Episode 126 Show Notes
Episode 126. This week, John and Timothy explore another brand profile: Kamonishiki from Niigata Prefecture. This small brewery breaks the mold on what most people expect from a typical Niigata brewery – that is, classic, crisp and dry flavors along with even more classic labels. The packaging for Kamonishiki’s Nifudazake line really steals the show. The focus is squarely on small batch production at Kamonishiki. Each bottle has a hang tag instead of a traditional label and this tag not only tells us the usual sake classification and rice milling rate, but also which specific tank the sake came from. The sake itself is as beautiful and unique as the packaging with fruity notes and a lush palate. Let’s have som fun and experience this barrier-busting microbrew! #SakeRevolution
Skip to: 00:19 Hosts Welcome and Introduction
Welcome to the show from John and Timothy
Skip to: 01:32 About Kamonishiki and Kamonishiki Shuzo
Since its establishment in Kamo City, Niigata Prefecture in 1893, Kamonishiki Brewery has been popular among the local people as representative of their area. Today the lifestyle surrounding sake is changing rapidly, especially since the food we eat has become more and more diverse. The word Gohan originally meant only rice, but has taken on the more general meaning of meal. Likewise the word Osake used to be the word for sake alone, but now it also means any kind of alcoholic drink.We take great effort to make the best sake for such a diverse dietary life. We may be small and limited in our output and production, yet we are proud of our work.
Kamonishiki Shuzo video:
Find Kamonishiki on Social Media
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kamonishiki_official/
Website: https://kamonishiki.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/加茂錦酒造/286328625155529/
UrbanSake: https://www.urbansake.com/sake-guide/kamonishiki-shuzo/
Skip to: 10:32 Sake Introduction and Tasting: Kamonishiki Nifudazake Junmai Daiginjo
Kamonishiki Nifudazake Junmai Daiginjo
Brewery: Kamonishiki Shuzo
Acidity: 1.3
Alcohol: 15.0%
Classification: Junmai Daiginjo
Prefecture: Niigata
Seimaibuai: 50%
Brand: Nifudazake
Rice Type: Gohyakumangoku, Yamadanishiki
Importer/Distributor: Skurnik
View on UrbanSake.com: https://www.urbansake.com/product/kamonishiki-nifudazake-tank-132-junmai-daiginjo/
Skip to: 27:21 Show Closing
This is it! Join us next time for another episode of Sake Revolution!
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Episode 126 Transcript
John Puma: 0:21
Hello everybody and welcome to Sake Revolution. This is America’s First Sake podcast and I am one of your hosts. My name is John Puma from the Sake Notes, and I’m the guy who created the internet Sake Discord.
Timothy Sullivan: 0:36
And I’m 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. Hey John, how you doing?
John Puma: 0:55
Hello there. How are you?
Timothy Sullivan: 0:57
I’m ready for some sake. It’s been a long weekend.
John Puma: 1:01
It has, it has, it has. Uh, so let’s, uh, jump right into things. today we’re doing another one in our one of our most fun series, I think this is branded where we talk about sake brands.
Timothy Sullivan: 1:16
Yep. We’re gonna focus in on one brand of sake, dive a little bit into their story and try some of their sake. So I love these brand specific episodes that we do, and this is from a region that is near and dear to my heart.
John Puma: 1:32
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So today we’re gonna be talking about Kamonishiki
Timothy Sullivan: 1:37
Yes, and they are from Niigata Prefecture.
John Puma: 1:42
Yes, very much from Niigata Prefecture, but, but I wanna say not your typical, not your grandmother’s Niigata, Prefecture sake,
Timothy Sullivan: 1:53
Why do you say that?
John Puma: 1:54
Um, well, I think that Niigata is very much known for, reserved, sometimes rice driven and very dry, crisp, finished sake. And I think. The reputation that Kamonishiki has is very much not that exact thing.
