Episode 84 Show Notes
Episode 84. The Holidays are our favorite time of year! And sake, of course, is our favorite beverage. This week, we explore a new project that brings them together like never before. Online sake retailer Namazake Paul has released the first Sake Advent Calendar! That’s right! 23 Sake cups and a full size bottle to enjoy on the 24th. The sake cups arrive a in a big rectangular box that, when opened, reveals the cutest illustration of a snowy christmas village filled with cartoon animals enjoying sake and winter fun. Behind each door, as you’d expect, is a single serving cup of sake. This was a massive effort to put together and immensely fun to enjoy and explore. Tim and John taste through Dec 1st and 2nd in this episode and generally just have fun getting into the holiday spirit. Be sure to visit the episode show notes if you’d like to get information for getting your own sake advent calendar for next year!
Skip to: 00:19 Hosts Welcome and Introduction
Welcome to the show from John and Timothy
Skip to: 02:30 Sake Advent Calendar
**Click for a larger view!**
- Would you like your own sake advent Calendar for next year? To get a reminder, you can sign up here: https://www.namazakepaul.com/advent-calendar
- Check out Namazake Paul’s other offerings here: https://www.namazakepaul.com/
- 2021 Advent calendar description: “23 collectable 180ml cups of Sake and a 24th very special bottle with original artwork by Kayla Swanson. That’s over 4 liters of Sake! The perfect gift for the Sake geek, friend wanting to get into Sake or, frankly, treat yourself.”
- Click image for a larger view!
Skip to: 11:14 Sake Introductions
Skip to: 12:48 Sake Tasting: Akishika Bambi Cup Junmai
Akishika Bambi Cup Junmai
Alcohol: 14.5%
Sake Name English: Bambi Cup
Classification: Junmai
Prefecture: Osaka
Brewery: Akishika Shuzo
Acidity: 1.9
SMV: +5.0
Skip to: 18:52 Sake Tasting: Umenishiki Junmai Daiginjo cup
Umenishiki Junmai Daiginjo cup
Brewery: Umenishiki Sake Brewery
Alcohol: 16.3%
Acidity: 1.3
Classification: Junmai Daiginjo
Prefecture: Ehime
Seimaibuai: 40%
SMV: +3.0
Skip to: 29:50 Show Closing
This is it! Join us next time for another episode of Sake Revolution!
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Episode 84 Transcript
John Puma: 0:21
Hello everybody. And welcome to Sake Revolution. This is America’s very first sake podcast. I am as always your host, John Puma from the Sake Notes. Also the, uh, admin over at the internet Sake Discord, where we get together. Talk about sake, drink a lot of sake. It’s a fun place. And, uh, you know, on the show, not the sake samurai.
Timothy Sullivan: 0:45
And I am your host, Timothy Sullivan. I am a Sake Samurai. I’m a sake. As well as the founder of the Urban Sake website and every week, Sean and I will be here tasting and chatting about all things sake and doing our best to make it fun and easy to understand
John Puma: 1:05
That is absolutely right Tim, I like that fun and easy to understand that part the most. And I think that today we’re going to really lean in to fun and easy to understand. So, it is, uh, December, actually in the interest of full disclosure. And this will be very important later. This will make a lot of sense later. It is currently as we are recording this Thursday, December the second and the 2021. Yes.
Timothy Sullivan: 1:38
Yeah. So yeah, John, it is December 2nd and You know what I am in the holiday mood. I can not stop thinking about gingerbread.
John Puma: 1:49
So it’s still really early. You’re saying that you went and like Thanksgiving happened.
Timothy Sullivan: 1:54
My tree is up. My Christmas tree is up. My wreath is on my door day after Thanksgiving
John Puma: 2:01
I mean mine is too, but that really wasn’t my call. but, but you’re saying you, you transitioned immediately, you put down the Turkey
Timothy Sullivan: 2:12
Turkey leg
John Puma: 2:13
and picked up the gingerbread immediately.
Timothy Sullivan: 2:16
Yes. And the moment I turned on my TV wouldn’t Chanel, it was like a hallmark holiday Christmas movie. So there’s no
John Puma: 2:23
they have a channel for that. Right. It’s all hallmark Christmas movies every day, all day.
Timothy Sullivan: 2:30
Yes. So I am in the holiday spirit. I am always in the sake spirit and there is a project that we are taking part in that combines these two wonderful things together, Christmas and sake.
