Episode 141. When you think of Washington DC, What pops to mind? Maybe the White House? or perhaps the picturesque cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin each spring? If this week’s guest has her way, when you think of DC, you’ll soon think of “sake”! Reiko Hirai is the founder of DC Sake Co – an online sake retailer serving the Washington DC area. She’s also an event planner and a strong voice working to promote sake in our nation’s capital. This year marks Reiko’s first annual Spring Sake Festival in DC with an upcoming event happening on April 6th 2023 that is not to be missed. We toast with one of Reiko’s favorite sakes, Fukucho Junmai Ginjo, to celebrate the coming of spring and to celebrate sake in Washington DC! #SakeRevolution

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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: 01:08 About Reiko Hirai and DC Sake Co
D.C. Sake cō. was founded in 2020 by Reiko Hirai, a Japanese woman who grew up in Kyoto, Japan. Reiko has lived in the DC area for 20+ years, where she created her own event management and consulting business in 2006. Through her work, Reiko serves as a liaison between Japanese and U.S. businesses, where she gets to utilize her passion for introducing people to new cultural experiences each day. Through her business, Reiko has immersed herself in everything from Japanese music, to technology, to art, to food and beyond, and continues to work closely with businesses and institutions with strong ties to Japan, including the National Cherry Blossom Festival and the Embassy of Japan, to name a few. Reiko has seen first-hand how people have become increasingly curious about sake. Over the last few years, as DC was propelled into an exciting food scene, it became clear to her that she wanted to elevate the presence of sake in DC. Thus, D.C. Sake cō. was born. Reiko is not a sake expert – she is simply passionate about showcasing Japan to the DC community. This is just the beginning of Reiko’s journey with D.C. Sake cō. , and she plans to expand into Maryland and Virginia soon.

About DC Sake Co:
In June 2020, D.C. Sake cō. became DC’s first local e-commerce site specializing exclusively in Japanese beverages. For years, people have been asking for high-quality sake – now, there is finally a platform for DC’s sake-loving community to come together. That’s why the “co.” in “D.C. Sake cō.” stands for collaboration, community, and connection. Sake, a clear alcoholic beverage from Japan, has gradually developed a core fan base in the United States. As DC’s Michelin-rated dining scene continues to evolve, we see great opportunity for sake to be explored and enjoyed throughout our city.We look forward to expanding our delivery area and exploring how sake can bring communities together. Please stay in touch with us and keep an eye out for future events and adventures to connect with other sake fanatics! D.C. Sake cō. is a woman-owned independent business.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dcsake/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DCSake
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dc_sake
Website: https://dcsake.com/

☛ DC’s Spring Sake Festival 2023 ☚
Get your tickets now for DC’s first Spring Sake Festival 2023
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/spring-sake-festival-2023-tickets-587510187787

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Skip to: 13:14 Fukucho Moon on the Water Junmai Ginjo

Fukucho Moon on the Water Junmai Ginjo

Alcohol: 16.5%
Classification: Junmai Ginjo
Prefecture: Hiroshima
Rice Type: Hattannishiki, Yamadanishiki
Seimaibuai: 55%
SMV: +3.0
Acidity: 1.4
Brewery: Imada Shuzohonten
Sake Name English: Moon on the Water
Importer/Distributor: Vine Connections (USA)
Brand: Fukucho (富久長)

view on UrbanSake.com

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Skip to: 28:24 Show Closing

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

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John Puma: 0:21
Hello everybody and welcome to Sake Revolution. This is America’s First Sake podcast and I am your host, John Puma From the Sake Notes, also the administrator at the Internet Sake Discord, and, uh, the guy who runs the r slash sake community over at Reddit.

Timothy Sullivan: 0:39
And I’m 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 here tasting and chatting about all things sake and doing our best to make it fun and easy to understand.

John Puma: 0:55
Uh, so Tim, how have you been? And, uh, before we get too far into that, I, I noticed we’re not alone again,

Timothy Sullivan: 1:01
yes. We have another exciting interview for today. I’m doing well, John. Hope you are too.

John Puma: 1:07
I am.

Timothy Sullivan: 1:08
Awesome. I’m so excited to introduce you to our guest for this week. We have a friend visiting us from Washington DC. Her name is Reiko Hirai, and she is the owner and operator of DC sake, an online sake seller in DC and I am so excited to welcome her to the show and talk sake today. So Reiko, welcome to the Show.

Reiko Hirai: 1:33
Hi, how are you? Thank you so much for having.