Timothy Sullivan: 2:13
well, we’re gonna put that to the test in a minute, in the glass. So I’m looking forward to
John Puma: 2:18
gotta put it in the glass and test it there. Excellent. so yeah, this is another one of those. Cult brands and those boutique brands that kind of came out of nowhere and took, uh, Japan, uh, kind of by storm in a relatively short span of time. I remember seeing it a little bit and then seeing it a lot all of a sudden. And one of those situations where you go to a place and you see it in the window and you’re asking about it and they’re always like, Oh, we don’t have that. We just put that in the window because we once had that, you know, up there with your juyondais and your Jikons
Timothy Sullivan: 2:49
Hmm.
John Puma: 2:50
and much like your Jikons, now it is available in the States. Now this one, you might have seen this bottle if you’ve been to Japan or if you’ve seen a lot of like social media or a lot of sake stuff. This one, the label is very distinct because it is a tag
Timothy Sullivan: 3:11
tag.
John Puma: 3:12
it’s a tag,
Timothy Sullivan: 3:13
it’s like a hang tag, right?
John Puma: 3:15
Yeah. Yeah. And it’s just like a big, tag with all the information on it, and it actually even has string on it and it’s just pressed, you know, against the bottle. And there’s a, there’s a sticker that keeps it in place and it’s, it. It’s just a tag.
Timothy Sullivan: 3:30
Yeah, it’s like one of those old timey manila hang tags
John Puma: 3:34
Yes. Yes.
Timothy Sullivan: 3:35
it’s about, you know, four inches long by three inches wide. So it’s, it’s pretty big. But that hang tag replaces the label and it has the hole in it and the string hanging off of it. So it’s a very interesting. Label. Very, very cool. And if you wanna see a picture, of course, just go to SakeRevolution.com for our show notes. Uh, we’ll have some photos of these really cool labels and, uh, I can’t wait to dig into all the information on this hang tag label, but you’re right, that is like the defining characteristic for this bottle, the really unique label.
John Puma: 4:11
very much so. There’s no missing, like you’re not gonna mistake this for a different sake.
Timothy Sullivan: 4:16
Yeah.
John Puma: 4:17
Not until somebody makes a copycat. Hang tag and it becomes the thing that everybody starts doing tags on their bottles. Tim, what do we know about, uh, our friends at Kamonishiki?
Timothy Sullivan: 4:29
Well, Kamonishiki, as we said, is located in Niigata and Niigata is a Prefecture on the main island of Japan on the sea of Japan’s side. And if it’s shaped kind of like a crescent itself, this brewery is located in Kamo City. Which is right in the middle of the Prefecture. It’s almost like the geographical center of the Prefecture, and it was founded in 1893.
John Puma: 4:54
Okay.
Timothy Sullivan: 4:56
And we have another story of a young son of the brewery coming home and. Revitalizing. So the current president is very young. His name is Yuichi Tanaka, and he took over directing this brewery at age of 24. Yeah. And since
John Puma: 5:21
I think I was unemployed at 24. Tim, I don’t know what you were
Timothy Sullivan: 5:24
I don’t who remembers Uh, So he took over the brewery at age 24, and I think that coincides with what you were talking about as the emergence of this Kamonishiki brand as kind of. Cult brand or as a new, let’s refer to it as like new wave sake. Like it, there’s has been this wave of sake coming forward that has a different tone to it, a different level of vibrancy and fruit and texture. And I think that he’s definitely part of these younger new wave brewers that are making a splash
John Puma: 6:03
Yeah. And it’s that familiar story. Young person comes in, they completely change it all. They’re always really young.
Timothy Sullivan: 6:11
We were young once too.
John Puma: 6:13
I
Timothy Sullivan: 6:14
I did not save a brewery when I was 24, but
John Puma: 6:17
I know.
Timothy Sullivan: 6:20
this brand is called Nifudazake. So that this brewery produces a few different brands, but this one with the the hang tag label on it, this brand is called Nifudazake, so we talked about how Tanaka san is young. Changing things up at the brewery and coming out with these new, vibrant brands, Part of this new wave of younger brewers, and I read on the importer’s website that he’s also very innovative when it comes to the engineering of sake. brewing, for example, he’s customized systems for washing the rice and he’s created. Light up illuminated tables that help him inspect the Koji while they’re growing the Koji mold onto the rice.
