Episode 115 Show Notes
Episode 115. While Sake Revolution is currently the only U.S. sake podcast, there are several other podcasters around the world working hard to spread the good word of sake. We thought it would be fun to connect with our international colleagues for a little sake pod “crosstalk” to network and share the sake love. This week we connect with Japan-based sake podcasters Giulia Maglio and Cindy Bissig, creators of “Sake Unplugged”. This podcast promises to take listeners behind the sake curtain and in our interview we find out about how they connected to get their podcast off the ground as well as the challenges of running a weekly show. Join us in the crosstalk! #sakerevolution
Skip to: 00:19 Show Opening
Welcome to the show from John and Timothy
Skip to: 01:22 Interview: Giulia Maglio and Cindy Bissig, creators of “Sake Unplugged
Sake Unplugged Podcast
“Sake Unplugged is a podcast for anyone wanting to explore the world of sake! Our mission is to talk about all things’ sake from the sake point of view. Every Thursday, we will share what sake is to us, let you in on our personal journey and talk about the people we meet, the people who live and breathe sake, the producers, shops owners, guides, and simply people who love sake. So join us as we share our sake lives, and who knows, we may even unravel some sake secrets as we are at it…“
Listen online: Sake Unplugged Podcast
Sugidama Podcast Web: https://www.sakeunplugged.com/podcast
Sake Unplugged Podcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sake-unplugged/id1602472231
Sake Unplugged Podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/214FFOzmCwOJRNuV0BX3J8
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SakeUnplugged/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sakeunplugged/
About Giulia Maglio from JijiSake.com
In 2020 I founded Jijisake where I talk about sake, share facts & anecdotes and host sake courses and tastings.”
*Worked for Itakura Shuzo, a sake brewery in the Shimane Prefecture
*I write blogs/articles/reviews about sake and the sake world
*Co-creator & Co-host of the sake podcast Sake Unplugged
*Co-founder of Sake Sisters
Learn more about Giulia at Jijisake:https://www.jijisake.com/
About Cindy Bissig from Sake Nomad
“These days I work mainly behind the sake scene promoting local sake tourism & sake breweries and create content surrounding it. I am hosting a weekly sake podcast called “Sake Unplugged” and am part of “Sake On Air” sometimes on but mostly off air as part of our production team. I write for a variety of publications such as Obsessed with Japan, Sakegeek or Senpai Japan, which are both local and global travel magazines showcasing this wonderful country. And yes when I do get a chance or request, I extremely enjoy guiding or giving workshops around (surprise) sake and local Japan. Between all of that, you likely find me traveling around Japan, enjoying the local cuisine, culture, and of course drinking sake. You can also follow my travel blog Let’s Travel and Eat for travel tips, local insights, and fun anecdotes from my adventures traveling around this beautiful country.”
Learn more about Cindy at Sake Nomad: https://www.sakenomad.com/
Skip to: 22:35 Sake Introduction and Tasting : Nanbu Bijin Tokubetsu Junmai
Nanbu Bijin Tokubetsu Junmai
Brewery: Nanbu Bijin Brewery
Classification: Tokubetsu Junmai
Alcohol: 15.5%
Prefecture: Iwate
Rice Type: Ginotome
Seimaibuai: 55%
SMV: +5.0
Importer/Distributor: Mutual Trading (USA)
View on UrbanSake.com: https://www.urbansake.com/product/nanbu-bijin-tokubetsu-junmai/
Skip to: 33:33 Show Closing
This is it! Join us next time for another episode of Sake Revolution!
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Episode 115 Transcript
John Puma: 0:22
Hello everybody. And welcome to Sake Revolution. This is America’s first sake podcast, and I am your host, John Puma from the Sake Notes. Also the administrator over at the internet sake discord, please come down and have a drink with us every Thursday night.
