Season 1. Episode 37. You’ve got the Avengers, and your Justice League Heroes but did you know we’ve got some sake superheroes too? This week John and Tim interview Sakeman Red a.k.a Nick Matsumoto. Nick is part of team Sakeman, who describe themselves as “A team of athletic, sake superheroes who import their own brands and educate the masses!” Nick first connected with the Sakeman group through his love of judo. The first thing you’ll notice about the Sakeman group is their use of iconic and custom made luchador masks when presenting their stellar sake portfolio of sake from premium producers all around Japan – so their stuff is legit. . As Nick explains in our interview, the masks help draw attention to sake and start the conversation! Or the masks draw an invitation to wrestle! However it turns out, Sakeman is all about good sake. Thanks Nick for taking the time to teach us to work hard, train hard and drink hard!

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Skip to: 00:19 Hosts Welcome and Introduction
Welcome to the show from John and Timothy

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Skip to: 01:39 Interview: Sakeman Red, Nick Matsumoto

Sakeman on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gosakeman/
Sakeman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gosakeman

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Skip to: 08:30 Weirdest Reaction to Sakeman?

Do you want to wrestle?

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Skip to: 14:55 Sake Tasting Introductions

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Skip to: 17:52 Sake Tasting: Harada 80 Junmai

Harada 80 Junmai

Sake Rice: Yamadanishiki
Sake Meter Value: +3
Rice Milling Percentage: 80%
Prefecture: Yamaguchi
Brewery: Hatsumomidi
Acidity 1.6

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Skip to: 20:20 Sake Tasting: Suehiro Yamahai Junmai Ginjo

Suehiro Yamahai Junmai Ginjo

Brewery: Suehiro Sake Brewery
Classification: Junmai Ginjo, Yamahai
Alcohol: 15.5%
Prefecture: Fukushima
Seimaibuai: 55%
Rice Type: Gohyakumangoku

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Skip to: 22:42 Sake Tasting: Fukuju Junmai Ginjo

Fukuju Junmai Ginjo

Brewery: Kobe Shushinkan Brewery
Classification: Junmai Ginjo
Acidity: 1.4
Alcohol: 15.5%
Prefecture: Hyogo
Seimaibuai: 50%
SMV: +2.0
Rice Type: Hyogo Yumenishiki

View On UrbanSake.com

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Skip to: 29:29 Show Closing

This is it! Join us next time for another episode of Sake Revolution!

John Puma: 0:23
Welcome to Sake Revolution. This is America’s first sake podcast. I am your host, John Puma from the sake notes. Also the administrator over at the Internet sake Discord. Moderator at Reddit’s, r/sake subreddit and our resident sake nerd.

Timothy Sullivan: 0:39
And I am your host, Timothy Sullivan. I’m 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 tasting and chatting about all things sake and doing our best to make it fun and easy to understand. So, John. You’re not going to believe it, but we have an honest to goodness superhero joining us today.

John Puma: 1:04
Oh, in the studio. Wonderful. Um, so,

Timothy Sullivan: 1:08
Have you ever heard of a sake superhero before?

John Puma: 1:11
uh, think so.

Timothy Sullivan: 1:14
Faster than a speeding bullet train

John Puma: 1:21
Would he also be stronger than a double genshu?

Timothy Sullivan: 1:23
and he can leap over Tokyo tower in a single bound. Today. We are welcoming Sakeman red.

John Puma: 1:30
Hello.

Nick Matsumoto: 1:32
Citizens of the sake world.

John Puma: 1:36
Thank you so much for joining us.

Nick Matsumoto: 1:39
Thank you for having me.

Timothy Sullivan: 1:41
Sakeman red also known as Nick Matsumoto. Nick. Thank you so much for being with us today. Now Sakeman is a group of guys who do sake sales, and distribution. They have a wonderful portfolio of sakes that they represent, but they do it with a really unique uniform and a really unique look which we’re going to talk about today.