John Puma: 7:08
So he’s pretty hands on.
Timothy Sullivan: 7:10
absolutely. And it looks like they’re attacking this with a real sense of innovation. Not only about the flavor, but also the production method too. So I think that’s really, really cool
John Puma: 7:24
Nice. Nice. I like that.
Timothy Sullivan: 7:26
Yeah. So now let’s, let’s dig into this label, this hang tag label, which is so cool.
John Puma: 7:32
Yeah. Let’s,
Timothy Sullivan: 7:33
Yeah.
John Puma: 7:34
so what’s the first thing that’s, that jumps out at you when you look at it? Apart from the fact that it’s a hang tag.
Timothy Sullivan: 7:40
well it’s, it’s the hang tag with the string. But on the far left, it says For USA in big letters.
John Puma: 7:48
Isn’t that great?
Timothy Sullivan: 7:49
Yes. So this was made for export and made for usa. It says it right on the label.
John Puma: 7:56
Yeah. Yeah.
Timothy Sullivan: 7:57
And I know I was looking online and I know I saw another one that said for Singapore.
John Puma: 8:02
Oh really?
Timothy Sullivan: 8:02
Yes. Yeah.
John Puma: 8:04
That’s fantastic. Um,
Timothy Sullivan: 8:06
what’s the next thing that jumps out at you?
John Puma: 8:09
uh, next thing I jumps out at me is that they actually have, and this is like a geeky thing, I think they put, they put like the batch number on.
Timothy Sullivan: 8:18
Yes.
John Puma: 8:19
tank number in this case. And so, and it’s, you know, 1 32 and it’s circled and the tag has it, it’s, they have a bunch of different, tank numbers on it. And you actually know the tank it came from, which is, I don’t know. That’s something cool. I kind of think that’s awesome.
Timothy Sullivan: 8:32
That’s really cool and not usual, not common at all that you would know which tank. This label actually says tank number, and as you said, 1 32 is circled, but also on here there’s a pre Preprinted 164, 166, 172, 183. So they kind of mapped out all the tanks probably for the season
John Puma: 8:51
Mm-hmm.
Timothy Sullivan: 8:52
whatever they’re bottling, they’re gonna circle that tank. So that’s really cool too.
John Puma: 8:57
Yeah. A lot of brewers have been doing this more recently, I think, but the, the brewing year is actually printed on here as well, as part of the tag, which is nice. This is the BY21.
Timothy Sullivan: 9:08
And B.Y. Stands for brewing year
John Puma: 9:10
yeah,
Timothy Sullivan: 9:12
And then the milling rate is literally front and center, right? 50%
John Puma: 9:15
the most center thing on this label.
Timothy Sullivan: 9:18
Yeah. And then on the right hand side of the label it says Junmai Daiginjo in Japanese. So is a really interesting hang tag label and. Really cool design, Very eye catching, very distinctive.
John Puma: 9:34
Very much so. The one that, that’s a little weird is that the company logo, or you know, the brand logo is actually a really tiny graphic in the upper right hand corner, and it’s like blink and you miss it.
Timothy Sullivan: 9:46
Yeah.
John Puma: 9:47
that’s really unusual. It’s, it’s an interesting decision, but I think that they probably feel this tag is distinctive enough that they can put that logo wherever they want and, uh, people are gonna know what they’re, what they’re getting their hands on.
Timothy Sullivan: 9:59
Yep. They’ve got the logo on the upper right of the tag, as you said, but it’s also on the very top of the cap as well. So if you
John Puma: 10:07
Oh yeah. Look at that.
Timothy Sullivan: 10:09
up there,
John Puma: 10:10
Very cool.
Timothy Sullivan: 10:11
Kamonishiki
John Puma: 10:13
Kamonishiki
Timothy Sullivan: 10:14
And the logo is a little mountain as well with like a, a trail coming down from the mountain. And that’s so fitting for Niigata because Niigata so famous for being a mountainous region with all the snow. So I think that’s a really cool logo that they created.