John Puma: 1:36
Welcome. Welcome. Good to see you.

Timothy Sullivan: 1:39
It’s a pleasure to have you. Thanks for joining us.

John Puma: 1:41
Yeah. so, you’re selling sake down in DC which, uh, is a kind of, in my mind, I always think of, uh, for sake, I always think of DC as kind of an emerging market. And I always thought that like, oh, this is a place that’s primed, for some sake discoveries. but before we get into kind of the DC sake thing, let’s talk a little bit more about, how you got into sake. What led you to this moment?

Reiko Hirai: 2:05
Yeah. So,, I actually have been living in DC for, more than 20 something years.

Timothy Sullivan: 2:13
20 something.

John Puma: 2:13
20 something years.

Reiko Hirai: 2:16
I’m like a dc. DC and Washingtonian

John Puma: 2:19
Wow. Okay.

Reiko Hirai: 2:20
Yeah. Um, I started my business, back in 2006. I have a, another business that I do, I run an event and project management company. So I had that for a while, since 2006. And one of the thing that we do is to promote the Japanese content, or work with the Japan related organizations like Embassy of Japan or National Cherry Blossom Festival, Japan America Society, all that, Japan, Japan organizations, in DC And so around 2015, I started to get a lot of requests, from the embassy trying to promote the Japanese sake, you know, and I know that Japan was really into trying to export the sake, uh, starting early. I think 2000 and it was starting to grow. so in Washington, DC they were looking for the event production company who can help put together the sake events. And, I raised my hand, then, so I started to work on the sake promotion with them. Back then we did a lot of sake tasting events, in different venues, you know, Smithsonians and things. And I was really, I, I wasn’t the sake drinker myself, but I kind of got to learn about the sake through these events. And then I really kind of enjoyed seeing people who came to, sake events and people were tasting the sake. and they were really reacting it very po surprisingly, you know, like, like, oh, this is so good. You know? And the next thing you know, people start asking, this is so good, where can I get it? And that was a golden question, right? And back then, like John said, you know, the DC is, was back then still like emerging. Area in terms of sake. Uh, we had some sakes of course, at the restaurants, but there was really no place that people could go and buy. And so when we were promoting sake at these, events, you know, they bring very specific sake, of course. but when they ask where can they get it, that specific sake, we had no idea who had that sake at that time, you know, which restaurant or what shop, or anything like that. So the only thing that we were able to say was, oh, sorry, Yeah. Uh, it’s not available yet. And, it was like that for a while and it that, that really kind of started to bother me. so I decided to take that, into my own hands.

John Puma: 5:15
Nice. Nice. So, so you got into sake by way of promoting sake. That’s interesting. I think that’s a reversal from what we usually see, right? Tim?

Timothy Sullivan: 5:24
Yeah. So doing sake events turned you on to sake as a product, and then you started your own business selling sake. can you tell us a little bit about. How your company would, it’s called DC sake co. Can you tell us how that evolved and how that developed and what’s, what’s happening right now with your Sake company online?

Reiko Hirai: 5:46
Yeah, so DC Sake Co., actually, I call it a DC Sake Co with the “O”, with the little Bar because, DC Sake co actually stands for community Collaborations and Connections. also in kanji in Japanese sake is a sake. And Co is like It’s more like a exchange, the Japanese character using that. So we’re all about collaborating and, you know, creating the community, of sake loving community here in DC. Yeah, so, my idea, originally when I started to think about, okay, maybe, you know, this is so frustrating that there’s no place to buy sake. Maybe I should open up a sake shop myself. And I started to look around Washington, dc uh, to find possible real estate. Uh, I can open the sake shop. Um, but when you calculate, the rent versus bottles that I need to sell. I knew DC was warming up to sake, but not that much yet. You know, so, so I started to, at one point I had that, you know, around 2016. I really kind of tried to think about that, but then I stopped that idea because of the finance, but then, 2019 I started to rethink because, uh, of the online shop

John Puma: 7:25
Mm-hmm. ,right? Yeah. I think that a lot of things sound like really great ideas until you see the cost associated with them, and it’s like, well, what else can we do? then you discovered the, the possibilities of online. Mm-hmm.