Nick Matsumoto: 2:05
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you guys. Very much. I’m excited. I’ve been looking forward to this, for, I’ve been listening to you guys’s podcasts and, uh, I miss hanging out with you guys out in New York, but when I hear your guys’ voices, it feels like I’m back. So thanks again for having me.

John Puma: 2:20
I feel the same way, uh, minus the podcast bit, I think that, while we know you’re pretty well, we want to, for our listeners at home, Nick give us a little bit of background. How’d you get into sake, all that sort of thing.

Nick Matsumoto: 2:33
Well, to be honest, when I first started with my sake experiences is just having hot sake with my mom. Once I turned 21, she was super excited cause she didn’t have to drink hot sake alone. And, uh, one of her first things when I turned 21 was, Oh, good. I don’t have to drink sake by myself anymore. So that was my first experience. And then, through my first passion through judo led me to LA and that introduced me to a gentleman named Takuya Shimomura and Victor Huynh, and that was about, let’s say Christmas of 2013 And then, after the new year, Victor gave me Takuya san information saying, Hey, he wants to talk to you. And so I was like, Oh, about Sakeman. And he’s like, Oh, we’ll see. Cause I’ve, I’ve already heard about them. I knew that they were doing this crazy job where they get to promote sake They go to, and really nice restaurants and they wear these. Crazy masks, crazy Luchador masks. And that just really appealed to me. And then sure enough, you know, that year on national sake day, October 1st, I was officially hired to start working as Sakeman and then we were, at that time we were Sakmen, one, two and three. We were just numbers.

John Puma: 3:46
yet.

Nick Matsumoto: 3:47
No colors. Yeah, the original was just numbers. Sakeman. One was Takuya since he was the first and Victor was number two Sakeman green and then myself, which three is my favorite number. Which again, all these good, good signs, right? Starting on national sake day, meeting these guys through judo and then being the third person hired on. but Sakeman really wasn’t a brand, so to speak, it was like this cool idea that we got from, Shichida-san, uh, in Saga. He is the sponsor of Mr. Tenzan-man, a pro wrestler in the Saga prefecture who has his own mask and has the “Ten” Kanji on his face. And so Shichida-san brought that mask with him when he would promote sake in the States, because he knew it’s fun. You know, and Americans love things that stand out and helped him stand out. And then Takuya and Victor took that ideas like, Oh, we should keep doing that.

Timothy Sullivan: 4:37
Yeah. So for those people who have not heard about Sakeman before, can you describe a little bit about the Sakeman philosophy? So far we’ve established that, you’re selling sake, you’re wearing Luchador masks. What’s the philosophy behind Sakeman.

Nick Matsumoto: 4:56
Right. Well, like our mission really is to, save the world from just only knowing sake bombs or saving the world from just, boring sake or has like that negative kind of connotation of, thinking that there’s only box sake or cheap sake which is great to start, I guess, you know, it keeps your bar pretty low. And then as we get introduced to our brands that we know of, you know, like Hakkaisan on the Sakeman brands and all that, we want to introduce people to a new experience, and save them from. Not liking sake because if you like beer, if you like wine, you’ll love sake It’s just, you need someone, you need people like you guys, that are there to help hold the hand of the citizen. That’s new to sake, so that’s kind of like, our driving theme is to bring sake to the world, And then, our core actions are to, work hard, train, hard, play hard, we work hard, to, visit our customers to grow, to develop, to, spread, the good word of sake Um, another thing is that we, try to always train to, have healthy bodies we can continue to do so. Will the, uh, play harder to drink with our friends? You know, we don’t want to represent sake In a way where it’s like, Oh, we’re an unhealthy people. It’s going to cause you to be obese or something like that. So, there’s a whole mission behind it other than just, Oh, we’re here to drink with masks on our face.

John Puma: 6:14
so you mentioned the training and you mentioned earlier that your first passion was the judo. How did this judo exactly fit into all this? How did that happen?

