John Puma: 0:22
Hello everybody and welcome to Sake Revolution. This is America’s very first sake podcast and I am one of your intrepid hosts. My name is John Puma. You probably know that by now, but in case you don’t, I’m the, uh, guy on the show who’s not the sakes, samurai, I’m the other one.

Timothy Sullivan: 0:42
And I’m your host Timothy Sullivan. I am a Sake Samurai. I’m a 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.

John Puma: 0:58
Tim, it is that time of year again,

Timothy Sullivan: 1:01
Happy New Year, John

John Puma: 1:02
We made it. We made it to the end of 2022. We’re, we’re seeing, uh, I wanna say that, uh, 2023 is in, eye shot right now. It’s coming soon. Coming. Real soon. It’s coming in hot.

Timothy Sullivan: 1:12
Yes,

John Puma: 1:13
and uh, I think that one thing I’ve noticed is that, uh, nobody’s talking about how 2023 is gonna be their year. I think that, I think 20 20, 20, 21, 22, I think it’s got everybody scared and, uh, this is how things have gone. Now everybody’s like, oh, you know what, let’s just, uh, see how this one goes. I’m not

Timothy Sullivan: 1:29
Let’s muddle through and hope for the best

John Puma: 1:32
for the best. Yeah. Uh, but, but it was, I think for, for us, generally speaking, for us, we had a, we had a good year Um,

Timothy Sullivan: 1:39
a revolution perspective, I think we had a really good year.

John Puma: 1:42
it was a good year for the show. Uh, we had a, a lot of, um, a lot of fun episodes, a lot of great people.

Timothy Sullivan: 1:50
Mm-hmm.

John Puma: 1:51
Uh, I did the numbers. We had 22 guests on our show over the course of this year, 22. I mean, we also had that, that is counting that, uh, that big hundredth episode guest gala that I think we had. Eight people on that

Timothy Sullivan: 2:07
Well, that should count. Double

John Puma: 2:09
All right. Uh, well, yeah, it’s, we had 14, I think without the, without the hundredth episode 22 with the hundred episode. That’s great. I, it, that was a feel good episode. I really had a fun time and I think this is a feel good episode two, that’s generally how I, I like these little, uh, celebrate the year, celebrate milestone kind of episodes. They’re a lot of fun to do.

Timothy Sullivan: 2:31
Yeah, we’ve done this two years previously and we just could not miss it again this year.

John Puma: 2:36
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’ve had 44 episodes this year, which tells you we’re not quite weekly, but we’re really close.

Timothy Sullivan: 2:43
We’re trying our best

John Puma: 2:45
We try our best. We definitely try our best. And, uh, a couple other notes that we, that I came across when I was looking at, looking at what we’ve done this year. We started a three new series.

Timothy Sullivan: 2:56
Mm-hmm.

John Puma: 2:57
Uh, we started the Extreme Sake Series, which has been. Yeah, Um, but one thing about the Extreme Sake series is I think at least like number one, we, we’ve done the most of that, of all of our new series, um, because there’s a lot to explore there. It’s a, it’s a meaty topic. There’s a lot to see and, and taste.

Timothy Sullivan: 3:17
And, and it’s, it’s also really fun to hunt down the, I, I felt like, like, I was like looking for those extreme sakes and you really have to research them, find them, where can I get them? So that was. Really fun behind the scenes was finding these extreme sakes and then introducing them to all our listeners so that I think we had a lot of those episodes cuz it was just really fun for us behind the scenes.

John Puma: 3:43
Yeah. Yeah. And then, um, we also started the Sake Vessels series this year, which has been also a lot of fun to kind of, it’s, it’s, it’s evolved into this, can it be better than the Wineglass Challenge?

Timothy Sullivan: 3:56
Yes.

John Puma: 3:57
And I, I think that, I think the wine glass is the winner and undefeated champion. but I do think that we’re learning that these vessels bring different things to the table, and they’re a lot of fun to experiment with, which I, I’m getting to learn a lot about these vessels, about like the history of them from you and also like practically how they compare directly with other types of, of sake vessels. It’s a lot of fun to taste like that.

Timothy Sullivan: 4:20
Yeah, and I think it’s, it’s raised my awareness of sake vessels too. Anyway, it was just so interesting to kind of a new awareness of sake vessels and uh, that’s been a fun series for sure.