Reiko Hirai: 7:37
So possibility of online and then I kind of roughly calculated myself to say, okay, so if I don’t sell, a bottle, the whole through year, how much am I gonna lose? Right? And then if I calculated for three years, like, is this something that I can get into? I have no idea about the internet, e-commerce business or any, I’m a, I’m an event person. I’ve never ran e-commerce. So, um, so I calculated the number and I decided that you know. if I had to stop losing completely, like not, you know, sales sake have to stop and if I lose this much, it was worth it for me, you know, so, so I decided to give it a chance. But then the, I like the online style right now because it’s not, married to the one location, but I very fluid.

John Puma: 8:36
Mm-hmm.

Reiko Hirai: 8:36
and bring myself to different ways to connect with people. Instead of them coming to my shop, I go to them. So I’m kind, really enjoying, starting this collaborations

John Puma: 8:49
that’s great. And I, and I, I trust you have been able to sell at least some sake in a year,

Timothy Sullivan: 8:54
Have you sold at least one bottle?

John Puma: 8:56
at least one bottle. All right. So it’s all covering up Roses,

Reiko Hirai: 9:01
I got lucky actually cuz I opened my business 2020 in June, which was in the middle of the pandemic.

John Puma: 9:07
Right. I, I do think that the pandemic was, pardon the term good for online retailers, like, generally speaking, cuz people couldn’t go out to stores or in some cases just didn’t, you know, felt unsafe doing so and having stuff come to their home became a much more, uh, accepted way of, of doing things or I think it was really big for e-commerce. So you might have commented just like the right time for that

Reiko Hirai: 9:30
I didn’t plan that way, but yes, it.

Timothy Sullivan: 9:33
so you talked about establishing your online sake retail business during the pandemic. How has it been going? You know, you calculated, if I only sell one bottle, can I, can I make this work? And what, what has happened in the last, two to three years? Has it been a success in your eyes? Has it been big challenges coming your way? What’s, what’s happened with your online business?

Reiko Hirai: 9:57
So it’s, there’s always a challenge in everything too. But, so far we are growing little by little. We have a good, I can now say that we are definitely growing a DC sake love community but first two years was really, trying to get handle of this online, uh, business. And I, during the pandemic, I delivered the sake myself.

John Puma: 10:23
Oh my, that’s dedication right there.

Reiko Hirai: 10:26
Yeah. By myself. And, you know, now I have a team of eight, all part times, but, you know, we have a delivery person. Storage. The person who helps packing and online manage the online, the newsletter. I mean, there’s many people who, support us, you know, with the business. And so, this year, going into, we’re celebrating three year in June. and this year is the first time that we actually have a plan for the year You know, we have, anchor event every season, spring, summer, fall, and winter. And then, we’re gonna start, uh, monthly sake tasting, featuring the, monthly trio that we always put together. So, we’re partnering, we’re collaborating with the local shop. Where they can accommodate us to do the tasting. And so being a online shop, we’re being able to collaborate with so many different local businesses in DC where we’re growing the community together.

John Puma: 11:37
Nice. Nice. So what makes the DC market, unique or, or special?

Reiko Hirai: 11:42
I think for me, I mean, I haven’t seen all the markets yet, but obviously, uh, New York, uh, has, uh, so many restaurants and so many selections of sake. there’s, amazing sake bars, multiple sake bars in New York, where in DC we don’t that sort of a selections or that many sake, specialized bars or anything. But people are definitely, getting more interested. And, It was just, uh, recent that DC became a Michelin city. and as soon as that Michelin city hit, so many chefs start to get interested in different, you know, not just the beverages, but the ingredients and things like that. And sake had a little slow start, but now I feel like a lot of the chefs are really, really into trying to pair the sake with their food. So this spring, As a sake, shop owner, they automatically think I’m like the specialist of the school student myself, in a way. But, you know, I help, chefs with the basics of the sake so we can, get the, the sake into the consumer’s hand from different parts. So, so DC is very, very exciting that way that it’s. and the growing market.

John Puma: 13:14
Nice, nice, nice, nice. so. as is the custom here on our show here. We do like to drink some sake with our guests and, uh, this is absolutely no exception. And today we’re gonna be sipping on, uh, Fukucho Moon on the Water. Now, that was selected by you Reiko, and I want to know, what made you pick this?

Reiko Hirai: 13:36
Yeah, of course, it’s an international women’s, month this month, and, as you probably know Fukucho is from Imada Shuzo, Miho Imada-san, is the brew master and the president of the brewery. She, I had her Sake in my selection, but I didn’t really have a chance to really learn about her until she was selected, I think, for the BBCs 100 woman in 2020. and she was selected because she, was, The, the old traditional industry, but at the same time, you know, bringing all the innovative things and keep challenging to keep the, the community growing. And, that really sort of inspired me, her energy. And so I wanted to share this exactly with you to, show the respect for her.