Nick Matsumoto: 6:22
Right. So, I’ve been doing judo since I was seven Takuya Sakeman blue. Our, our vice-president started when he was like in his thirties, like pretty late in life, uh, regular, you know, relatively speaking late in life. Because his doctor was telling him, you need to do something like you’re not healthy, you know, and the way you’re going, if anyone knows Taku-san, he loves to eat well with friends and have a good time, but, his body wasn’t keeping up. So he was introduced to judo, out here in Sawtelle

John Puma: 6:46
so, it’s almost like taking a Sakeman blues, history as an example of like, have encouraging people to, work hard, play hard and drink hard. he’s the example that, that you’re trying to bring to other people is like, you can go out there and have the great food. You can drink the great stuff, but you gotta make sure you take care of yourself too.

Nick Matsumoto: 7:02
Right. And so Taku-san, met Victor through judo. And Takuya-san was needing to hire people. And he loved how went in judo. You know, there’s this thing called Randori where you’re sparring. Right. And you, and you can really get to know someone when you spar with them. You can get to know their personality. Are they strong? Are they overconfident? Are they, very self cautious. Are they polite? Are they rude? Get all these things. Cause you don’t have time to think about hiding who you truly are because someone’s trying to throw you into the ground. And so Takuya, is really big on hiring judo people because of that relationship. And then in the community, he can ask other senseis, Oh, do you know Victor? Do you know Nick? You know, what do you think about them?, and then I left found out later, Before he hired me. He was talking to Toku-san who later became Sakeman white, but he was asking, Hey, what do you think of Nick? And so it’s really big that, we don’t demand that you do judo cause we understand. But to start out, that’s how we got to know really good people with having to cut out all the waste. We don’t have to waste time with conversation. We kind of get to know you within five minutes. Through judo and, through sparring and all that. So that’s just kinda became the trend. Right now we can’t really do much judo, so we can’t use that as like a way to find people, unfortunately. Um, but that’s how it started. Our big thing now, at least for me is like, we just want you to have something, an activity you like to do. It could be yoga, it could be hiking, it could be basketball, it could be whatever, but, if you were to work for us, we want you to have that other passion too, that keeps you active and. Keeps you part of a community.

Timothy Sullivan: 8:30
Cool. I’ve seen you guys. Standing behind a table at sake events and having the masks on the Luchador masks and introducing sake to people. It really does grab attention, but I’ve always wondered. What is the strangest reaction you guys have ever gotten when you’ve appeared as Sakeman?

Nick Matsumoto: 8:52
Strangest reaction. That’s a great question. Um, it’s kind of always the same weird reaction or like we’re some guy, usually a guy wants to start wrestling us. But it’s like, you know, it’s like usually later in the day, when they’re, when, after the tastings, as you guys know, people get pretty confident. They’re like, Oh, how do I get a mask of like, you have to beat either Sakeman white or blue who are like the biggest Japanese people you’ve ever met. And, Oh, by the way, Sakeman White’s like a six, seven time national champion and so good luck. But people always want to wrestle us. Um, I think is always the main thing. Cause they assume we do wrestling and it’s close enough. We do judo. But, yeah, it’s not really too weird. It’s always, Hey, do you want, can we wrestle you? It’s like, I’m not get it.

Timothy Sullivan: 9:34
is such a, that is such an end of the sake event thing to say.

Nick Matsumoto: 9:39
Yeah, pretty much, you know,

John Puma: 9:40
Sakeman? Come on, come on.

Nick Matsumoto: 9:44
Yeah. It’s always a positive reaction that people are always like, Oh my God, what are you guys doing? What is this? I don’t think we’ve ever had a negative reaction. It’s like, Hmm, that’s a terrible idea. You know, like, no, one’s no one’s criticized us that way. Everyone’s very,, welcoming with it.

Timothy Sullivan: 9:57
It’s very fun too. I mean, that’s, that’s the point, right? It’s really fun.