Timothy Sullivan: 0:42
And I am your host Timothy Sullivan. I’m a sake samurai, sake educator, as well as the founder of the Urban Sake website and every week, John and I will be here tasting and chatting about all things sake and doing our best to make it fun and easy to understand. All right, John. Well, I think it’s time for a little more crosstalk, as you know, every week we say we are America’s first sake podcast, but there are many wonderful sake podcasts all around the world. And I thought it might be fun if we chat with some other sake podcast hosts
John Puma: 1:20
Yeah, that was a pretty good idea. You had there, Tim
Timothy Sullivan: 1:22
Yeah. And today we have two more, very special guests joining us and they are some amazing sake podcasters out of Japan. And John, let me introduce you and our listeners to Giulia Maglio and Cindy Bissig of Sake Unplugged. Welcome ladies. So good to see you.
Cindy Bissig: 1:45
Well, thanks for having us. We are super excited to be here today.
Giulia Maglio: 1:48
Hi guys.
John Puma: 1:49
Hello.
Timothy Sullivan: 1:50
Great. Now, if you’ll indulge me just a moment, I have a little introduction for each of you to give some of our listeners a little bit of your background. So we’ll start with Giulia Giulia. You were raised in Italy and you moved to Japan in 2015, where you started working in the tourism industry, running local food tours. Now I understand this exposed you to sake, and that’s where you began to study sake seriously, and you have achieved many prestigious sake certifications. And in 2020, you founded your own sake website, jijisake.com and there you post your sake blog and you promote your fabulous in-person sake events. And. Also have had the amazing opportunity to work as a sake brewer at Itakura Shuzo in Shimane Prefecture. And for Cindy, you were born in Switzerland and you spent many years of your life in Ireland, you worked in the hospitality industry. And about five years ago, you moved to Japan and you became a digital nomad working as a writer, photographer and social media pro. And you also developed your own knowledge around Japanese sake and earned the title of sake sommelier. Now you’re an all around expert in all things, Japan, food and travel. And you record your sake adventures on your website SakeNomad.com since 2021. Giulia and Cindy have partnered up and started their own sake podcast called Sake Unplugged. Where they publish their episodes weekly and they take us, as they say, on a sake journey and show us behind the sake curtain So I cannot wait to hear from them. What’s behind the sake curtain.
Giulia Maglio: 3:27
Thank you for this wonderful introduction.
John Puma: 3:32
so, uh, getting right into things, obviously during Tim’s intro got into kind of how you guys, came, to be associated with Japan and how you connected with that country and that culture, but sake podcast, what made that happen? How’d you guys decide that that was gonna be what you did?
Cindy Bissig: 3:50
Well, it’s kind of funny. I, I’m also associated with another podcast and I’ve been listening to a lot of sake podcasts for a while. And then I just kind of felt like there wasn’t a lot of female sake podcasts out there. And I really felt like I wanted to have that perspective, um, to share kind of a little bit of a different story. And I didn’t know Giulia very well at this point, but we were kind of connected and I, when I thought about it, the first person I wanted to do it with was her. And I pretty much just reached out her and said, Julie, do you wanna do this? And she was like, yes, and then I think within a month we pretty much just started Sake Unplugged and everything just kind of fell into place.
Giulia Maglio: 4:32
Yeah. Cuz we started seeing each other in the same places and the same sake events. In person, but, well, because of COVID of course, mostly online. So we started chatting and we knew that we had a lot in common and we just clicked for some reason. We like, we have a half brain each. So when we are together always work. So we put our half brains together and now we’re complete. But then so yeah, everything’s set and it’s, we, we, we have a very similar. Point of view. It’s really true. We kind of like complete each, each other in a way. So it’s natural for us. Like one of us do half of the job and the other one does half of the job or something. So we, yeah, it’s fun.
Timothy Sullivan: 5:21
Yeah. So when, when you guys were putting together the idea for sake unplugged, what were your goals for the podcast and what did you want your listeners to come away with when you were kind of developing the show? What was your idea behind that?
Cindy Bissig: 5:35
Well for me, I think I wanted to do kind of two things and I think it goes back to what Giulia said. We have the same sort of values in what we want, but then we come from a different place. So I know because you are truly as an educator and that’s kind of where she’s really, really strong. I think we always wanted to be partly educational, but we didn’t want it to go too specific. Like we wanted it to be open for many people for many entrance points in the sake world. And from my point of view, I really wanted to showcase people of the industry. Like I really wanted to get people over and talk to them and shine a bit, a little bit of light on what they’re doing because I like to talk, but I also get a tired of hearing myself talking too much. So I’m always happy when we have guests because everybody else does the talking. And it’s just so nice to discover people who do so many lovely things for the sake industry.