John Puma: 2:48
Yes. Yes. Yes. And, uh, I think it’s kinda cool. And, and like, I don’t think we’ve ever done something like this before on the show where we’re Talking directly about, a sake related product that somebody put together.
Timothy Sullivan: 3:00
Yeah, but you and I talked in w This is just too cool to ignore.
John Puma: 3:06
people need to know about this. Um, so yeah,
Timothy Sullivan: 3:09
what are we talking.
John Puma: 3:11
we are talking about Namazake Paul’s sake advent calendar.
Timothy Sullivan: 3:16
And we think this is the world’s first sake advent calendar.
John Puma: 3:20
Yeah. it probably is, but I mean, if you’re out there and you’re like, no, somebody else, please let us know. We really need to know about that. Uh, we want to be accurate, but, um, we do know that it’s,
Timothy Sullivan: 3:32
the
John Puma: 3:33
the sake advent calendar that we’re familiar with and, and we’ve had. We both our sake advent calendars. Now you might be wondering yourself. Well, okay. An advent calendar is a thing and you each day you pop it open and you’d take the thing out and you, and you eat it or it’s a toy or something like that. How do you do that with sake? You can’t put, you know, 24 sake bottles into a box. And I mean, you could, I guess it would just be really cost prohibitive. Uh, so, uh, in this case, it is mostly sake one cups, and that’s how you get around the whole bottles problem.
Timothy Sullivan: 4:11
Okay, John, for our listeners. We have to describe what this sake, advent calendar looks like. So it is a large, heavy rectangular box.
John Puma: 4:22
Liquids are heavy guys.
Timothy Sullivan: 4:23
Yes. And as you said, it’s all almost all sake, one cups in there. And we did an episode on one cups.
John Puma: 4:32
We did do an episode of one cups. It was a fun episode that we did. And I think in the episode, we kind of talked about how we don’t really aren’t that many, one cups in the United States, or at least not, definitely not compared to Japan and. I feel like Paul probably gathered like every one cup available, to make this happen because it’s, it’s a lot of them.
Timothy Sullivan: 4:54
If you want to go listen to our one cup episode that can get you up to speed on one cups. But this advent calendar has 23, 1 cups and one larger bottle for the 24th,
John Puma: 5:08
Well,
Timothy Sullivan: 5:08
pretty ingenious.
John Puma: 5:10
1 cups. There’s also the little.
Timothy Sullivan: 5:12
Oh yes. We’re going to get into all of this.
John Puma: 5:16
Yeah. Yeah, but I think first of all, we’ll go into a little more detail on, on who is non Amazon Paul, and why should we care that he made an advent calendar about sake? Well, no, you should care about now. It’s like, well, because he made an admin calendar for sake, but in addition to that, he is a sake retailer and online retailer. And you know, he sells, he sells sake through the magic of the internet, to your door and. based on the name, he is a big proponent of Nama as well. Um, but in this particular case, he’s doing this thing with the one cups.
Timothy Sullivan: 5:49
Yeah. So if you haven’t seen his site before, just Google Namazake Paul, that’s where the Z and you’ll find an easy to navigate website full of sake you can order. And he ships to many us states in our union and a great website to know about for getting sakes shipped to you. And we could not resist when we saw this offer for admittedly, this is a beta version of what hopefully will become a yearly tradition, which is the beta version of the Namazake Paul advent sake, advent calendar.
John Puma: 6:33
Yes.
Timothy Sullivan: 6:34
If you’d like to get a link to Namazake Paul’s website, of course, just visit our show notes at SakeRevolution.com and we’ll have all the information there.
John Puma: 6:43
Yeah. And, and also like pictures, because I mean, we’re describing this thing, but it it’s, you definitely need to see what this looks like. Um, and, and see this, nice box of cups that you got, to have a little one cup every day for all of December.
Timothy Sullivan: 6:59
Now John, it is not just a rectangular box filled with cups. There is a very important calendar aspect to this box as well, which we have to talk about. So when you open the box on top is a custom drawn graphic cartoon graphic with a Christmas scene. this is, uh, an original artwork done by Kaya Swanson that I am assuming Namazake Paul commissioned, and it has perforated sections that you can pull out and then pull your one cup out. And It has 24 sections. And let’s describe the scene on this graphic a little bit.