John Puma: 4:33
Yeah. Uh, and then, and then the last one I wanna mention that we started this year is that crosstalk series where we’ve been talking to other sake podcasts. Uh, and that has been, you know, also a lot of fun. It’s been a, a good time to, Speak to other people who are doing what we’re doing and, and find out about how things, what the sake scene is like in their part of the world. That’s been a lot of fun. And, and we’re not done there. We still, we still have a couple more to go.

Timothy Sullivan: 4:57
Yes, there’s been new podcasts coming along and, and it’s great to see the universe of sake podcasts expand and grow. So, and it’s fun to stay in touch with everyone, and we’re the only ones in the US still right now, but, That helps us reach out across and go to other countries, like you said, and see what’s happening. And everyone has their own enjoyment in their regions, and it’s fun to see what’s different with what we have here in the States.

John Puma: 5:24
Nice. Nice. I agree a hundred percent. It’s been, it’s been a lot of fun. now I’m gonna recommend that we do something a little bit different today, Tim.

Timothy Sullivan: 5:32
What’s that?

John Puma: 5:33
Um, since we’re having a little bit of a celebration, I think we should have a little bit of a drink with our celebration.

Timothy Sullivan: 5:38
Ooh, let’s.

John Puma: 5:40
All right. So, uh, since this is a little bit of a special episode, uh, we’re gonna have a little bit of a special sake. this is actually a sake that I brought back from Japan. And when I saw it, I’m gonna tell the story real quick about how I came across it. everybody at home, you need to, you’re gonna learn a little something, a little trick for getting sake earlier in the day. if you happen to be visiting Japan, the department stores, the large department stores almost universally have a basement level that serves a lot of. packaged foods or you know, like pre-prepared foods. And usually they also have a liquor store. And usually that liquor store has a fabulous sake selection. And oftentimes those liquor stores and with those sake selections will have, uh, tastings during the, uh, early afternoon or sometimes even a little bit earlier than that, maybe 11:00 AM Uh, they might start. It’s also a great place to shop for sake. So we were over at one of them in Hiroshima and they had a, refrigerator with a couple of small bottles. And I looked down at the small bottle and the first thing I see is the cap says in English, kamikokoro. And I immediately remembered yes, that that’s one of Tim’s favorite brands. And we needed, I desperately needed to, to get that bottle and bring it back so Tim can have some, uh, so we bought two little bottles of it. And, uh, we’ve had Kamikokoro on the show before they, of the, um, peach yeast, if I’m not mistaken. but this sake here, we’ve actually never tasted before. This is a, uh, this is a Tokubestu Junmai called, uh, Nagisa no Uta is of course from, uh, Okayama Prefecture. this sake uses akebono rice that’s milled down to 58%. It’s always interesting to me when they have like a 58% instead of a round number, like a 60 or even like a 55 or something like that. but yeah, 58%. Very deliberate, I guess very specific. And this one on the Sake meter value, that measure of, of try to sweet is actually minus 2.5, so it’s a little bit on the sweet side. And the acidity is only 1.1. So the acidity is not gonna, the, you’re not gonna have a high acidity that like, kind of balances out the, the sweetness. So it’s the sweetness might really come through on this. and then the alcohol percentage is, uh, 14. Uh, so a little bit of a lower, a little bit of a lower alcohol sake, but not a, not nothing too crazy.

Timothy Sullivan: 8:23
Yeah. Now this, I was so happy to get this small bottle from you, John. What a nice gift. Thank you so much. This is, uh, Nagisa no Uta, as you said, and I looked up what that means in English, and I think it means Nagisa is like the beach or the shore,

John Puma: 8:37
Mm-hmm.

Timothy Sullivan: 8:37
UTA is song, so maybe it means Song of the Shore or Song of the Beach, something like that. Yeah.

John Puma: 8:44
That sounds great.

Timothy Sullivan: 8:46
and we should mention this is not common for us, but this is a sake that is not for sale in the us. Normally we make a point to profile sakes that people in most of the country can get their hands on, but today’s kind of a special occasion. We have a little gift that you were kind enough to bring from Japan, so we are going to enjoy it.

John Puma: 9:04
breaking the rules just for one day.

Timothy Sullivan: 9:07
for one day.

John Puma: 9:08
Yeah. Uh, so yeah. so why don’t we open up this, and. Give it a taste.