John Puma: 10:30
Yeah. Very cool. I like it.
Timothy Sullivan: 10:32
All right. Well, John, I can’t wait any longer. Let’s get behind this manila hang tag label and taste this sake.
John Puma: 10:41
because you insist
Timothy Sullivan: 10:42
I do. So do you wanna give us the stats that we have for this?
John Puma: 10:47
I would love to. So this sake is made from a combination of Yamadanishiki and and gohyakumangoku both milled to 50%. The alcohol by volume a little bit on the lighter side compared to some of the things we’ve been drinking recently on the show at 15%, uh sake meter value, is plus five. So, A touch on the dry side. Tim, as mention as you mentioned earlier from the label, this is a Junmai Daiginjo and the subbrand here is Nifudazake. and the acidity is 1.3. I should mention also that, from that Yamadanishiki and Gohyakumangoku, as, as a thing that happens occasionally, uh, the Yamadanishiki. is the Koji Rice and the Gohyakumangoku is providing the starch element, uh, that is the kakemai and, but both of them are 50% though.
Timothy Sullivan: 11:38
Mm-hmm. All right.
John Puma: 11:40
Uh, yeah.
Timothy Sullivan: 11:41
Good, Good, good.
John Puma: 11:43
let’s open it up.
Timothy Sullivan: 11:45
All right, so it’s time for ASMR. If you enjoy this part, turn up your volume. If you don’t turn down your volume.
John Puma: 12:06
All right, we’ve got it in the glass.
Timothy Sullivan: 12:10
Okay, so as a self-proclaimed expert in Niigata which I’m not, but as a huge Niigata sake fan, normally those sakes are more aggressively charcoal filtered and you get this really crystal clear water like appearance in the glass. And this has a noticeable, uh, hue to, it doesn’t.
John Puma: 12:31
a tiny bit.
Timothy Sullivan: 12:32
There’s a little, a little hint of color and let’s give it a smell.
John Puma: 12:41
This is a bit on the reserve side.
Timothy Sullivan: 12:43
Yeah, Yeah. It’s not super. Outgoing aromatically, but to me it smells a little peachy. Like a little bit of, uh, peach, maybe a little bit of pear.
John Puma: 12:55
Hmm, I’m getting a little bit of grape, like the green green, a green grape, not like grape flavor but what, what an actual grape smells like.
Timothy Sullivan: 13:04
Hmm. But it’s definitely fruity,
John Puma: 13:07
Mm-hmm.
Timothy Sullivan: 13:08
I think. Yeah.
John Puma: 13:09
Overwhelming. It’s very subtly fruity.
Timothy Sullivan: 13:11
Yeah. Let’s give it a taste.
John Puma: 13:14
Yes. lets.
Timothy Sullivan: 13:16
Ooh. Hmm. Do you feel a little prickling on your tongue?
John Puma: 13:22
There is a bit of that. There is definitely some action still going here.
Timothy Sullivan: 13:26
It’s some action.
John Puma: 13:28
Some action.
Timothy Sullivan: 13:29
So it, it’s not a carbonated sake by any stretch, but it felt like having a freshly opened bottle. It felt like a little prickling, a little effervescence on the tongue. Just a hint of that, but almost as a sign of how, how fresh and lively the sake is.
John Puma: 13:48
Yeah, definitely. The first thing I noticed as well was like, Wow, hold on. This is still a little bit active.
Timothy Sullivan: 13:54
Yeah. Two things hit me right away with this sake. One is the texture has a richness and a weight to it. It’s only 15% alcohol. It’s not boozy at all. But there’s, there’s a coating aspect to this. There’s, there’s a richness to it that it, it’s not light, clean and crisp like most Niigata sake. So you said at the start of the show, it’s got a little bit of richness. Do you pick up on that?
John Puma: 14:19
I do. I do. This is A little bit more on the a little bit more on the aggressive side flavorwise, especially with, with how reserved the nose was. It kind of takes you by by surprise.