Nick Matsumoto: 10:03
Exactly but the biggest impact is when we’re, a little tiny table at a huge wine expo, right? There’s like a hundred different wine providers spread out through this entire banquet room. And there’s three cute little sake tables pushed to the side, you know, with usually some, you know, some Japanese person with a Happi coat, apron, a lot of kanji, a lot of banners. And all of that. And, of course events starts, people come in like cute sake’s here, but I’m going to go try all of these different wines, but it’s like, I’ll be right back with the mask on the sudden, you know, people are like, wait, wait, wait, what? I thought this was sake. It’s like, Oh, it is, you know, but that gets the conversation going. That gets people’s attention. They’re like, Oh, I had to come at least ask what you guys are doing over here,

John Puma: 10:46
So, you’ve been, um, selling sake on the East coast and you’ve been selling sake on the West coast. Uh how’s that been different?

Nick Matsumoto: 10:53
Extremely different, very, very different. I got the job here in LA, but I was only here for about eight months or working for the company for eight months before I got moved over to New York, which I was reluctant at first, but best decision I ever made, I love that on the East coast, everyone’s trying to learn more about something. Everyone’s very interested in what’s new, something they haven’t seen before. If, if they go to a restaurant and there’s this event going on, they all want to partake. Cause it’s something different and exciting possibly. But if you do an event in New York, we’ll, let’s say like 90% of people that come will participate, uh, LA it’s like 10%. Cause, their first reaction is, Oh, I don’t drink sake, or, no, I’m just here to eat. Like they, it’s not popular. Right. It’s not. So there’s definitely a struggle, but I don’t want to talk bad about LA because they are trying, there are more restaurants wanting to sell more sake get into it. Um, I think a lot of the older generation is starting to pass it on to the younger generation and they don’t want their sake menu to look like everybody else’s sake menu. Um, but it’s, it’s crazy like LA, like I say, LA cause San Diego, we just did an event last night in San Diego. They’re into the craft stuff. They are into learning. What’s new. What’s not popular. What, what is something I can’t find in all of the Japanese markets? Um, same with like Oregon, you know, Marcus Pakieser doing it has been doing an awesome job up there with changing menus up with getting by the glass on the menus, you know, edgy, you know, being an evangelist out there. So LA is still, a little behind, but coming up, but like places like San Diego and Oregon, and, um, on, as far as the West coast, Are really like the New York style where they want to do new things. They want to try new things. Um, but yeah, it was, it was, um, it was a tough transition coming back to LA I’ll say that.

Timothy Sullivan: 12:38
I assume correct me if I’m wrong, but I assume in the before times you got the chance to visit Japan and visit some of the brewers. Is that right?

Nick Matsumoto: 12:46
Yes, that’s correct. Uh, every like end of February, we would always take a trip for about a week, two weeks. Yeah.

Timothy Sullivan: 12:53
what were some of your favorite places that you visited in Japan for sake

Nick Matsumoto: 12:59
that’s a great question. Cause there’s all so different. First of all, what comes to mind is you Yamagata san because he’s our president for one and he was one of the first brewers I visited. I’m on my first trip for sake but I remember when I was leaving because I got to know the, the worker the kurabito and I got kind of emotional because it was the first time I really saw how hard it is to make sake because for those that don’t know, it’s tough. Like I’m surprised sake has made it this long without the younger generation. Maybe I’m not doing that. Um, so that was really, that was really interesting.

Timothy Sullivan: 13:34
What part of Japan was that?

Nick Matsumoto: 13:36
That was in a Yamaguchi.

Timothy Sullivan: 13:37
Oh Yamaguchi. Okay.