Timothy Sullivan: 9:16
Yeah, but I promise no singing from me.

John Puma: 9:18
no, you promise. Okay. We got this in the glass.

Timothy Sullivan: 9:29
All right. Cut it in the glass.

John Puma: 9:31
right, so we’ve got it in the glass in the, the first thing I’m noticing. So it is very clear.

Timothy Sullivan: 9:37
It’s translucent, you know, you can see through it. There’s no particulate. Uh, there may be just a hint of a yellowish tinge to it, but it looks pretty, pretty water white to me. Uh, should we give it a smell?

John Puma: 9:51
Yes. Hmm.

Timothy Sullivan: 9:56
Hmm. You’re gonna laugh when I tell you what I’m smelling

John Puma: 9:59
Uh, I’m, I’m ready.

Timothy Sullivan: 10:01
We’ve talked about this before, but do you get any hint of circus Peanut

John Puma: 10:09
Hmm. A little bit. I’m getting more, uh, a little bit more like a, a, like a milky kind of lactic yogurty on the nose. But yeah, there is

Timothy Sullivan: 10:20
there’s a sweet, there’s a sweet, for me, it’s like that Marshmallowy Circus peanut kind of smell and it has, has a inference of sweetness to it, but there is something creamy as well. Yeah, I, I pick up on that too.

John Puma: 10:36
yeah. It’s nice.

Timothy Sullivan: 10:38
Hmm.

John Puma: 10:39
It’s a little bit different. This isn’t your, your typical, uh, fruity fruit bomb.

Timothy Sullivan: 10:44
Right. Yeah.

John Puma: 10:47
All right, well, let’s

Timothy Sullivan: 10:48
Good taste. Hmm.

John Puma: 10:54
Well, this is interesting

Timothy Sullivan: 10:56
It has, you know, noticeable sweetness when you take a sip.

John Puma: 11:04
Yeah. And, but the, the finish is a little, it’s not like dry dry. It’s not Karakuchi dry, but it’s a little bit on the dryer side, especially compared to the beginning. The finish I got, I get this little bit of dryness on the finish. There’s hmm, not nearly as much of that lactic quality as I. Expecting when I smelled it,

Timothy Sullivan: 11:26
Hmm.

John Puma: 11:28
but there’s a lot more, uh, a lot more complexity here than I was expecting.

Timothy Sullivan: 11:32
Yeah.

John Puma: 11:33
Yeah. I think that when I’ve had, uh, Kamikokoro in the past, usually there’s stuff, it’s kind of like, it’s showing shows all its cards right away and it’s kind of like this is what it is and this is a lot more, I hate to use the word interesting, but it’s, it is definitely an interesting, there’s a lot to dig through here. There’s a lot of like interesting stuff happening.

Timothy Sullivan: 11:55
Yeah. For me on the on the palate, I really get that sense of like a marshmallow flavor. There’s sweetness, there’s richness.

John Puma: 12:04
Yeah. And it does, it does bounce between those in a way. There’s definitely an, uh, a taste experience that brings you from sweetness. over into like a little bit of, a little bit of richness and then like a dryer finish.

Timothy Sullivan: 12:19
Yeah. One thing they’re doing really well here is balancing that initial sweetness out with a dryer finish so it doesn’t leave your palate all like over sweetened or. Too coated with sweetness. It finishes cleaner, as you said, and dryer, and that makes for a more enjoyable sipping, I think.

John Puma: 12:40
Yeah. It’s definitely fun to sip that is. That is, uh, an undisputable fact.

Timothy Sullivan: 12:46
But this is, this is very different from other Kamikokoro sakes that I’ve had, and I’ve not had a lot of their range. You know, we love their peach yeast unpasteurized sake, which, Just right up there for me. And we’ve, I’ve also tasted one of their Junmai Daiginjo sakes, which is, was just so beautiful. This one has a little bit more oomph, a little bit more. It’s sweet. And it’s not a classic earthy sake. It’s got sweetness and that cotton candy or, uh, marshmallow note to it, and then finishes dry. So it’s a really interesting sake, but it’s a different side of Kamikokoro to taste. So really fun. And this is what going to Japan can get you. You can try these different aspects of sake. So thank you again so much for bringing this from Japan for us to try

John Puma: 13:39
No problem. I, I definitely get the impression from this, if it just, it tastes like they’re having a little fun, you know, like they’re, they’re doing something a little bit different. They’re getting, uh, they’re, they’re having a good time with this one. I don’t know. That’s, that’s what came across to me. I don’t know. Yeah. Very nice. Uh, I’m glad I brought it back. This is a, this is a fun one to sip,

Timothy Sullivan: 13:58
for sure.