Timothy Sullivan: 14:30
Hmm. Yeah.
John Puma: 14:31
It’s not overwhelming. It’s not like, I think we’ve definitely tasted things, how’re a lot more big upfront. But there is interesting amount of depth here.
Timothy Sullivan: 14:41
Yeah, and for me, the flavors, again, there’s like peachy flavors and plum. I’m getting a lot of plum flavors, that silky kind of richer texture and a soft round finish, and it does linger a bit.
John Puma: 14:58
It does, This is a joy to sip on
Timothy Sullivan: 15:01
Okay. We have the thumbs up from JP
John Puma: 15:05
For, for sipping, definitely. this is fantastic. it’s just, it’s such a nice relaxing. Sake, but there’s a lot going on. It’s not, it’s not a boring, relaxing sake. Some people, I’ve had people comment that the sake that I might like sipping can be sometimes described as dull
Timothy Sullivan: 15:22
Impossible.
John Puma: 15:23
I know. Uh, no, this is definitely not dull. Uh, is, uh, a lot of fun to sip on actually. Uh, I am getting that, that peach that you described, a little less of the plum, but I honestly have not had a plum in many years.
Timothy Sullivan: 15:41
Well, now that you’re tasting sake on the innerwebs, you have to eat all the fruits out there, yes. So next time I say starfruit, I want you to know what I’m talking about.
John Puma: 15:53
I’m on it. I got homework. Yeah. This is remarkably well balanced for all different, how interesting. texture is how interesting that little, um, that bit of fun on the mouth feel when you first, uh, sip on it. The fruit, not just being your, your run in the mill tropical fruit. That light, smooth finish, that little bit of a linger really all goes really well together. That’s what I’m, that’s what I’m loving about this. The journey of the sip is exciting for.
Timothy Sullivan: 16:29
Yeah. Two things I want to talk about. One is how this sake probably plays out in a modern Japanese sake bar, higher end sake bar, and also how it differs from classic Niigata sake. Cuz I think that’s a really interesting thing. So one of the reasons that I, after tasting this now, for kind of the first time, I feel like I can understand why this might be. Veering towards a cult status style sake. It’s got the story of the young son coming back with innovation and engineering prowess to create a new style and break away from tradition a little bit. And if you can imagine sitting in a high end sake bar in Japan, sipping this out of a beautiful crystal wine glass, I can see people having that experience of like, Oh my gosh, this is really different.
John Puma: 17:26
Yes. And it is different.
Timothy Sullivan: 17:29
Yeah.
John Puma: 17:30
That’s like a really good way of putting it.
Timothy Sullivan: 17:32
Yeah. And the
John Puma: 17:34
And speaking of d.
Timothy Sullivan: 17:36
Yes.
John Puma: 17:37
How does this compare to your, you know, your, you have tasted, I would imagine many orders of magnitude more nega sakes than I have
Timothy Sullivan: 17:45
Yeah. And I was lucky enough to live in Nega for a year, so I got to taste a lot of sakes at the source, at different breweries around the Prefecture and. One thing that is very true, even though it’s not universal in Niigata, but it’s very true that there is this regional style that’s been cultivated over the years, which is tanrei Kaci means dry, right, and tanrei means kind of clean or beautiful, and it’s often translated as like crisp, clean, and dry as the overarching regional style for niigata. And one way that they achieve that style is by charcoal filtering thoroughly and creating a, a visual in the glass that matches that crisp, clean style. And I think that that’s one of the things that’s been skipped over here is that treatment of the sake after fermentation as. You know how they, how they make it super crystal clear traditionally, and this one has just a hint of color to it. It has that richer texture versus that that crisp, bright dryer texture. This has a little bit more coating, a little bit more richness, and. Yeah, really interesting. So this breaks away from the Niigata to mold very distinctly.
John Puma: 19:11
Yeah. when I first found out that this was actually from Niigata to, I was quite surprised because it really has more in common with those modern. those modern sakes, those modern cult sakes that we’ve been talking about so much. I mean, those are geographically diverse too. Like when jikons over in, in Mie, Juyondais over in Yamagata. And then this one over here in Niigata. They’re kind of going, I don’t say they’re, going against style necessarily, but they’re not being beholden to it, and they’re breaking out and just doing their own thing.