John Puma: 14:32
That’s

Timothy Sullivan: 14:32
That’s awesome. John, do you want to give us the stats for the Fukucho Moon on the Water?

John Puma: 14:40
Of course I would. so yes, as we mentioned, this is the Fukucho Moon on the Water. It is from Imada Shuzo Honten over in one of my favorite prefectures, Hiroshima. And, this is, using, uh, hattan-nishiki, which is a local rice and yamada-nishiki, milled down to 55% of their original size. The sake meter value is a plus three. So we’re looking at touch. Dry acidity is 1.4, so that’s not gonna be getting in the way too much, and the alcohol percentage is 16.5. Good stuff.

Timothy Sullivan: 15:16
And they’re selling this as a Junmai Ginjo grade sake. Reiko. do you have any experiences serving this sake or any stories about this sake from past events.

Reiko Hirai: 15:27
Yeah, so I, we also do a, uh, home sort of, uh, uh, we, we bring the sake to customers home for the Private Event

John Puma: 15:35
Mm-hmm.

Reiko Hirai: 15:36
I often choose this sake, just to show the diversity of the industry, that’s happening in Japan. whenever, we have the, female guests in the crowd, uh, whenever I talk about. She gets the, applaud can’t hear it, but I hear it for her, uh, So, people really love it. it’s an opportunity for, uh, everyone to learn about the regions and, you know, so I really enjoy showing this sake.

John Puma: 16:07
Great, and it happens to be fabulous sake as well. That makes it easier to show off to people.

Timothy Sullivan: 16:13
All right, well, let’s get this in the glass, shall we? Yeah. All right, so I have the Fukucho known as Moon on the Water junmai Ginjo. I’ve got this in the glass. It has just a hint of. Yellow color to it. I think just a a, just the slightest hint of a straw color.

John Puma: 16:41
Just a hair. It is, yeah. Almost completely clear

Timothy Sullivan: 16:45
Mm.

Reiko Hirai: 16:46
Uh, they don’t charcoal filter.

Timothy Sullivan: 16:48
No, not charcoal filtered. Oh, great. Okay. That’s really good to know. Thanks, Reiko. Let’s give it a smell.

Reiko Hirai: 16:55
Hmm.

Timothy Sullivan: 16:57
What do you think Reiko-san?

Reiko Hirai: 16:59
Oh, this is so beautiful. It’s so like a riped fruits, you know, almost like a melon. I really, this is a, a beautiful ginjo aroma.

John Puma: 17:12
Yeah, it really is. Wow.

Timothy Sullivan: 17:15
Reiko. I think you’re right on the money there. This is like a classic GInjo aroma, and if you’re doing seminars in people’s homes or private lectures to show people what a true ginjo aroma’s like, I think this is a great example of.

Reiko Hirai: 17:32
Yeah. Yeah, that’s exactly why I choose this sake. also to talk about the ginjo as soon as you open the bottle, that aroma hits. So, and then, so I put the bottle towards the customer’s nose and open, and they’re like, Ooh, uh,

John Puma: 17:51
Yeah, this, I think this would be a wonderful, like with this aroma, it’s a really good, like get, get somebody in the door with sake type of sake.

Timothy Sullivan: 17:59
All right. Well, let’s give it a taste.

John Puma: 18:02
That’s just a feel good sake. you

Timothy Sullivan: 18:06
Are you feeling? Are you feeling good john?,

John Puma: 18:07
I’m feeling good. I feel great about this. This is lovely.

Reiko Hirai: 18:11
has a long finish

John Puma: 18:12
Mm-hmm.

Timothy Sullivan: 18:12
Hmm. So there’s a little bit of richness on the palate. Um, it, it has a little bit of a coating characteristic to it, and there’s, for me, there’s a hint of sweetness. As John mentioned, the SMB is plus three, which is kind of in the neutral zone.

John Puma: 18:28
A little bit. Yeah.

Timothy Sullivan: 18:29
It’s, SMV plus three, which is kind of in the neutral area and I, I find that that allows a little bit of sweetness to come through and it’s not super dry on the finish. It has that more lingering wine like finish, like you said, Reiko. And, uh, it’s got overall great balance.

John Puma: 18:49
I think the, the fruit that we get in the nose comes in a lot at the front of this sip and then that richness. kind of takes over and guides you through the rest of your, of your tasting. It’s really lovely.