John Puma: 13:59
but, uh, now that we’ve had a sip of some sake, let’s talk a little bit more about 2022.

Timothy Sullivan: 14:06
Yeah, I, I wanted to ask you,

John Puma: 14:08
Mm-hmm.

Timothy Sullivan: 14:09
your highlights for the year, your your favorite sake we featured on the show, and also if you had a favorite episode of all the ones that we did over the past year.

John Puma: 14:19
Mm. Alright. Well, I think that for me, one of my favorite episodes this year was the, the time that we had, uh, Nancy and Michael, who wrote, uh, exploring the World of Japanese craft Sake, we had, we had such a great time with them that we had to make two episodes out of it. And honestly, I could have gone like another hour just talking to them about sake. They were. Interesting. And I just, I just had fun nerding out with them about it. It was really a good time. Um, and that would be, that’s, uh, episodes, um, 109 and 110. Uh, so yeah, go back and listen to those if you haven’t. we had such a wonderful time with them and I, I really think that the fun that we’re all four of us were having really comes through, uh, in the episode. And those, those are the kinds of episodes that I really enjoy. The ones where we’re just really having a good time.

Timothy Sullivan: 15:15
Yeah, it was really fun to talk with them. That was our first and only two-parter and I think that it was really called for in that scenario. So I’m so glad we got to taste with them. And their book is amazing. And if you haven’t looked at their book yet, be sure to. Pick it up and if you’re interested in sake, it’s kind of a must have book. So that, that really was a fun e couple episodes for sure.

John Puma: 15:38
Yeah. What.

Timothy Sullivan: 15:40
Oh, well,

John Puma: 15:42
Well, do you think I’m gonna let you ask me that and then not return?

Timothy Sullivan: 15:45
you know, I had two episodes that I really liked. The interview that I really liked was talking to Kenta Goto, the bartender and. We made a cocktail together on air, you and I made a sake cocktail live on the show and that was really fun. And you know, people are of several different minds in regards to sake cocktails, but I’m really proud of us cuz we, I think we approached it from a very fair and balanced point of view and we tried a sake cocktail that was absolutely delicious and it was so fun to talk to a true expert in cocktail making Goto-san was. So knowledgeable about cocktails and how sake can be folded into his world. It was just fascinating and I came away from that episode really learning a lot from him about sake cocktails. So that’s, that was one of my favorite episodes. But I have a, I have a runner up, which

John Puma: 16:44
Ah, but before you go into the runner up though, I have a quick question. Since that episode, have you made more. Far East Sides at home.

Timothy Sullivan: 16:52
I’ve done it at least twice since that episode. Usually when I have company over, I’m like, I can make a sake cocktail

John Puma: 17:00
Um, I, uh, I made one for Myshell. I was like, oh, this, I thought it would tasted delicious. And I was like, this is gonna be right up her alley. And she absolutely loves it. And it got requested around the house very often, so I had to make it quite a few times until We ran out Shiso leaves. cuz you do have to go through a few of them cause you gotta muddle a bunch of them and then you gotta, you have one for the garnish on top. It’s beautiful. It’s really a great, a great cocktail.

Timothy Sullivan: 17:25
Yeah, so that was fun. And I think a runner-up episode for me that I really enjoyed was the Survival Japanese, for Sake Bars.

John Puma: 17:35
Yes, that is. Oh, that’s a really good pick. I like that.

Timothy Sullivan: 17:39
Yeah,

John Puma: 17:39
Mm.

Timothy Sullivan: 17:40
I put together the cheat sheet PDF with all the, you know, uh, broken down Japanese you can use, and now we can travel to Japan. Finally again. And I hope that people will find that episode and use those terms that we talked about, that you and I learned the hard way and. Tourists to Japan will bring that sheet to the sake bar and get really delicious sake and have a fun, engaging experience when they’re there, like you and I have done many times over the years. So just thinking about other people, having fun with that cheat sheet, learning those terms, and just really enjoying their trip to Japan, that much more makes me happy.