John Puma: 7:45
It is, um, adorable, adorable little anthropomorphize animals. enjoying sake. And winter and winter events. So they’re, they’re trimming trees, they’re ice skating, uh, and they’re drinking sake a little reindeer, little bears.
Timothy Sullivan: 8:04
Yes. So They’re
John Puma: 8:05
time.
Timothy Sullivan: 8:06
they’re very cute. there’s a Fox in there. There’s. kitten that sledding down the hill and there Is sake, literally everywhere in this animal village. I want to move here.
John Puma: 8:20
Is it for the animals or the sake? sake?
Timothy Sullivan: 8:22
Oh, well, look at those barrels. The barrels say on them. There’s a Christmas tree. There’s a little village in the background and mountains in the background. And to see this super cute image, visit our show notes. And my favorite thing, John is right in the center. There is a seal and a polar bear that are sitting around a fire warming sake in a carafe.
John Puma: 8:47
Yeah, the seal, it looks very happy and the polar bear looks a little impatient. He wants that. He wants that sake. But it’s adorable. Yeah. This thing is, is really, really nicely done and, adds a little bit to the fun. I think.
Timothy Sullivan: 9:03
yes, it is absolutely adorable. And it lays over the top of the, so when you open the box, it’s right up covering all the bottles and you can perforate each section and pull it out. I just lifted the whole graphic off because I do not want to rip the graphic. It’s too cute. I’m going to save it. Of course. So, um, underneath you can see all the bottles and of course, the way the advent calendars work, you’re supposed to open the door and then you have a little surprise, something to enjoy for that day. Of the 24 days of advent moving up to Christmas.
John Puma: 9:42
exactly, exactly. And any, you know, I think I’m having a nice little cup of sake every day throughout December is going to be a lot of fun.
Timothy Sullivan: 9:51
It sure is now, this is the first time Paul is doing this. And what are you, what are your thoughts? What are your.
John Puma: 10:00
I again, I think it’s, I think it’s really funny idea. I think it’s when it, when he said he was going to do that, I was like, well, I’m in You can’t not get a sake advent calendar and still call yourself a sake nerd. And I, every week I do call myself a sake nerd. So I felt like I needed to, ensure that I maintained my title and my status.
Timothy Sullivan: 10:21
Well the website where he was selling this. And unfortunately, folks, it’s not for sale right now because of the season has already started, but we just wanted to describe this advent calendar and get everyone in line for next year. He does say in the description, it’s the perfect gift for the sake. Friend wanting to get into sake or frankly, treat yourself. I like that. So you are the sake geek.
John Puma: 10:52
Yeah. Now, uh, I am, I am, Uh, now at the top of the show, I did mention that this is December the second and advent calendar starts on December the first. So Tim and I have a little bit of catching up to do so We’re going to be tasting two cups out of the advent calendar today, right? Tim?
Timothy Sullivan: 11:14
That is right. You know, we couldn’t record yesterday for scheduling reasons. So we have two cups to enjoy today to get all caught up with our little windows. And why don’t we go ahead and introduce the two sakes that we pulled out of this advent calendar.
John Puma: 11:34
Ah, let me kick that off. I grabbed the, Akishika Bambi cup. ,it’s a Junmai. 14 and a half percent. Alcohol has a sake meter value of plus a five documented values that measure of your dry to your sweet. And this is a one cup, so I’m not shocked to see it’s plus five. So a little bit on the drier side, this is from Osaka prefecture The, rice is Yamadanishiki and the polishing rate is 70%. Uh, Tim, what did you grab?
Timothy Sullivan: 12:07
Lucky cup that I pulled out for day. Number two is going to be the Umenishiki Junmai Daiginjo. This is called the Daiginjo cup and it’s very petite. This is a 130 milliliter size cup. Normally it’s 180. So it’s a little bit petite, but it is a super premium sake in there. This again is a Junmai daiginjo. The brewery is Umenishiki brewery from Ehime prefecture. This is 16% alcohol SMV. Plus three. The acidity is 1.3 and the Yamada Nishiki rice is polished down to 40% remaining.
John Puma: 12:48
so, let’s, uh, open up this, uh, first now I’m familiar with this cup. Uh, I’ve had it in the past. I’m a big fan of it. I love the cup itself. Uh, I’m always a big fan of when, when sake one cups. Uh, or paint directly on the cup itself. So you can keep the cup and reuse it as a water glass or, you know, a sake cup for your own home. Uh, and so having these that survive in the dishwasher and look great is always a lot of fun.