Nick Matsumoto: 13:39
Yeah, Yamaguchi and then right next door to him is Harada san, Hatsumomiji. And then that one, I was blown away because it’s such a tiny facility, it’s just the four people making sake They do it year round. So it’s like inside of that facility, it’s like year round, winter. So I dunno, they’re so different experiences when you visit these brewers. But the most unique, I think hit most, uh, was when I went for the first time and just really saw the hard work it takes, we’re there at each brewer for, let’s say like two days max, and I’m exhausted. Like if you’re not making sake like for, let’s say 30% of it is making sake 70% cleaning everything. Right. And trying to squeeze in a rest and a break and a meal. Into it to say, or to see these guys and know that these people are doing it for all of winter, for months on end. And you’re like, man, I salute you. Thank you for creating this awesome beverage that makes its way to little America. And, for the most part people enjoy. And that was my mission was to try to express how hard it is to make this, thing, people call sake you know, this,

John Puma: 14:46
that’s a little bit of that. A work hard play hard. They’re working so hard so that we can play.

Nick Matsumoto: 14:51
Right, exactly. So it still falls into our, core action items or whatever you want to call

Timothy Sullivan: 14:55
Yeah, well, speaking of this awesome beverage, One thing we always do during our podcast is we always squeeze in a little tasting of our own. And Sakeman has a portfolio of sakes that you represent, that you are selling here in the States, and we’ve all brought one of those sakes from your portfolio. So what we’ll usually do, Nick, is we take just a second at the beginning and just introduce the sakes we all have. And then one by one, we’ll go and taste them. So. Since you’re our guest. Nick, why don’t you introduce just really briefly the sake

Nick Matsumoto: 15:33
Yeah. All right. Well, I just mentioned this brewery. It’s, uh, Hatsumomiji, uh, Mr. Harada, uh, the brand is Harada and it’s called the Harada 80. It’s a Junmai, that uses a sake Rice has been polished only to 80%. Uh, so tiny little brewery, and very, very unique. We don’t call it a tokubetsu. We could, but, uh, yeah, so it’s called Harada 80 of my favorite Junmais right now.

Timothy Sullivan: 15:55
Now for our listeners, 80% is not very finely milled. So that’s more of a robust rice grain, right? That’s kind of unique. That’s unique in the world of premium sake So I’m going to really be interested to hear about that and that you mentioned just a moment ago, that’s from Yamaguchi prefecture. Right. So, John, what do you have.

John Puma: 16:17
uh, I have the Suehiro Junmai Ginjo yamahai. This one is actually from, uh, from Fukushima and Nick, do you have any, any background on this one?

Nick Matsumoto: 16:29
Yeah, so it’s interesting. The Suehiro brewery was actually the the brewery that developed the Yamahai style is like back around, like in 1910, uh, gentlemen, uh, Kagi san who was a professor or scientist at the brewery. During the war time, they didn’t have the manpower to do Kimoto to which of course you guys know and has most of your listeners know it’s very labor intensive. and he discovered that actually, we don’t have to mix it. If we just, basically let it sit there, you know, this lots of activity is going to happen anyways, so that, um, that later became known as Yamahai. Of course, the yama-oroshi-haishi meaning stop the mashing. Um, so that was developed at this, at this brewery. Um, and this is their Junmai Ginjo version of that.

John Puma: 17:09
Fantastic. And Tim, what are you drinking?

Timothy Sullivan: 17:14
I have a very beautiful sake, it’s called Fukuju. And it’s from Kobe Shushinkan brewery. It’s their Junmai Ginjo. And if you’ve ever heard of Kobe beef, this is the same famous Kobe region and, it’s in Hyogo prefecture. And this is an absolutely delicious, very, very beautiful sake. I’m super excited to get this open.

John Puma: 17:36
Ooh, I actually have, uh, empirical evidence that at one point, at least this was my favorite Sakeman sake We’ll go into that a little bit later on about how that came about, but, but, I have a history with that one.

Nick Matsumoto: 17:51
Nice.

John Puma: 17:52
so Nick, why don’t you, uh, open up that Harada 80.