John Puma: 6:28
I just let Tim do all the talking. Usually.
Cindy Bissig: 6:31
someone has to do
Giulia Maglio: 6:32
the talking right.
Timothy Sullivan: 6:35
And Giulia. What about for you? What were your ideas when you were coming into developing the podcast?
Giulia Maglio: 6:41
Um, I think one of the most important thing for, for me, but I can say really for, for the, both of us is that we wanted to create a space for all the people that they started to love sake, or they love sake already. And they wanted to, they wanted to listen to slightly new perspective, but without going to. Can we say geeky about it.
Timothy Sullivan: 7:04
Mm-hmm.
John Puma: 7:04
Yes, totally.
Giulia Maglio: 7:06
Easy to listen to still informative, but it’s easy to listen to. So you don’t have to be already, uh, as Sommelier or have to be a sake professional, to be able to listen to our podcast. You can be at the very beginning of your sake journey or just a sake curious, and still being able to listen and enjoy. Maybe find something new that was really, really important. And we wanted to both create also like a fun space,
Timothy Sullivan: 7:34
Oh,
Giulia Maglio: 7:35
Not just like 100% education, but also yeah. Place for, for listeners to just like relax. We don’t have to feel like they have to take, take notes all the way. all the way through the podcast or something like that. So that was, uh, the most important thing for, for me, but I mean, for both of.
Timothy Sullivan: 7:53
Yeah, that’s great. Sometimes I start my webinar saying sake is fun. don’t forget. Sake is fun.
John Puma: 8:01
You know, Tim, when you put it that way, I don’t know how people can come away with any other, uh, any other perspective.
Cindy Bissig: 8:07
Because that’s what we always say. We’re like, do you know, you can learn about it. And that’s one part of it. Then you go in a rapid hole and you can go as far as you want. And you go into amino acid and these and all of that. But at the end of the day, you wanna go and drink sake with your friends and enjoy it. Right. It’s all about the taste and the company. And,
Giulia Maglio: 8:23
and yeah. And plus maybe adding a little bit of more like artistic note. To it. So we always love to talk about like the art that goes into the labels. That’s another thing that, especially Cindy, she’s really into that, the labels, and there’s a lot of out there that also, either related to music or as you guys know, they also use music to brew their sake. So music is, is another big part of what sake plug is, hence the name. So
Timothy Sullivan: 8:56
Hm.
John Puma: 8:57
Yeah,
Giulia Maglio: 8:59
that’s
John Puma: 8:59
got a lot of action. Your in your opening track, by the way, that’s pretty a slaps a bit.
Giulia Maglio: 9:06
well, I mean, your opening is super cool as well. I have rock.
John Puma: 9:10
oh, no, no, your opening. Super cool.
Giulia Maglio: 9:16
It’s not a competition,
John Puma: 9:18
yeah. Now I, so, um, so, so we, we love, talking to our guests About the moment when sake sake really spoke to them, that aha your mind, that experience that makes you decide that this is gonna be something you’re gonna pursue more. Uh, and we wanna ask what your aha moments were.
Giulia Maglio: 9:37
Oh, that’s a very good question. Um, There, there were for me, a lot of, a lot of these aha moments for sure. The first one that happened to me was, um, so I tried sake in Italy first. Like, like all of us, I guess we, we coming from Europe, we had our first, second in our own country, but it was not a good experience it was quite not, no, I don’t even know what that was. In Italy, up until really like a few years ago, it was only a piping hot and it never really showed you what’s like the bottle or what’s what’s in it. So you never really knew what was into that ceramic container. so the first time I came to Japan and I, I was like, okay, I’m gonna try it here and see, maybe it’s different. Who knows? And they brought me cold sake. At first, I was like, did they forget to warm it up or what’s happening here? What’s you know, but when I asked about it, they all, they, I remember them telling me, oh, it can be enjoy chilled or, or room temperature or warm, but this one is really nice, served chilled. And that was probably the first time I was like, oh, oh, okay. I just learned something. You okay. And it was of course delicious. I don’t remember what that sake was, unfortunately. So that’s probably my, a bit of a regret, cuz I wish I did. What sake changed everything, but that was the first aha moment for me.