Timothy Sullivan: 19:43
Right. You know, I took a look at the Kamonishiki Sake Brewery Instagram page, and it is, I would say 80% of the photos on their Instagram are photos of these hang tag. Labels on a black background and they’re just announcing each release. So another thing that’s interesting here is that these are almost like micro releases. So the labels, I think one of the reasons they chose this hang tag label that just gets suspended on the the bottle versus something glued on is that they are doing such a fine grained production method. Highlighting each tank, like not a brewing season, like this is our 2021 Junmai Daiginjo. They have like 14, 15 different tanks that they highlight. They release some of them as unpasteurized, some of them as shiboritate. is the one we have as a special release for the USA
John Puma: 20:50
and I love that they just throw that on the bottle. That’s great.
Timothy Sullivan: 20:53
And some that are pasteurized, some milled to 40%, some milled to 50%. And each of these has a different tank number circled. And if you get into sake geekery and you wanna follow a brewery, this is like collect them all trading cards in my book. You know,
John Puma: 21:13
So, so you’re saying this is like, this is like sake, Nerd Catnip is like this brand and they’re doing all the things to get to get the sake nerds really excited. I’m alright with that by the way, and as a sake nerd, I’m like, yeah, that sounds great. I wish, I wish we could get more of that going on.
Timothy Sullivan: 21:31
Yeah, like if you could say, Oh, I had the tank 180 3, 40% milled from by 20, and I prefer that just a bit to the 50% milled by 21 from Tank 1 66 you know, it’s like, oh my God, I think it’s so cool. This is like right up my alley. I love
John Puma: 21:52
is that would be too much for me, I think.
Timothy Sullivan: 21:57
but it’s. Such an interesting way to approach this. It is the opposite of a mass market approach to producing sake, micro brewed attention to detail and all the different rices can be highlighted on this label, all the different fermentation productions and all the different, finishing methods and all the different tanks that they have to choose from. So just really, really fun, really interesting, and it’s so cool that we have. A version of this in the US for us to enjoy here.
John Puma: 22:30
Yeah, and I, I really like that it’s, you know, specifically outlined in that way because it makes me wonder like, did they do some kind of, research that they speak to the importer and be like, Hey, what, you know, what’s popular over there? And then try to. Do that or do they have something that they were like, a vision that was like, No, we wanna do this for the us We think they’re gonna like that. That just seems really interesting to me. Cause because they’re so hyper-specific about what they’re doing, it seems exciting that they’ve, that to know what they chose and it makes me want to know what else they chose. For the other regions you pointed. That there’s one for Singapore. I want to taste that one and see how it compares it to one from the us. Like is there one for Canada? We can probably find a way to get that. If we tried really hard, that would be fun. And just to see like what they changed, um, for each region and see if there’s a regionality to the, to the destination to it. It’s fun. It’s interesting.
Timothy Sullivan: 23:21
Yeah. Well, given that they make so many versions of all these different sakes, when they highlight the different tanks, I would imagine they have a lot to choose from for shipping to different locations.
John Puma: 23:33
Yeah. Mm-hmm. I love it. Really, really good stuff. Um, I’m glad it’s here. And it, I think that these guys got really popular just a few short years ago, and they’re here already, so that’s, um, That’s great. It’s good news.
Timothy Sullivan: 23:49
Yeah. And the Instagram goes back to, you know, 2020. So brewing year 20. So this is a relatively new phenomenon that’s been around for a couple years. I’m not sure how long they’ve been making this brand, but from their Instagram, it looks like they’ve been posting these labels starting around 2020. Okay, Well this is a great sake, like you said, really delicious. Any thoughts on food pairing before we, before we
John Puma: 24:18
Mm. Uh, maybe you should lead it with the food pairing. This is very. I feel like there’s a, there’s a house of cards with the sake because every, every bit is so important to the experience.