Nick Matsumoto: 17:58
Okay. Well, uh, I’ve already been sipping on it, but I think I’ve got one more. I’m just gonna

John Puma: 18:03
Why don’t we pretend that we’re opening up that harada 80.

Nick Matsumoto: 18:07
You all know the noise and, uh,

John Puma: 18:10
Are fully people are great. Don’t worry about it.

Nick Matsumoto: 18:12
There. All right. Perfect. Perfect. So I have I’ve poured myself a fresh pour of Harada 80.

John Puma: 18:17
Fantastic. give us a little rundown of the aroma.

Nick Matsumoto: 18:21
Sure of course. Um, so my biggest thing on this one is right off the bat is a lot of pineapple, and a lot of melon, which of course is common, but the pineapple is what threw me off the most, especially with you, if you. Talk to us sake guys, and you talk about rice polishing. And if it’s a big number, usually it’s going to give you a really ricey, really cereal, a lot of robust flavors, but to have this like super fruity aroma, I feel is pretty rare, pretty unique. for me, that’s always what I smell and it’s a little bit like a coconut too, but definitely a sweeter aroma. And of course, no additives, they didn’t add a little bit of pineapple. They didn’t use pineapple yeast by any means, it was just a local yeast and yamadanishiki 80, but it’s a Mr. Harada’s special touch, that I feel pulls this out. I’ve asked him and even he was surprised how fruity it came out. Like even he was like, Oh, I didn’t know. I could do. Yeah.

John Puma: 19:12
I’m stunned. When I hear, that, uh, sake, that has rice only milled to 80% can be fruity. that’s a bonkers to me. That’s amazing.

Nick Matsumoto: 19:20
Yeah, definitely. And I remember the first time I drank it, I was with him at, uh, one of our sake expos. I just gave him a hug. It’s like, I don’t know how you do it, man, but you make some insane and he’s like, Oh gee, thanks. You know? Um, and a quick side note to that, like I mentioned, there’s only four people that work here. three of those people are female, two of those females graduated from a high school that offer sake making courses. So for me, I think everything comes into play with making sake especially like the energy that’s in the environment. So to have this younger generation making sake could have had something to do with these youthful younger flavors coming out in the sake too. I dunno, but I feel like that definitely came into play.

John Puma: 20:02
Interesting. I will, uh, take my turn now.

Nick Matsumoto: 20:10
It’s always a sound of a good time. Once you hear the bottles crack.

Timothy Sullivan: 20:20
So John you’ve got that Suehiro Junmai Ginjo Yamahai

John Puma: 20:24
right., usually, the aroma that I get on a Yamahai is very earthy and that’s not what I’m getting from this. This is a little bit lighter on the nose and a little bit. Definitely a little bit fruitier, more bright,

Nick Matsumoto: 20:45
yeah. And with Suehiro too. they’re known for their, their own special yeast, basically. So it’s not a kyokai yeast. Um, it is what they saved for generations and generations in this deep freeze. And anytime they need more, they just kind of pluck a little bit out, then cultivate that. So you’re, you’re tasting what probably the samurai yeast to what the samurai

John Puma: 21:04
tasting. This is very interesting though. It not. the aroma led me to believe it was going to be a little bit lighter. I think I mentioned that it didn’t come across very earthy. But when I sip on it, I, that earthiness is there, but being milled down to 55%, this is actually, gohyakumangoku, rice. That’s milled down to 55. It’s still like really like refreshing and bright it’s. Um, there is that bit of that, that soft earthiness to it. little, a little bump of acidity at the end there it’s really nice. It’s very well balanced, and this is going to be something that, I think would really go well with food. I think I’m doing myself a slight disservice by just sipping it, but, uh, this is really nice stuf

Timothy Sullivan: 21:48
yeah, it’s interesting with Yamahai, you know, when Yamahai is handled in a very, careful way, it can add a depth of flavor. It’s not necessarily going to be earthy or. Bold Yamaha has that reputation and it can be very bold and robust but if it’s handled with a very deft touch with a very gentle touch, I think you can get a nice depth of flavor, but it doesn’t overwhelm. It just, it gives you an added dimension to the sake That’s really lovely.