Timothy Sullivan: 13:19
Yeah, this kind of ink printing onto the glass is really awesome. And very collectible, just the paper label is a little bit sad cause that comes off. But this printing right on the glass is so cool. And we have the Bambi’s prancing around with fall leaves blowing in the breeze. And this is a pull tab style, isn’t it?.
John Puma: 13:40
Is it is so why don’t we go ahead and give that a poll?
Timothy Sullivan: 13:51
Oh,
John Puma: 13:52
Oh, there it goes. It’s always a little, you gotta get a little splashy when you’re getting that last bit of the tab off.
Timothy Sullivan: 13:58
you need a very steady hands to open a one cup.
John Puma: 14:00
Um,
Timothy Sullivan: 14:02
Okay. And the best part is. Not the best part, but we’re sorry. There’s no pouring sound this week because it’s already in the cup.
John Puma: 14:12
let me skip that step
Timothy Sullivan: 14:14
Okay. What do you smell?
John Puma: 14:16
It’s a little, uh, old rice-y.
Timothy Sullivan: 14:18
Yeah, it’s rice-y
John Puma: 14:20
nice. got like a, like that steamed rice that we like to talk about.
Timothy Sullivan: 14:24
Um,
John Puma: 14:24
Maybe a little, uh, what do you, what do you like to call that? The mochi rice when it’s a little bit
Timothy Sullivan: 14:28
mochi. Rice. Yeah. Sweetness. And I also smell a little, something creamy, maybe a little bit of a yogurt smell.
John Puma: 14:41
Mm, yeah, maybe. Oh yeah. It something like something vaguely lactic. Like I can’t quite put my finger on it though. Um, Um, as far as I can tell though, uh, it is, we can talk about the color. It is slightly very, very, very slightly, uh, yellowed.
Timothy Sullivan: 15:05
Yeah. There’s a tinge of that straw
John Puma: 15:07
very, slightly. Yeah.
Timothy Sullivan: 15:09
Yep.
John Puma: 15:10
But
Timothy Sullivan: 15:10
all right.
John Puma: 15:12
all right.
Timothy Sullivan: 15:12
let’s give it a taste.
John Puma: 15:15
It has nice.
Timothy Sullivan: 15:16
Yeah,
John Puma: 15:17
it. It’s a really,
Timothy Sullivan: 15:18
is not fancy. This is not fussy. but it’s smooth and easy
John Puma: 15:22
I like that.
Timothy Sullivan: 15:23
Yeah. It’s smooth and easy drinking and, yeah.
John Puma: 15:27
Hmm. That is really, really nice. Smooth is probably the best way to describe it. I think, I think your net, you nailed it with that. You know, it’s just nice and easy drinking. Like this is, this is. I style that I’m very much into. So this is nice. and that this is a one cup Junmai at 70%. Usually I will get this, like this level of, uh, of smoothness and roundness from from that kind of sake. So this is a little bit surprising, maybe lowering the alcohol percentage down to that 14 and a half helps round it a little bit more.
Timothy Sullivan: 16:09
Yeah, the other thing that’s standing out to me about this Akishika Bambi cup is that the finish is really dry. It’s a little bit bracing on the finish and that’s really refreshing. And. Nice and dry. And this makes me think of wanting to eat greasy. Deep fried izakaya food and slam my Bambi cup on the table. And, you know, just down it,
John Puma: 16:34
don’t don’t, don’t do that to bambi.
Timothy Sullivan: 16:38
No. Bambi’s were harmed in the making of this episode.
John Puma: 16:41
Oh. And as far as we’re aware in the making of the, the advent calendar, but, um,
Timothy Sullivan: 16:49
Boom.
John Puma: 16:50
yeah.
Timothy Sullivan: 16:51
And you know, there’s another feature about the Bambi cup that I really like mine comes with a plastic lid. So over the foil that you peel off, there’s a plastic lid, and this allows you to reseal the cup in the. very unlikely case that you don’t finish all the sake in one sitting, you can put this plastic seal on the top and it keeps it sealed. And if you reuse the cup for another purpose, it’s a, it’s a great little top to keep things in. You can put it in the fridge and keep jam or whatever you want in here. And it’s, uh, I just love this little top that comes with.