John Puma: 11:17
and you Cindy.
Cindy Bissig: 11:19
Well, I kind of have a slightly different story, although it also started with me not necessarily liking sake when I was drinking it abroad. However, when I came to Japan, I came with the idea of building a business. I always been obsessed with Japan. So I’ve been with, since I’ve been a child and I, I like many aspects of Japanese culture. So when I came here, I came to learn Japanese and hopefully started a business. And I had the very unique idea of promoting Japan through food and drink. Right. It’s like, nobody else open this, but I thought this was really good. so I saw the bottles and I realized how important sake was for the Japanese culture and living in Ireland. I also know that everything happens in the pub. Like, you know, life happens in the pub. That’s why you make friends. That’s where you laugh. That’s where you cry. So I really wanted to introduce Japan through like that experience of eating and drinking. And I kind of set out to learn everything about Japanese sake, but some of the tours that I went to weren’t that great. Until I had the pleasure of signing up to a course that was at temple university in Tokyo held by Sebastian Lemoine and it was an introduction to sake and he would bring every week, seven to eight sakes futsushu or super high end. I think we also had Brooklyn, Kura, we had Zenkuro, so it was a really great mix of sake. He had one sake and it was Senkin’s Organic and it changed everything for me because when I drank it, I, I just couldn’t place it. You know? And I never had sake like this before. And to such an extent, I took a picture and I’ve been literally telling everybody for three months about this sake. Like you sit next to me in the bus and I literally show you a picture of the sake and say, you should drink this. Like that’s how much I fell in love with it. And I still, I, I still have very fond memory of it. And whenever I see Sankin, I get really excited and obviously between this and now I’ve had a lot of other great sake. but this really was like one moment out of many to follow, but I still cherish quite clearly.
Timothy Sullivan: 13:37
we, all remember our first love for sure. now you mentioned, you’re both coming from a, a European background, but you both live long term in Japan and you’re promoting and teaching sake from Japan. What is your view currently of the state of sake in Europe and any thoughts on where sake in Europe is headed.
Giulia Maglio: 14:02
Well, definitely sake is becoming more and more popular in a lot of countries. Of course, we have to make a little bit. General topic about it. Can’t talk about each specific each specific countries. There are some, um, countries, of course they’re like, uh, bigger than, than others in sake. Like I’m, I’m thinking the UK, for example, don’t know about Switzerland, but also in, in Italy, little by little is becoming more and more popular. Of course. When you talk about Europe, there’s a lot of wine countries there. So, um, that can be viewed as a competition in a way, but because there are wine countries and people have been drinking wine forever. um, I guess a lot of people is really curious to try something different.
Timothy Sullivan: 14:49
yes,
John Puma: 14:49
All right.
Timothy Sullivan: 14:50
that’s a really good point.
Giulia Maglio: 14:52
that is not going to, replace wine of course, but it’s going to be a nice substitute. For for wine. So I, I, I see a very bright future for some in a lot of countries.
Timothy Sullivan: 15:08
and Giulia, you’re doing some promotion in Italy, right? You have your sake. Sister’s website. Can you tell us a little about that?
Giulia Maglio: 15:15
Yes. So that is a project that I started with my Italian girlfriend. She’s a wine. So. So we’re both into the beverage world in the drink world, if you will, and we’re both, of course, she, she also really, um, into Japanese culture, she recently became sake so many as well. So our, our goal is really to try to make sake, not just like a small niche, but then again, having more and more, people even just trying sake, you know, just try, uh, my, my big hope, my, my wish. And one of the goals I’m working towards to is actually to bring, uh Itakura Shuzo, to Italy. So think trust
Timothy Sullivan: 16:00
So Itakura shuzo that’s, that’s the brewery where you’ve been working as a brewery worker as a Kurabito.
Giulia Maglio: 16:06
Yes.
Timothy Sullivan: 16:06
And you want to, you wanna bring that sake to Italy? That’s gonna be such a special moment for you. I’m so sure.