Timothy Sullivan: 19:04
Now, Reiko, you’re originally from Japan and you’re from Kyoto. Is that right?

Reiko Hirai: 19:10
Yes, I am. I am a Kyoto woman.

John Puma: 19:13
Oh, okay.

Timothy Sullivan: 19:14
Now, if you were to pair this sake with some food, maybe some Japanese food, what type of pairing ideas do you have for the Fukucho Moon on the Water?.

Reiko Hirai: 19:27
So, okay. Because, you know, Hiroshima, is famous for oyster. Uh, that’s like almost immediate,

Timothy Sullivan: 19:36
Okay.

Reiko Hirai: 19:37
but I also enjoyed it with the, almond chocolate.

Timothy Sullivan: 19:42
Ooh,

John Puma: 19:43
Now you’re, you’re speaking my language. Uh, that sounds like exciting.

Reiko Hirai: 19:51
Was really it, uh, surprisingly, it’s very different from oyster.

John Puma: 19:57
Mm-hmm.

Reiko Hirai: 19:58
I really, really enjoyed that pairing. That was a Valentine’s time,

John Puma: 20:04
I’m gonna make a note.

Timothy Sullivan: 20:06
So that would play up, that would play up the sweetness a little bit if you paired it with chocolate. Yeah.

Reiko Hirai: 20:12
Yeah.

John Puma: 20:12
Yeah,

Timothy Sullivan: 20:13
Excellent.

John Puma: 20:15
that sounds good.

Timothy Sullivan: 20:16
So, Reiko, you mentioned that you’re an event planner in DC and you’ve got this sake business on the side. So are there any sake events coming up that we should know about for the DC area?

Reiko Hirai: 20:29
Yes. Thank you so much for asking how timely. So in Washington, one of the things that I have been involved doing was, being part of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. And the whole time that I was involved with the Cherry Blossom Festival, I always wondered why there was no, event that specifically specializes in sake. that would happen every year. former cherry Blossoms and sake was a natural fit, but as an event, it was so hard to make it happen, you know?

Timothy Sullivan: 21:10
Hmm.

Reiko Hirai: 21:10
Now that I have a business myself in the industry, I kind of know why it didn’t, but then it made me realize. Maybe I have to be the one to start this tradition. I like to take things on to myself, you know, so this year, we’re starting this, Spring Sake Festival in Washington dc. It’s going to be on the April 6th. at the Zena Hotel, is in the, very center of Washington dc And we are starting this, uh, hopefully to start this new tradition where, people look forward to it.

Timothy Sullivan: 21:52
That’s awesome. And it makes a lot of sense because I think the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC is one of the most well known Japanese events in the country. It’s really famous and it goes on for a whole month in DC and the cherry blossoms are so beautiful and in Japan, people drink sake under the cherry blossoms every year, so you’re so right. It goes hand in hand and it should be happening. But I think with sake distribution, as you know, there’s a lot of logistical challenges to getting sake out to the people. So this is so exciting. Where can people learn more about it if they want to visit DC or if they’re in DC and they want to attend in April, where can they learn more?

Reiko Hirai: 22:35
Yeah, so the best way is, to follow us on the social media. For, uh, visit our website. it’s a easy. and, if you go to the event tab, you will see, about the event. we currently have, about 10 vendors.

Timothy Sullivan: 22:57
Mm-hmm.

Reiko Hirai: 22:58
that have signed up to, present their sake, which is so, so exciting. And, I am just in awe that this is like a very first event that we’re doing in the springtime, and it’s a first time that we actually, you know, reached out to the vendors, to join us. And I really wasn’t sure how many of them could actually join, but this number really, uh, I out went, my expectation and so my pressure is definitely on right now to make sure that I sell the tickets, but I don’t think if we have any problem. But right now we have, about 70 plus different kinds of sake on display.

John Puma: 23:43
Mm-hmm.

Reiko Hirai: 23:45
We will have a, from the 5:30 to 6:30, we’re gonna have a V I P tasting. It’s going to be for a very small group, like 25 people. and then after that, from 6:30 to 9:30, we’re gonna open up the floor where people can walk around and taste the sake and then, when people go around the, vendors, they will have a handbook where they can mark your favorite sake. And we are gonna be carrying all 70 sake on our website throughout the month of April. So people can actually, purchase those sake. And me, as a person who loves sake and also loves Cherry Blossom in DC I’m going to donate part of the sales from the month of April, through this sake event. to the, adopt the tree fund where they take care of the cherry blossom trees, all throughout the year. so we can enjoy, keep enjoying this cherry blossom in DC.