John Puma: 22:19
Yeah, this is still very, very soft. Like this is still, even though it’s Yamahai. And again, that Yamaha presence is there, but it’s not. Overwhelming. And it’s not the, it’s not the only thing that you taste when you taste. It is, there’s a lot more to offer on this. This is really nice. Uh, now Tim, I think it is your turn to, to open up that, Fukuju.

Timothy Sullivan: 22:42
Yes. So I have, this is again from Kobe in Hyogo prefecture. I have the Fukuju. Hmm. So this is a very wonderful brewery to visit. I think Nick, do you have the chance to visit, the Kobe Shushinkan Brewery?

Nick Matsumoto: 23:08
Yes, I did. I did. That was my first trip as Sakeman.

Timothy Sullivan: 23:13
Yeah, they have a wonderful brewery, beautiful gift shop, and they also have an amazing restaurant right on the brewery. So when you go there, you can visit the gift shop. You can do a little tour and they have tours available in different languages too. So it’s a very open to people to come and visit. And the restaurant is amazing. You can get this amazing kaiseki food and. Oh, my gosh, the variety of sakes they have right there at the brewery to pair with the food. It’s like, it’s a little slice of Hyogo heaven for me whenever I visit there. It’s just so wonderful. So this has, bringing back a lot of memories smelling this, it has a very wonderful fruity characteristic, and I think that’s something that is well known for this sake that it’s very luscious and very fruity, very engaging.

Nick Matsumoto: 24:03
And that’s also the, uh, official toasting beverage at the Nobel prize banquet as well in Stockholm. So it’s definitely crowd friendly. it’s my go-to for like first time sake drinkers, yeah. And to go back to your main point. Yeah, cool. kobe shushinkan is a very tourist friendly, brewery, it’s not out in the sticks, so to speak. I can’t recommend them enough because of how much you can learn from them and experience

John Puma: 24:27
one of these days. I’m gonna get over there guys one day, someday.

Nick Matsumoto: 24:32
once this little pandemic.

John Puma: 24:33
Yeah, exactly, real quick though, my empirical evidence is that a few years back, I attended a Sakeman hosted blind tasting yes, the sake masquerade and it, and it included, every sake that was in the portfolio at the time. this was the sake that I enjoyed the most in a completely blind tasting environment. And I was surprised, cause I totally thought it was gonna be a different sake but I ended up being a coming out of that, learning a lot about my personal tastes, guys, if you at home, have the opportunity to do any sort of blind tasting, I cannot recommend it enough. It’s a amazing way to learn a lot about your personal tastes without letting things like the milling percentage or the classification or where it’s from get in the way. Packaging right there. It’s purely just you and the sake and you don’t know what it is and you’re just tasting it and enjoying it and giving yourself an honest assessment of what you have, how much you’re enjoying it, it’s a wonderful habit. It’s a great thing to do, so Tim, you, we left you off with the aroma there. I should say, i cut you off at the aroma there.

Timothy Sullivan: 25:51
I think the sake is really well known for being approachable, easy drinking, very, very smooth and super clean with a fruity edge to it. That’s how I’ve always described this sake but it’s something that I would grab if somebody said, what should I, where should I start? You know, for me, this is a good sake to introduce people To sake with, and it’s approachable, it’s easy drinking, it’s luscious and it’s just all around great introduction sake for me. So this is something I always use as a way to get people their first step into sake And, it is just so luscious and really, really delicious that it’s, I would say irresistible in many ways for me.

John Puma: 26:41
That all checks out. So, Nick, real quick question though,

Nick Matsumoto: 26:46
Yes, sir.

John Puma: 26:47
masks, they’re a big topic these days. Um,

Nick Matsumoto: 26:51
definitely. Ours are the opposite of what you’re supposed to be wearing.