John Puma: 18:25
I, I could not agree more. and honestly, I had to brush up my Japanese a little bit before I went.

Timothy Sullivan: 18:30
Yes,

John Puma: 18:31
And so I also, referenced that episode. I went back and reviewed it back in October before we went to Japan. And uh, and it came in handy. It was very helpful I think. And uh, and uh, and I did have plenty of delicious Japanese sake when I was there, so it worked out.

Timothy Sullivan: 18:46
It worked. That’s awesome. Now, did you have a favorite sake that we featured on the show? Something

John Puma: 18:55
Well, I’ve been, I have been agonizing over this little bit so I, I, for me, I wanna say it is a little bit of, uh, I have a cop out answer. How’s that?

Timothy Sullivan: 19:11
That’s fine. This is a safe space, John

John Puma: 19:14
Good. Okay, good, good, good. So on the one hand I was really excited and it was very delicious when we got to have, uh, Jikon on the show.

Timothy Sullivan: 19:24
Yes.

John Puma: 19:25
was really great. but, I also thoroughly enjoyed when we had the three saga sake. From the saga sake event and the, just the differences between all three of them and how they showed off the range of sake flavors, that was just so exciting for me. And all three of them were really fantastic in their own way. it was a wonderful way for, for people to experience sake. And so that really stuck with. So it’s kinda like my favorite sake that I had individually was probably the Jikon. My favorite sake experience that we had was probably that one.

Timothy Sullivan: 20:03
Yeah, the, the Jikon was a very popular episode as well. As far as downloads are concerned, it’s a popular brand and people look for it online. So every time I’ve had Jikon since then, I’ve enjoyed it. It is amazing sake. And the, the Saga sake set. We had Jessica Joly on the show and she introduced us to those three sakes from three different producers that kind of made this set of three different saga sakes. I agree with you completely. They were so different. It’s like they went out of their way to make contrasting styles and to taste them one right after the other was. a way to see what sake can do.

John Puma: 20:51
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that, that, that set is such a phenomenal way for people to, for new people to experience sake from go like, oh, well there’s sake tastes like this. There’s sake tastes like this. And then there’s this completely, you know, bring out the. The Koshu you know, and there’s a completely different one over here that’s that umami driven, um, mushroom bomb. Uh, it was just really interesting and just so it was so much fun to, to go through.

Timothy Sullivan: 21:20
Yeah, I agree tho. Those were great. Now my favorite sake is also gonna be a little bit of a cop out. Is that okay?

John Puma: 21:28
oh. Yes. I, well, you know, I can’t really, Call you out.

Timothy Sullivan: 21:31
So episode 113, we did a branded episode featuring drum roll please com. Kamikokoro which

John Puma: 21:42
wait a minute,

Timothy Sullivan: 21:44
So we mentioned earlier, we’re tasting Kami Kokoro, Tokubestu Junmai today, but we had that peach yeast unpasteurized sake. And that’s just, it is in the Hall of Fame for me. you know, I order that by the case, have it shipped in by the pallet and and it is something I really, really love.

John Puma: 22:11
I could be wrong here, but Tim, you’re, to my knowledge, you’re not the kind of guy who does that. You don’t really buy like a case of one sake usually.

Timothy Sullivan: 22:22
no, my, my jam has always been to try as many things as I can and when I go to a sake shop, I usually grab the bottle that I’ve never tried before. If there’s one there, I want to, that’s the one I want to grab cuz I wanna try new things. But sometimes you just need that tried and true favorite treat that you know you’re just gonna love.

John Puma: 22:42
and, and this Is that

Timothy Sullivan: 22:44
And this is that, this is one of those, there’s, there’s, there’s a short list for sure. But this one, it was so great to do an episode dedicated to that brand and that was just like, it just for me, it just can’t fail. So that, that is one of my favorites for sure.

John Puma: 23:02
I don’t think that’s a cop out, Tim. I think that that’s, That is enthusiasm

Timothy Sullivan: 23:07
Yes, I got that. I got that.

John Puma: 23:11
definite, definitely enthusiasm. Uh, that’s nice. That’s really cool. Yeah. So in addition to Sake Revolution, events of the year, uh, a lot of things happened in sake as well, just outside of our show. We, joy of sake, returned. That was, uh, a blast that we had a lot of fun there. You and me walking around with our Sake Revolution T-shirts, and tasting all manner of sake. We had Version 1.0 of the advent calendar happened this year. We had just a few episodes ago, we had Paul on the show. We talked about that, and that was a lot of fun. Did you, um, did you end up, uh, what did you end up doing with that, by the way? Did you go through every day?