Giulia Maglio: 16:12
Yeah. So I’m working with them now to make their, English, page on their website. So that’s already, you know, like little step
Timothy Sullivan: 16:21
Yep.
Giulia Maglio: 16:22
one step at the time, but we’ll we’ll see your hands for, for all of us. We’ll
Timothy Sullivan: 16:26
That’s awesome. That’s.
John Puma: 16:28
yeah. so podcasting is A little different from a lot of other digital mediums like you guys have done. Uh, I’m sure you done websites before and blogs and videos and whatnot. Podcasting’s a little unique, cuz it’s a little bit more, little bit more of a, almost like a radio show in a way. one thing that we’ve learned over the last couple of years that is really difficult to do every week in and out. What have been the biggest challenges for the two of you? Recording and producing and, and getting a weekly podcast out there.
Cindy Bissig: 16:57
There’s many challenges, but I think for us most, the most important part is because we’re not in the same place. Right. Um, we have very. Demanding schedules cuz I mean, Giulia is an educator. She has her courses and she does events now. I mean, as Japan is slowly opening up, um, you are a lot busier with, um, evenings and you’re having your Italian dinners. And so finding the time and the place has been quite difficult cuz I’m traveling most of the times. Right. And. I work for other companies and I promote sake in various fields in ways. So for us to kind of find the time and the space to record and then to get it out in time, because I personally am super “kibishi” I’m, I’m very strict on getting
Giulia Maglio: 17:44
she’s the Swiss, right? So she’s the,
Cindy Bissig: 17:47
I’m like it’s eight o’clock on Thursday. This has to be out. If it’s not out, I get really angry. that’s
Giulia Maglio: 17:53
she’s right. I can be sometimes too Italian about it because. So I,
John Puma: 18:01
Tim. This is all sounding a little familiar.
Timothy Sullivan: 18:03
this sounds familiar. Yes. yes. Our,
John Puma: 18:06
are you at all, swiss
Timothy Sullivan: 18:09
our, um, our. Publish date kind of moves back and forth a little bit. We, we do weekly ish
John Puma: 18:19
We have to be flexible with our demanding schedules
Timothy Sullivan: 18:22
yes, absolutely.
Cindy Bissig: 18:23
no, see, I think the one thing that I’ve been very concise on is that I wanted it to be consistent because I’ve been doing other projects. And I think the, the downfall of other projects is when you start getting inconsistent, you start prioritizing other things. And I really wanted to make sure that if we are doing this, that we’re both on the same page, that this is happening in a certain way, and that we can, this is a priority for both of us, you know? Yeah.
Giulia Maglio: 18:47
If we start like skipping a week or something, it’s gonna be like, oh, but also next time we can skip a week or you. So it’s the
John Puma: 18:55
Then you can what’s what’s what’s two weeks then.
Giulia Maglio: 18:57
Yeah, exactly.
John Puma: 18:58
Yeah.
Giulia Maglio: 19:00
so no.
Timothy Sullivan: 19:01
Now. Yeah. So we can definitely identify with that, I think that for us, getting an episode out every week has been it’s John and I have become closer friends and we’ve. Um, gotten to know so many more sake. It’s amazing when you do something every week,
Giulia Maglio: 19:21
everything that happened. Right. Everything
Cindy Bissig: 19:22
is. It’s really funny. One reason for us to also do it every week. And for me personally, was to, to keep the ball rolling because I realized through the pandemic, I didn’t have so many chances to go and drink sake. And a lot of times I, I felt like a bit sluggish about my knowledge. And I felt like I wasn’t as pushed as to want to discover. So when we started this, I was like, no, now every week. I’m deepening my understanding for sake, and I’m getting to try new things and talk to someone I really like about sake and Hangouts and just, it just all made sense, you know? So I think this is a reason that we didn’t kinda told you about earlier on when we, when we starting.
Timothy Sullivan: 20:03
That’s awesome. So as of this recording, you have released 25 episodes, some educational content, some interviews, some sake tastings I’d like to hear from each of you, what episodes and what type of content is really your favorite what’s really stood out for you.
