ..read more

Visit the Amabuki Shuzo weekdays 9a-12pm, 1-5pm. Photos courtesy of the brewery. Both bottles this month for Sake Gumi are from Amabuki Shuzo, a brewery in Saga Prefecture. I have a special place in my heart for Saga, as it’s the place where my late grandma grew up. She would tell me stories of playing on the beach in Karatsu which inspired me to visit Saga multiple times over the years. It is a magical place full of handmade ceramics, live edible squid, clear ocean water, and pine forests. Add Amabuki Shuzo’s flower yeast sakes to the list to make Saga even more mystical. Wataru Hosokawa at ..read more

Entrance to the brewery in Saga. Photos courtesy of Amabuki Shuzo It’s clear that whenever Amabuki comes out with a new release, it looks like they are having fun. Known for their commitment to using flower yeasts exclusively for the past 20 years, Amabuki Shuzo pioneered sake yeast experimentation when it wasn’t as accepted as it is today. Nowadays, we’ve seen sake being made with fruit, flower, and honey yeasts, as we will discover in the next two months in the club. Over the years Wataru Hosokawa, the director of overseas business development has helped me understand Amabuki and their ..read more

We often get asked:  How do I pronounce sake: Is it sakay or sa-ki ? What is nihonshu? Sake is pronounced sa-kay (rhymes with O.K. or everyday). The word “sake” is the generic term for “alcohol” in Japanese. In Japan, what we know as sake is called nihonshu (Japanese alcohol), so when ordering sake in Japan, ask for nihonshu ..read more

Master Brewer Teruaki Hashimoto. Photo courtesy Miyoshino Jozo. As part of the feature for bodaimoto month in July, we discussed the history surrounding bodaimoto. It was born in Nara at Shoryakuji temple. Traditionally, only breweries that used moto (starter) from Shoryakuji could call their sakes bodaimoto. Then, other brewers started making starters in the bodaimoto style in their own towns. These sakes were referred to as mizumoto sakes. The toji at Eigashima Shuzo, Yuji Nakamura, who brewed this month’s Octopus bottle states simply that, “Bodaimoto was born at Shoryakuji T ..read more

Master Brewer Teruaki Hashimoto. Photo courtesy Miyoshino Jozo. As part of the feature for bodaimoto month in July, we discussed the history surrounding bodaimoto. It was born in Nara at Shoryakuji temple. Traditionally, only breweries that used moto (starter) from Shoryakuji could call their sakes bodaimoto. Then, other brewers started making starters in the bodaimoto style in their own towns. These sakes were referred to as mizumoto sakes. The toji at Eigashima Shuzo, Yuji Nakamura, who brewed this month’s Octopus bottle states simply that, “Bodaimoto was born at Shoryakuji T ..read more