Before we sold alcohol at Umami Mart, we had a pretty extensive shrub collection. After we started to see more shrub lineups at other stores, we decided to pare down our shrub offerings – I still love shrub and consume it often. I crave the tartness of the...
Most of you know Yoko – our fearless leader and beekeeper! Inspired by our Umamiventure to a beehive in Oakland in 2012, she has been beekeeping for several years now. I've watched her journey as a beekeeper since she began: starting off modestly in her backyard...
In celebration of Yoko's most recent honey harvest, I've come up with a simple recipe for the iconic cocktail, Bee's Knees, but with a Japanese twist of course. So we'll call it Hachee's Knees! In Japanese, hachi means bee – I can't take credit for the clever...
When I'm not at Umami Mart, you can usually find me near some bees. I've been beekeeping since 2014. I feel very fortunate to have been mentored by Betsy of East Bay Urban Bees. It was at Umamiventure #33, back in 2012, that inspired...
How to make your instant ramen taste better, the benefits of psychedelic mushrooms, psychedelic honey hunters, rock climbing to find medicinal herbs, more.
Hallmark holidays don't really matter to me, but ever since my father passed away, I think about how to spend Father's Day every year when June rolls around. And I think I found the best activity to spend this special day. I've...
Did you know that a bee's lifespan is based on the distance it has flown? One bee lives to fly about a total of 500 miles. This is just one of the many things we learned from Betsy and Miguel of
Umamiventures are BACK! The last field trip was at the TCHO factory back in March 2011, remember? Wow, it has been WAY TOO LONG. For years I have been trying to organize an event with a honey producer, and the...
Infusions are pretty common at PDT, since they're a great way to add a particular flavor to a cocktail without having to add more volume to a drink, which is what would happen if you added the flavor by way...
About a century ago, to call something "the bee's knees" meant you considered it to be of top notch quality. It's an apt name for this week's cocktail, a simple combination of gin, honey, and lemon juice that proves sophistication...
Once you understand basic cocktail recipe structure (without going off on too deep a tangent, it boils down to two general categories: sours and aromatics, first outlined in detail in The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks by...
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." - Lao-tzu And thus begins the first step. The PDT Project officially kicks off with the #8 cocktail, a boozy tequila-based delight. Created in the fall of 2008 by former PDT bartender Daniel...
It's that time of the year, when my well-windowed apartment gets really cold and I have to bring out multiple space heaters to supplement the un-strategically placed central heater that seems to whisper lukewarm puffs of air. Luckily, my Zojirushi water boiler and warmer just arrived in...
Being out of the country for nearly a month has a tendency to adjust a person's perspective of "home." Home has had various meanings and geographical locations in various moments in my life. Conceptually, it means numerous--and sometimes conflicting--things at...
The Prohibition Era figures prominently in the collective imagination of the cocktail world. The aura and mystique surrounding that era still wields great influence on popular culture. The popularity of HBO's Boardwalk Empire is a perfect example of our still not fully reconciled...
Last week I wrote about the Hot Buttered Rum, and how it's a winter drink for when you're feeling festive (and when you've planned far enough ahead of time and made the essential spiced rum batter). Now that...