Giulia Maglio: 20:20
Oh, my God. It’s like asking me which one is my favorite child or something. cannot ask me that I wasn’t ready psychologically. No. Um, well of course, like during, in doing interviews is super interesting because you really don’t know. um, what brought people to sake, what happened to people’s life and everybody’s is so different. So it’s, it is really interesting to hear like everybody’s story. So that is one of the, that that’s definitely interesting, but also we sometimes do like sake reviews as well, and that. Also interesting for, I think for both of us was, as she was saying before, it’s also an excuse for us to study more. I don’t, I can’t choose. I’m sorry. give you a definite answer. Cindy, what is your,
Cindy Bissig: 21:14
when we talked about our half brain, right. And on the same page, I mean, as I said earlier, I think interviews and. Spotlight on other people’s really important for me. Um, I think it also gives us a chance to understand better what’s happening and it’s, it’s just nice to see what people are up to because I think a lot of times we don’t hear about them, you know, there’s, um, the stories are not always told. So I, I think recently we talked to Uika that Giulia was working with at Itakura Shuzo and I, I just remember it because it’s so recent, but also. It was lovely to have a Japanese guest on it. And I quite liked the fact that the episode was kind of half Japanese, half English, and it’s something that we haven’t done before. And I really liked it because I think it was very unique and it was very different from. But a lot of podcasts are out there. I’m we in Japan. So I do feel there’s a place for this. And I would like to kind of do more of that, but aside from them, yeah, I, I like to talk to all our guests and everybody had their unique stories and perspectives and the more we can get it out, the happier we are. And it gives us a chances to exactly, as though we are, we’re pretty open about what we talk about as long as it’s within our, our ideology of, of things, right? Yes.
John Puma: 22:35
So, it is. everybody’s favorite part of the show. I think we’re all in agreement here, and today we are gonna be tasting, you know, it is a little tricky sometimes to track down sake that we can get in America and also readily available in Japan. But we did it. We succeeded and we are gonna be drinking the, Nanbu Bijin Tokubetsu Junmai. This is from Nanbu Bijin brewery over in Iwate Prefecture. Uh, this is of course a tokubetsu Junmai using ginotome rice. It’s a local Iwate jam, uh, it’s milled down to 55% of its original size. That’s a, that’s where you. get that tokubetsu part. the sake meter value is plus four. And the alcohol percentage is a very reasonable 15 and a half percent. Very nice. this sake actually, uh, if you buy it in the states, you’ll definitely see a tag on it. Let you know that it won the champion sake of 2017, uh, at the IWC international wine challenge.
Timothy Sullivan: 23:39
Well, let’s go ahead and get this Nanbu Bijin Tokubetsu Junmai into the glass.
John Puma: 23:45
Yes. I, I think we’ve mentioned this in the past that recently, Nanbu Bijnin adopted a new labeling style that is very colorcoded
Timothy Sullivan: 23:56
Yes, the butterfly flew away.
John Puma: 23:59
the butterfly
Timothy Sullivan: 24:00
label, the new label looks like a Samurai Mon very distinguished label.
John Puma: 24:07
So yeah, the, to be Junmai is just a red label with their, logo. and their family crust and gold. And I think it is very classy and very nice.
Timothy Sullivan: 24:16
very stately.
John Puma: 24:17
There you
Timothy Sullivan: 24:17
Yes. Now, Giulia and Cindy, do you have any existing experience with Nabu Bijin? What have you have either of you visited the brewery or had the sake before? what’s your experience so far with Nabu Bijin?
Giulia Maglio: 24:31
So I had Nanbu Bijin before I actually had the same one, the, tokubetsu Junmai that we are drinking together today. And I recently also bought another Tokubetsu Junmai from their lineup that is, made with, Omachi rice.
Timothy Sullivan: 24:51
Oh,
Giulia Maglio: 24:52
So, and that.
John Puma: 24:53
I want that.
Giulia Maglio: 24:55
That I’m a big Omachi fan. So, um, I didn’t need any extra information. So when they told me and Nanbu Bijin tokubetsu Junmai and Omachi, I was like, shut up and take my money,
John Puma: 25:07
say no more. Just put in the class. oh, I have to get without one of these days, I don’t think I’ve ever
Timothy Sullivan: 25:13
yeah. So you guys do have some advantages living in Japan. I will, I will say that.