John Puma: 17:32
Yeah. Now that the top isn’t quite, watertight. I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t go. Turn it upside down with, uh, your sake and side, but it will, uh, Y no. All right. So, uh, you guys can see this, but Tim is showing me up right now by turning his cup upside down with the lid on. I always felt these lids were way too flimsy for this, but he is proving me wrong. He’s showing
Timothy Sullivan: 17:57
is watertight.
John Puma: 17:59
Or maybe, you know, maybe it’s because he showed me the power of the sake samurai. When he, when he puts, he flips the cup upside down, it doesn’t come out just based on his title alone.
Timothy Sullivan: 18:11
Well, I wouldn’t shake it violently, but it is, it is pretty watertight.
John Puma: 18:18
I’m doing this now as well. And I’m I am, oh, I am so shocked. They never, they never felt that tight to me. So this is really.
Timothy Sullivan: 18:26
Yup. All right. Well, Bambi is fabulous.
John Puma: 18:32
Yeah, Bambis fabulous. And I’ve learned something.
Timothy Sullivan: 18:35
Yeah. So I think advent is off to a wonderful start and this is a great, very auspicious first sake to pull out of the Advent Calendar. All right.
John Puma: 18:49
So we’ve got December 1st in the books.
Timothy Sullivan: 18:52
December 1st? Shall we move on to day two of our advent calendar? Yes. All right. So again, we are going to be opening the Junmai Daiginjo mill to 40%, and this is a small little cup. It has a gold sticker on the front and the glass has a dimpled. Texture all over it and a little bit of a narrow neck. So this is another like collectible little glass jar, I
John Puma: 19:23
Yeah. Uh, reuse this. It’s very nice. It is, definitely striking. When you look at it, you’re not going to forget it. It’s a unusual looking,
Timothy Sullivan: 19:33
All right. Let’s open it
John Puma: 19:34
Let’s all right.
Timothy Sullivan: 19:38
All right. No spills.
John Puma: 19:40
spills or two for two.
Timothy Sullivan: 19:42
Oh, wow.
John Puma: 19:43
I will say right off the bat, this one is lacking. plastic replaceable lid of akishika So you are expected to finish this one.
Timothy Sullivan: 19:54
I think we can do that.
John Puma: 19:55
Okay. You think so? All right. Good.
Timothy Sullivan: 19:57
All right. let’s give it a smell.
John Puma: 19:58
right. Hmm. Smells Fruity it does
Timothy Sullivan: 20:03
So the, the shape of this cup is not like circular standard one cup. This is narrow at the neck and then it kind of flares out. So it allows the aroma to come out of the cup a little bit more readily, I think. And the smell is fruity. Some melon, little bit of rice to.
John Puma: 20:25
you’re definitely getting that rice and a little bit of melon. Nice. Very.
Timothy Sullivan: 20:29
Yeah. All right. So both of our sakes use Yamada Nishiki rice, but as we said before, the polishing rates are really different. So let’s see how This Polish. Affects the taste. Okay.
John Puma: 20:48
This is a wildly different experience.
Timothy Sullivan: 20:53
Yeah, the, the flavor is definitely more complex and kind of soft to city. There’s more of a crispness and dry, overt dryness to the Bambi cup. This one’s a little softer and rounder, and I don’t get as much fruit on the palate as I did on the aroma.
John Puma: 21:16
I agree. Um, there is much more that rice that we mentioned in the nose is much more prominent in the flavor, but it’s a really like, it’s really being showcased. Well, I feel like the, well, the, the Bambi cup was a little bit lighter in that dryness made it kind of, uh, fall off very quickly when you’re done that dry crisp finish, this is a little bit more linger to it.
Timothy Sullivan: 21:42
I feel this one also has a nice body to it like this, this Junmai Daiginjo has a very round texture and it kind of coats my mouth a little bit and coats my palate and, um, It’s not again, that typical Junmai Daiginjo that’s like super fruity and just ultra silky it’s more round and a little bit more plush in texture.
John Puma: 22:10
Yes. It is definitely, uh, it’s definitely, uh, uh, I put that it just, it tastes bigger in a way, you know what I mean? It’s rather than it’s not the, the is, is, thin and light and this has a PR uh, more presence, more body, uh, probably more depth. Okay.