John Puma: 24:47
That’s lovely. That’s really good. I, I don’t know about you, Tim, but I love when there’s like local sake, events like that, like, you know, like San Francisco has theirs, you know, we have a, we’re a little spoiled here in New York. A lot of events here. so, you know, having this thing, taking place in DC seems like it’s gonna be a lot of fun for, for the locals or people only know a couple of states away. Amtrak goes to dc you guys can make it down there.

Timothy Sullivan: 25:08
It is not that far.

John Puma: 25:10
not that far.

Timothy Sullivan: 25:11
and Reiko. I just love the idea that, you were hoping for this annual springtime cherry blossom sake event. It wasn’t happening. It wasn’t happening. And you said, okay, I have to do it. And sake wasn’t being distributed well and you said, well, maybe if I start a business, I have to do it. So I love this attitude you have is can-do, can-do attitude. I love it.

John Puma: 25:32
it’s very much like, uh, be the change you want to see in the sake world.

Reiko Hirai: 25:38
I saw the quote from Imada-san you know, if you find the job that it’s worthy of your life, just really like, immerse yourself in it. and then, Treat that job with the respect, and then you’ll, be on the way to achieve the goals.

Timothy Sullivan: 25:55
Now Reiko, before we let you go, I wanna mention one more thing. You recently won a prestigious award in DC didn’t you? Can you tell us about that? That’s such an exciting thing.

Reiko Hirai: 26:07
Yeah. So, I won this, award. John and Hiroko Malott Leadership Award that was presented by, Japan America Society. And they do this, they choose this person, someone, organization and individual who educate themselves to, bringing the US and Japan, cultures together. And yeah, so I was really. Honored but surprised that they chose me. But that really gave me an opportunity to really, reassure and be proud of what I do.

John Puma: 26:42
Hmm. That’s all. That’s amazing.

Timothy Sullivan: 26:44
Well, it sounds like that was very well deserved. You’re doing so much good work for sake in DC. Now, before we go, we want to give you a chance to let our listeners know how they can reach you, how they can get in touch with you, uh, maybe your website or your social. So how, how can people learn more about what you do?

Reiko Hirai: 27:03
So, uh, the best way is to sign up on our newsletter. It doesn’t matter if you’re in dC or not. You probably want one of these days that you might visit DC so please get on our newsletter. Uh, you can sign up from our website, www.dcsake.com, or we are also very active on our social media. Instagram, @DCSake. Facebook @DCSake, and Twitter @DC_Sake.

John Puma: 27:35
Couldn’t get the DC sake for that one. Huh? We, we have a, we have a similar thing with Sake Revolution Pod in some places.

Timothy Sullivan: 27:43
so close Uh,

Reiko Hirai: 27:46
Yeah.

Timothy Sullivan: 27:46
Well, that’s wonderful. Reiko, this is so much fun talking to you. congratulations on all you’ve achieved in the last, few years with making sake happen in DC and I know for sure that I’m coming out to your event in April, so I will be there and I encourage all our listeners to make it to DC if you can.

John Puma: 28:06
wow. So wait a minute. If I go down to DC I get to meet Sake Revolution’s Timothy Sullivan,

Timothy Sullivan: 28:12
Yes. In person.

John Puma: 28:13
In person. Wow.

Timothy Sullivan: 28:16
All right, Reiko, thank you so much for joining us today.

Reiko Hirai: 28:19
Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. Really appreciate it.

Timothy Sullivan: 28:24
You got. All right. Well, John, great to taste with you. I want to thank our listeners so much for tuning in. Thanks for joining us. Every week here on Sake Revolution. A special hello Hi. And another thank you to our patrons. If you would like to learn more about supporting Sake Revolution, the best way to do that is to join us as a patron. To learn more, visit Patreon.com/SakeRevolution

John Puma: 28:50
And if you would like to get a little bit more out of your sake revolution, listen, you can check out the show notes over at SakeRevolution.com. There are notes about the sakes that we taste, the guests that we have on all the little details that you might’ve missed while you were listening. Also, a written transcript that is painstakingly put together by Timothy.

Timothy Sullivan: 29:13
And if you’d like to get in touch with us, the best way to reach us is by email. You can contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear your feedback and any show ideas you have, please reach out to us.

John Puma: 29:28
Well, on that note, I think it’s time that we raise a glass. We all remember to keep drinking sake and kanpai!