Cindy Bissig: 25:19
Minor advantages, right.
Timothy Sullivan: 25:21
Yeah, well, let’s look at this in the glass. It has just for us here in the states, it has just a hint of a yellow color, just a, a slight tinge. It’s not crystal crystal clear in that regard and giving it a smell. Hm. So nice. What do you think.
John Puma: 25:44
Hmm. Yeah, there’s a very specific tropical fruit that I cannot identify on the nose and it’s driving me crazy. Like I know it’s, it’s like right there. It’s it’s like, not quite, it’s not a pineapple. It’s like a papaya maybe. Hmm, but I like it. it is a tropical fruit and I like it. Giulia, Cindy
Giulia Maglio: 26:06
we have to mention that for us. It’s nine in the morning. So we are This is our
John Puma: 26:12
And we really appreciate you taking some time out to drink with us at nine in the morning.
Timothy Sullivan: 26:16
we do.
Giulia Maglio: 26:16
Yeah. Only for you guys. Okay. We would never, we would never drink this early in, in the morning. No, but i, I. Feel where you’re saying there’s a, there’s this Nanbu Bijin in general, like Nanbu Bijin tends to have a lot of really fruity notes. So it goes from like pear to mango, to lychee there’s there’s a lot of,, a lot of different fruits going on there. White peach. I don’t know if it’s my 9:00 AM, brain speaking or something. What do you guys.
John Puma: 26:50
I think, I think it might have been mango that I was thinking about earlier now. I think it’s, uh, the power of suggestion.
Giulia Maglio: 26:56
I’m convincing you. It’s mango.
John Puma: 26:58
Think mango. Um, so, uh, let’s give it a taste.
Timothy Sullivan: 27:03
Yeah.
John Puma: 27:06
Hmm.
Timothy Sullivan: 27:07
Yeah. It’s really nice and smooth. And. I can understand why this is viewed as such a crowd pleaser type of sake. Like it’s really popular and very accessible. And, the texture here is really, really nice for a tokubetsu Junmai I just love it.
John Puma: 27:25
Yeah. I, I mean, I think there’s something to those crowd, pleasing sakes like this, that like they’re, they’re crowd pleasing for a reason. Uh, you know, because they’re, they’re delicious, they’re wonderful. And this is really tasty. It is something that you can just sip and sip and sip, which is, you know, a little dangerous, but, but a very good thing.
Timothy Sullivan: 27:42
Hmm, nice medium body as well. You know, not too, not too light, not too strong. Great, uh, medium bodied sake. And, um, the price point is also really affordable, which is. Such an interesting point. When you think about how accessible a sake can be. This one is a really great introduction to the whole lineup of Nabu Bian. They make a Daiginjo sake, milled to 40% that is bonkers and so yummy and so good and tropical fruits to the extreme. And this is like a step in that direction. So I really love introducing people to this sake first and then maybe taking them to another Nanbu Bijin sake.
Giulia Maglio: 28:24
Definitely. I mean, this one is really well balanced because it, a rich sake, but it’s also refreshing in a way, especially in the after taste. So yeah, that’s probably, I guess one of the reasons why it’s so popular and as you were saying, it can be dangerous, cuz it’s quite easy to enjoy, we were talking about this. Recently, like this way of describing sake, as easy to enjoy, which tells you nothing but tells you actually a lot but a sake. this one is, definitely on the dry side, but it has all these beautiful fruity flavors to it. So that’s also really well balanced. You have all these fruits and, and tropical fruits, but it also has a hint of dryness.
Timothy Sullivan: 29:10
Yeah. You know, that kind of sake we say it’s really well integrated. All the different aspects kind of balance out
Cindy Bissig: 29:17
That’s where we at with our easy to drink, right? When you’re you just keep going back for more and you find, you find different things. And I think, I know we earlier, you guys said this had a relatively fair alcohol content of 15% and you don’t feel it. Right. I think this is very, and it’s like, wow, this is very tasty, a little bit sweet and a little bit vanilla. And. It doesn’t really punch you in the face when you drink it, but it is dangerous because it is actually quite alcoholic, but there’s no real taste of this. Right. I think I quite enjoyed that.