Timothy Sullivan: 22:30
Yeah. And they’re, they’re not being afraid here to let a little bit of that rice flavor come through, which again is not, not that common in Junmai Daiginjo, but I think it works really well.
John Puma: 22:42
It definitely does. Um, as somebody who occasionally finds, uh, a rice-y palate on sake. Uh, occasionally it can be a little bit of a turnoff it’s too rice-y. Um, they’re really going aggressive here, but I’m still like I’m with them. I get it. And I’m really enjoying it. It’s a, it’s a different, um, it’s a different take. And again, we don’t get that out of, as you pointed out, we don’t get that out of a lot of Junmai Daiginjo is usually something that you get in a Junmai.
Timothy Sullivan: 23:10
Yeah. And I think we also have to mention John that getting a Junmai Daiginjo milled to 40% in a one cup experience is pretty rare
John Puma: 23:21
It’s not something you usually get no,
Timothy Sullivan: 23:24
There are some premium sakes in one cups or single servings for sure. But this is not something we have to be clear. This is not something that every brewery is going to do with their Junmai daiginjos. I’ve actually asked brewers before, you know, 10 years ago. I was a huge one cup fan, like super fan. And I asked brewers when I would visit different breweries. You know, I am a huge fan of one cups. Would you ever sell your more premium sakes in that format? And the majority of brewers said, absolutely not.
John Puma: 23:59
Really.
Timothy Sullivan: 24:00
And I asked them why, why not? And they said, well, one cups are generally clear glass. And they are exposed to the light much more than other types of bottles or other colors of bottles. So there’s a risk that the sake could be poorly treated too much light exposure. And we don’t want to risk that with our super premium sake. So I do have to say regarding the light umenishiki has a great compromise here and they include a small box that in cases, the one cup to protect it from the light damage. So. They are addressing that concern. And they’re going with the Daiginjo cup, which I think is really, really fun. So kudos to them.
John Puma: 24:51
Yeah. And, uh, I’m glad that. Glad they did that. I’m glad we got it. I’m glad we got to taste it. Uh, cause it is a, it is tasty. It’s really nice. It’s it’s not you’re like I said, we not, like we said earlier, it’s not your average Junmai daiginjo they’re definitely having a little fun with it. Giving us a different look at that style and it works. It totally works.
Timothy Sullivan: 25:16
Yeah, so We had two. Great sakes should we peel back the cover and get a sneak peek of some other sakes? Not to try, but just to see what, what type of bottles are in
John Puma: 25:28
so we’re not gonna just drink right now. We’re going to all right.
Timothy Sullivan: 25:32
Back to work. You
John Puma: 25:33
All right. All right. Okay. So.
Timothy Sullivan: 25:37
let’s, uh, let’s pull out one or two interesting cups and see what we get.
John Puma: 25:41
Doing it. Okay. I pulled out the, uh, Nishinoseki Daruma cup. Tokubetsu Junmai. Uh, this is another. Winning cup design with just these like really nice artwork of the Japanese darumas on it,
Timothy Sullivan: 26:03
Yeah. So what are the darumas, John
John Puma: 26:05
you know, I’m not sure
Timothy Sullivan: 26:08
they’re like they’re like Buddhist weeble wobble I think.
John Puma: 26:12
they
Timothy Sullivan: 26:12
Do
John Puma: 26:12
definitely look like like weeble wobbles.
Timothy Sullivan: 26:16
Um, if you’re of a certain age, you know what weeble wobbles are, and they’re basically, this is not the whole story, but I think it was a Buddhist monk who prayed so long and meditated so intently that his arms and legs fell off. And yeah, so it’s a symbol of dedication to a task. And the darumas are used. If you want to have a goal in your life, you put a daruma on your desk and you fill in one eye when you start your goal and you’ve color in the other eye when you complete the goal. So that’s in a nutshell, that’s what darumas are. And on the cup that John picked it, they’re decorated all around the cup with fanciful daruma figures.
John Puma: 26:59
So that was my, my little education for the day. I got to learn a little bit about darumas. Uh, which, uh, what up did you pull out?