Timothy Sullivan: 23:53
Well, I got the Advent calendar and I was traveling a bit in December and I didn’t dedicate each and every day to opening it up, so I did kind of. Cherry pick cups here and there and I didn’t get to drink the uh, 720 yet from the 24th, but I’m just gonna spread it out a little bit into January and enjoy the cups at a little bit of a slower pace,

John Puma: 24:18
I think that’s fair.

Timothy Sullivan: 24:19
but it was still a lot of fun. And Namazake Paul did a great job with the Advent calendar, don’t you think it was a fun, fun thing to do in December?

John Puma: 24:27
Listeners may remember that we had, a couple of preview cups on the show. I think at the time that we had done the show, we didn’t have the boxes yet. they got the actual, advent calendar boxes and that thing was huge. It was absolutely massive,

Timothy Sullivan: 24:41
in the best way.

John Puma: 24:43
it, Needed to be in order to keep everything secure and, and beautiful. And it was really easy to work with and was really a lot of fun. Um, I got, I got sick during one of the weeks, so I couldn’t, I had like a, I had like seven days worth of cups that we’re sitting there and I was like, oh no, what am I gonna do? And then once I was feeling better, we, uh, we made kind of short work of the, of the backlog

Timothy Sullivan: 25:07
Good, good, good.

John Puma: 25:08
but it was nice. It was a lot.

Timothy Sullivan: 25:09
yeah, it kind of sat, I put mine on my. Dining room table and just, it was kind of like a Christmas decoration. It was like a

John Puma: 25:16
uh, all right. We, we put ours under the tree.

Timothy Sullivan: 25:20
Oh, that’s nice too.

John Puma: 25:22
Yeah. Under the tree. And then every morning we would just open it up and take the cup of the day and put it in the fridge so that by the evening it’s ready. It became part of my work ritual.

Timothy Sullivan: 25:34
That’s awesome. Yeah. So we did have that advent calendar. anything else happen in the world of sake this year.

John Puma: 25:41
I have one other on my list here. And, and despite being a, a fan of the, uh, New York Mets long suffering fan of the New York Mets, Legally set foot into Yankee Stadium without bursting the flames. a, a major sake brand is now advertising on the billboards at Yankee Stadium, which is something I never thought I would see in my lifetime. I’ve always thought that was like sake out to people who don’t know about sake. You have to do advertising in places. Are not places you’re normally gonna see sake. And the the billboards at Yankee Stadium. Exactly. One of those places to me. Uh, so I thought that was very interesting, uh, and very surprising.

Timothy Sullivan: 26:24
Hmm. Well, you can’t help wonder about the ROI on that type of advertising.

John Puma: 26:30
I hope it’s good. I I, I don’t know if they actually serve the sake at Yankee stadium.

Timothy Sullivan: 26:35
that’s,

John Puma: 26:36
I think they may have it in some of the premium seats. They may sell some sake, but I don’t think you can just go up to the, the regular concession stand and get like a beer and a sake.

Timothy Sullivan: 26:46
Hmm.

John Puma: 26:47
would be, that’s what we need. That’s the future. That’s gotta be, that’s, yeah. We definitely need to get sake in places that are not just, uh, Japanese restaurants. So we’ll see.

Timothy Sullivan: 26:57
Yeah. Well, before we wind up, we do have one more. Unfinished piece of business, jp.

John Puma: 27:03
oh. do we?

Timothy Sullivan: 27:06
We actually made resolutions for 2022, our famous, our our,

John Puma: 27:13
Didn’t

Timothy Sullivan: 27:13
we say, infamous revolution resolutions. And, uh, I don’t know if how we’re gonna do this year, shall I refresh your memory.

John Puma: 27:25
sure.

Timothy Sullivan: 27:26
Okay. So, John Puma’s resolution. For 2022 in regards to sake can be boiled down to one word documentation.

John Puma: 27:37
Yeah.

Timothy Sullivan: 27:38
So you wanted to keep more notes and document more of what you were drinking. And my resolution was to drink less, but higher quality.