Timothy Sullivan: 29:52
So while we’re sipping on this sake and enjoying the. Nanbu Bijin balance. I wanted to ask both of you, uh, one more question. What is next for your podcast? Do you have any exciting projects or any exciting episodes you can give us a sneak peek about or anything coming up? We should know.
Cindy Bissig: 30:13
Well,
John Puma: 30:16
Aha.
Cindy Bissig: 30:16
we have a few things, I mean, obviously we’re continuing our interview sessions and we’re doing a lot more. International guests. And we are trying to get also more breweries and brewers on board and, and talk to them. But I guess a little bit further down the road in with Japan opening up and, everything feeling rather normal these days here in, in Tokyo and, and around the country. I think one of the things we always wanted to do from the very start, and again, the name unplugged kind of says it. We always wanted to do events. So we wanted to do in person events that we combined. Aspects of art and aspects of music and bring people to different locations. So that’s definitely something we have been talking about recently a lot more. So I think hopefully towards the end of the year, we are at a point where we can have guests with us and, bring them some sake that we find from around the country and, and have these events. So that’s kind of our, our biggest sort of in, in the making.
John Puma: 31:19
Very nice.
Timothy Sullivan: 31:20
Sounds fantastic.
Giulia Maglio: 31:21
Yeah. I’m really excited about that and doing events, meeting people and having unplugged events. So it’s like just going to be. Just voice, But it’s also going to be something in, in person. I think we are all missing the in person, part of our like meeting people, exchanging stories, exchanging sake. So we, we really cannot, cannot wait for that.
Timothy Sullivan: 31:47
That’s awesome. That
John Puma: 31:48
yeah.
Cindy Bissig: 31:50
so we hope that you guys get to come over here at some point, and then we’ll, we can have you on one of these and we can, we can do a little in, in person Kanpai as, as it should be. Right then
John Puma: 32:01
As soon as they open those borders, I am, I am there.
Giulia Maglio: 32:06
you can come here. This is almost, so this became the sake unplugged house basically. Because we have our new fridge with our sake. Cindy’s always bringing over sake or something. So this is not my fridge or my room. This is our room, our fridge. So it’s,
Timothy Sullivan: 32:26
awesome.
John Puma: 32:26
Tim, we don’t, we don’t share a fridge.
Timothy Sullivan: 32:28
No, we don’t.
Giulia Maglio: 32:31
It’s a big commitment guys.
John Puma: 32:32
we share? We share our zoom channel. That’s pretty much it.
Cindy Bissig: 32:36
We have like shared custody. This is, um, this is a big deal for us,
Giulia Maglio: 32:39
right? We share custody of this.
John Puma: 32:45
it has been amazing having you two on the show, I really hope that our listeners will go and, and give you two a listen, where can our Intrepid listeners find you guys on the internet?
Cindy Bissig: 32:58
Yeah. We’re kind of everywhere. Um,
John Puma: 33:00
All right. Well, that’s it. You got now
Cindy Bissig: 33:04
We’re covering all the bases. So we’re Facebook or an Instagram where we have a homepage it’s basically for everything sake Unplugged. So what you go to WWW.SakeUnplugged.com um, Sake Unplugged is our handle on Instagram and on Facebook. And hopefully soon you find a flyer or you see a poster where there’s also gonna be the Sake Unplugged events, right? So we’re, we’re really working on a lot of things and we’re just trying to. And what we do as much as we can.
Timothy Sullivan: 33:33
Excellent. Well, we’ll be sure to link to all of your social media and to your episodes in our show notes. So any listeners who would like to check out Sake Unplugged, you can visit the sake revolution, show notes, and you’ll have all the links readily accessible right there. Thank you so much for joining us. And I would also like to thank our patrons who have supported our show. And if you would like to become a patron and support Sake Revolution, you can visit us at Patreon.com/SakeRevolution.
John Puma: 34:08
And if you have very important sake related questions, or maybe not even sake related questions, for us, you wanna ask us where we find our amazing guests, where we pick up our sake, that kind of thing, you can reach out to us at [email protected] So until next time, everybody, please raise a glass. Remember to keep drinking sake and Kanapi.