Timothy Sullivan: 27:08
I didn’t pull out? a cup at all. I pulled out a juice
John Puma: 27:12
Oh, you
Timothy Sullivan: 27:14
So this is the Nihon. Sakari Onikoroshi shiboritate. This is a Nama Chozo Futsuushu. And this is from Hyogo Japan. Nihon Sakari is a very, very large brewery. They make many styles of sake and this is a juice box. I mean, there’s no other way to describe it. It is a juice box and it has a straw on the back as you would expect. And there’s a little foil spot on the top to stick the straw through. And you all know what I’m talking about. And this juice box is filled with futsushu namachozo,
John Puma: 27:53
That’s awesome.
Timothy Sullivan: 27:54
and it’s got a cute, it’s got a cute graphic label with some of the. Oni the ogres on the front and lots of Japanese writing. So really interesting. I’m super excited sometime in December to drink this special juice box.
John Puma: 28:10
Excellent. Excellent. That sounds great. That’s really cool. And again, this whole idea, I just love this concept of having a variety of different sakes to taste every day. That is, you know, when you’re buying, when you’re at home and you’re, you’re buying bottles of sake, you don’t really get to, unless you’re buying a ton of different bottles, you don’t get to have a lot of variety and one cups give you a variety.
Timothy Sullivan: 28:32
they sure do. And this goes perfectly with my new year’s resolution. I’m coming in strong with my new year’s resolution, which is to drink sake outside of my comfort zone. And I can see with a quick scan here that there’s some sakes in here that I may not purchase on my own, but now that I’ve got them, I’m going to drink them, try them and revisit them and see how my palate is changing and what I think of them. So I’m super excited for That
John Puma: 28:57
sounds great, Tim. and that was an excellent point about this being a great way to, to finish out your, your new year’s resolution. You’re sake revolution resolution nope. You’re sake revolution resolution. I had to, right. I had it right.
Timothy Sullivan: 29:13
yes. So, one more shout out to Namazake Paul, you can go to NamaZakePaul.com. That’s with a Z and the advent calendar is not for sale right. now, but check out his other listings, order some sake from Paul. And this time next year, you can have your own sake, advent calendar.
John Puma: 29:35
Yeah. Yeah.
Timothy Sullivan: 29:36
This was fun. Did you enjoy tasting the cups
John Puma: 29:39
Yeah, it was a fun and educational. I got to learn that these cups, when you put the plastic cap back on them can actually be turned upside down. And I now know what a daruma is.
Timothy Sullivan: 29:50
right. Mission accomplished for today. All right. Well, John, great to taste with you and special. Thanks to all our listeners for tuning in. We really do hope that you’re enjoying our show. Now, if you would like to show your support for sake revolution, the best way to do that is to join our community on Patreon. We are a listener supported show, and we want to thank our Patreon supporters for being with us in 2021. And we look forward to a great year next year.
John Puma: 30:23
Yes. And do you know another great way to support us to Tim?
Timothy Sullivan: 30:27
What’s
John Puma: 30:27
brand new way?
Timothy Sullivan: 30:28
Yeah.
John Puma: 30:29
Yes, you can buy sake revolution t-shirts for the sake fan of sake nerd in your life. and you can get those over at SakeRevolution.com/shop currently. It’s just the one design, but there’ll be more to come. I’m sure.
Timothy Sullivan: 30:47
It’s a lonely t-shirt Right, now, but it’s there and it’s cool.
John Puma: 30:51
right. It’s a perfect stocking stuffer. I’ve been told. Yes. And, and we’ve, we have actually searched long and hard and gone through quite a few samples from different vendors, uh, until we actually settled on one that we were happy with. So I’m glad that we were able to get this going and get this, uh, the way we wanted it. So I’m really happy that we got to, uh, get to announce that today, uh, just in time for the holidays.
Timothy Sullivan: 31:18
Yes, just.
John Puma: 31:21
Um, but. There’s even a third way to support us. And that is to leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice. Subscribe, tell your friends. Tell them where they can get t-shirts tell them about our Patreon that we can get at Patreon.com/SakeRevolution. just get the word out.
Timothy Sullivan: 31:41
And as always, if you would like to learn more about any of the topics, any of the sakes or any of the advent calendars we talked about in today’s episode, be sure to visit our website, SakeRevolution.com for all the detailed show notes.
John Puma: 31:56
And if you have sake questions that you need answered, we want to hear from you. reach out to us over at [email protected]. So until next time, please remember to keep drinking sake, uh, Tim raise either one of your cups KANPAI!.
Timothy Sullivan: 32:19
Ho ho, ho Ho ho