John Puma: 27:50
Hmm.

Timothy Sullivan: 27:50
Huh? Okay, so we’ll, we’ll go to you first. how’d you do John

John Puma: 27:55
Um, lemme tell you, I started off the year strong. It was, I was taking lots of notes. I had a book I was filling up, I was doing real well. problem is like once you get that, once you get the, the one situation where you forget after that it’s easy to keep forgetting and. I did have a mild resurgence when I went to Japan. I was logging the sake I was drinking in an app, uh, so that I could try to fill in the entire map of Japan with how a sake from every Prefecture. I got close Tim. I got really close. I didn’t quite make it, but I got really close. I think I only missed like five.

Timothy Sullivan: 28:33
Wow.

John Puma: 28:33
yeah. Not bad.

Timothy Sullivan: 28:35
So you, so you did documentation in 2022.

John Puma: 28:38
Uh, yeah, I just didn’t consistently do documentation. I just, I have sporadic documentation. I started the ear strong. I ended the ear strong, but in the middle, not so much.

Timothy Sullivan: 28:48
Yep.

John Puma: 28:50
Yeah. And, and how about you? Are you drinking more high quality sake?

Timothy Sullivan: 28:55
I think one, one thing I have done is what we mentioned a moment ago. Ordering some brands that are high quality, something I love, and just having those really delicious comfort sakes on hand. So I have stocked up a little bit more on the higher quality sakes that I know I’m gonna love and just want to treat myself to sometimes. And I prefer that to buying bottles willy-nilly that I’ve never had before. And sometimes they turn out to be really horrible. So,

John Puma: 29:30
And they backfire on you, Tim, but hey, when they, when they don’t, when you, when you end up not liking them, they become candidates for the extreme sake Series,

Timothy Sullivan: 29:39
extreme dislike

John Puma: 29:40
Oh, no.

Timothy Sullivan: 29:43
No. So I feel like I have focused more on higher quality sakes, but I think when you reach a certain point you know what? Brands are really special to you, and I did make an effort to have some of those on hand for. Days when you just want to check out. You don’t want to be the sake researcher anymore. You just want to enjoy yourself with something really special. So I did, I did make an effort to do that.

John Puma: 30:09
Alright, that’s good. I, that’s, that’s, that is pretty good, Tim. I’m very impressed. That’s

Timothy Sullivan: 30:14
Well, I think we both, we both did okay

John Puma: 30:20
Uh,

Timothy Sullivan: 30:20
resolutions,

John Puma: 30:21
eh,

Timothy Sullivan: 30:21
eh?

John Puma: 30:22
I I am not satisfied with my performance. I will tell you that I drank a lot more sake than I recorded. Um, unfortunately.

Timothy Sullivan: 30:32
So, John, what do you think? we gonna do resolutions again for 2023?

John Puma: 30:37
So, Tim, here’s what I think we should do. I think yes, the answer is yes, yes, we should, and I think what we’ll do is we’ll open up our next episode with these resolutions and what we really want, wanna think about them, give it a little bit of time. Get some good ones that we can do. I want success. I want us to be successful, and I wanna have a little fun with it. And so we’ll open up the next episode with our resolution with our revolution resolutions. It just flies off the tongue,

Timothy Sullivan: 31:07
off the tongue.

John Puma: 31:09
and we’ll, um, we’ll talk about it then.

Timothy Sullivan: 31:11
All right. That sounds good. We’ll give ourselves a little, little time to think and reflect and come up with something really good.

John Puma: 31:18
All right.

Timothy Sullivan: 31:19
All right. Well thank you John so much. Thanks for the wonderful Kami Kokoro hand carried from Japan. Appreciate that and and, uh, great to taste with you as always. Another fantastic year in the books. And I wanna thank our listeners again, so much for tuning in. Thanks for hanging with us this whole year. A special shout out and hello to all our patrons. If you’d like to join our community on Patreon and support Sake Revolution, please visit patreon.com/SakeRevolution to learn more.

John Puma: 31:55
Now as, uh, Tim mentioned, this is a listener supported show, uh, but there are other ways to support us. You can leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts. It really does help. other people discover our show. They like go to Apple Podcast and type in sake. This is the thing we want them to find, right? So reviews are what drives that. That’s what makes it happen. So until next time, please grab a glass. Remember to keep drinking sake and Kanpai. Happy New year,