John Puma: 26:55
All right. Well, I just, that is true. But you guys were ahead of the, game with mask wearing

Nick Matsumoto: 27:02
I dunno. it’s interesting now to have to wear masks on masks when we do our events, so yeah, I mean, I feel. I don’t know, like a hipster in a way that yeah, we were wearing masks before they were cool. And the right thing to do, excluding Asian countries in America, we made, yeah, we put the mask game on the map, I guess, so to speak.

Timothy Sullivan: 27:24
So when you do wear masks on mask, which how do they go? How do you layer them? What goes on top?

Nick Matsumoto: 27:29
So it’s funny because before we had to, like, we put that Sakeman mask on and then stuff, our cotton mask, like underneath it, it was really uncomfortable. But last night we had the, I don’t know the special ones that can just go over the face. Better. They don’t have to go around your ears. They go around the neck and the head. So we use those now. There’s even this little like extender piece I got, from my girlfriend, because my head is enormous and sometimes masks. Yep. And that works perfectly too for going around the mask. So yeah, we found our work around, I don’t think we’re going to go ask Japan to make custom, make us, COVID approved Sakeman masks because the whole point was to make sure we can drink and wear a mask at the same time. So.

Timothy Sullivan: 28:11
Well, I think that that’s amazing. You guys get, extra points for like really adapting and, making the best of a really tough situation without giving up on the masks. I love it.

Nick Matsumoto: 28:22
No. Of course, of course, yeah, even toku san like would put like a little custom Sakeman stamp on his cloth mask to make it a Sakeman mask. Super creative. Yeah. So, I mean, we might start doing that for the, for the fans of Sakeman that want a quote Sakeman mask. We’ll give them that one.

John Puma: 28:42
I have, I am, uh, you don’t have to sell me on, on sake swag.

Nick Matsumoto: 28:47
Indeed. That’s always, that’s one of my, uh, my dreams is to have some more Sakeman swagger to just start selling or hand out at events or whatever, but we’ll, we’ll stick with sake for now.

Timothy Sullivan: 28:57
yeah, you guys have some good stickers too. I’ve I’ve gotten some good, some good vinyl stickers from Sakeman events.

Nick Matsumoto: 29:03
Thank you. I’m a big fan of stickers as well.

Timothy Sullivan: 29:07
Yeah so Nick, if people are interested in learning more about Sakeman, where should they go? How can they reach you?

Nick Matsumoto: 29:13
you can find us on Instagram at, @goSakeman, we post pretty much everything. There are events, everything. And then that also goes to our Facebook at goSakeman, we’re working on our Twitter and YouTube and, other, platforms, but right now that’s the best way is to give us a follow on @GoSakeman

Timothy Sullivan: 29:29
so Nick, I really want to thank you so much for joining us. It’s really fun having you today.

Nick Matsumoto: 29:35
Thank you guys again for the invite and I would love to do it again someday. If you guys can pencil Sakeman, back in and cover more of this This is my first podcast I’ve ever done. So I thank you. Arigato! All right. Thank you so much to all our listeners for tuning in. We really do hope that you’re enjoying our show. If you’d like to show your support for Sake Revolution, one way you can really help us out would be to take a couple of minutes and leave us a written review on Apple podcasts. That’s one of the best ways for us to get the word out about our show.

John Puma: 30:07
and also, please make sure that you subscribe wherever you download your podcasts this way you will not miss a single episode. And while you’re at it, encourage your friend to subscribe as well.

Timothy Sullivan: 30:17
and as always to learn more about any of the topics or the Sakes that we talked about in today’s episode, be sure to visit our website, SakeRevolution.com for all the detailed show notes.

John Puma: 30:28
and of course, if you have sake questions that need to be answered sake is that you want us to taste sake superheroes you want us to interview, please reach out to us at [email protected] So till next time, please remember to keep drinking sake and kanpai!