Timothy Sullivan: 24:32
Yeah, it’s.
John Puma: 24:33
This is a sip in sake for John
Timothy Sullivan: 24:34
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. This gets a lot from being in a wine glass, and I think it gets a lot from being the right temperature. Like I think this should be served, uh, chilled for sure, for in, in my book.
John Puma: 24:47
Yes. I will say that it’s been, you know, it’s been in our glass here for about, probably about, uh, 15, 15, 20 minutes now, that aroma is a little bit less subtle
Timothy Sullivan: 25:00
Hmm.
John Puma: 25:01
at this point for me. And I don’t know if it’s just a matter of it warming up a couple of degrees. Uh, it’s still quite chilled, but just a tad less and definitely getting a little bit more aroma. Flavor is still, you know, the flavor journey is still right on time, but really, really wonderful stuff. And I, it’s, you know, like, like all of these, uh, cult-y sakes, I get it. I understand why people are excited to have this.
Timothy Sullivan: 25:27
Hmm. So, uh, for food pairing for me, I often get cravings for one particular dish that’s in my head. And this one I’m craving. I mentioned plum before, and that’s been circling in my mind. And there’s one savory dish that I love that has plum in it, and that is Sasami Yakitori, which is like the, the breast meat Yakitori, with a little dab of the salted plum on it. And it gives you this salty, umami, yummy, delicious bite of chicken. And I. That would have just that hint of that plum flavor, a little bit of salt, and the smokiness from the yakitori. And this has the rich body to stand up to that. And the little hint of plum for me and uh, peach and plum on there, I think would marry very beautifully with that. So that’s kind of what popped into my mind for pairing with this.
John Puma: 26:28
That does sound nice. I have not had that style of Yakitori in a very long time.
Timothy Sullivan: 26:34
It’s one of my, it’s one of my favorites, and you can’t overdo it. You just get like this little dollap of the ume boshi plum on there, pickled plum on there, and it is so good. Such a nice contrasting salty, fruity flavor to the, to the umami and the chicken and the charcoal smoke. It’s really, really good. So I think that would go great with this.
John Puma: 26:55
I usually get mine with the Wasabi dallops instead, but the Plum dallop are also very good.
Timothy Sullivan: 27:00
Yes. And sometimes they
John Puma: 27:02
Tim? Are we hungry?
Timothy Sullivan: 27:03
getting hungry. Sometimes they layer a little bit of shiso leaf on there, so the chicken meat with shiso leaf and then the dollap. So can get really, really good. That’s
John Puma: 27:14
All right. You know, any place in New York that does that? We’re going
Timothy Sullivan: 27:17
Okay, we’re going. I’ll meet you there. All
John Puma: 27:20
Excellent.
Timothy Sullivan: 27:21
Uh, cool. Well, John, great to taste with you. Uh, this was really fun to talk about our new brewery. Like we said, the labels indicate all the different variations for the different tanks, different milling rates, different rices. So when we get back to Japan, we have to look this sake up and try some of the other labels that may not be here in the States, but we are gonna try those when we get to Japan and contrast and compare and get our sake geek on with those those tank numbers. Right.
John Puma: 27:55
Yeah. And every time I ever encounter this sake, I’m gonna be looking at those tank tank numbers now and trying to get those details. Gonna take some photos, we can go over it later. It’ll be great.
Timothy Sullivan: 28:03
Yeah, I’m gonna be like Tank 1 32. That’s so 2022 All right. Awesome. Well, I want to thank all of our listeners today for tuning in. Thanks so much and a special HI and hello to all of our patrons if you’d like to support Sake Revolution one great way to support us is to join our community on Patreon. To learn more, visit patreon.com/Sakerevolution.
John Puma: 28:32
And did you know there’s other ways to support this podcast? You can also review our show at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, any of that stuff. Um, and it really does get the word out about the show. It also helps the algorithm find us. So when you’re looking for stuff and it’s like, Oh, other things that are like this, you want them to point at sake, revolution. So until next time, please grab a glass. Remember to keep a drinking sake and kanpai.