Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 170 members throughout California. Join today! It’s the fourth edition of Sakqueso! this year featuring sake and cheese pairings. Even after four years, I still think that sake and cheese are two of the most complementary foods out...
Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 150 members throughout California. Join today! The sakes this month are unlike any sakes you've had before. Some taste like vermouth, others taste like natural wine. If you are the type that likes to explore the fringes...
Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 150 members throughout California. Join today! Sake fangirls and fanboys flock to Omachi rice like Berkeleyites at the site of the season’s first organic Cherokee Purple tomatoes. Omachi is the oldest known sake rice...
The Umami Mart Sake Dinner this year happened on April 1st. There were many firsts for this event – in past years, our annual sake dinners were held at Camino, which bade us farewell last year. We needed to find a...
Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 150 members throughout California. Join today! I’ve always been intrigued by genshus. They are fresh, brash, and bold. They are as close as you can get to what comes right out of the press...
Overlooking Lake Biwa from Mt. Shizugatake Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 150 members throughout California. Join today! Kayoko and I tend to travel to places in Japan that produce foods and drinks we really like. One of those is sake from Kita Brewery. What...
Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 150 members throughout California. Join today! Nigori means “cloudy" in Japanese, so it makes sense that nigori sake literally looks like a wispy cloud when shaken. It is a style of sake that...
Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 150 members throughout California. Join today! It’s time to pull out the extra blankets, dust off the heater, and drink warm sake! One of the pleasures of sake is how you can enjoy it with the...
Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 150 members throughout California. Join today! I like a good challenge. I also really like desserts – so when I came up with the theme, "The Great Dessert Challenge," for this...
Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 150 members throughout California. Join today! The current sake trend in Japan is everything fresh and fruity. It's all about the nama-namas, namachozo, namazume, and shiboritate. But we are never ones at Umami Mart...
Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 150 members throughout California. Join today! Honjozo is a style of sake made for those who love to drink (like me!). It tends to be crisp, dry, and...
When searching for sakes for Women Sake Makers month, I was delighted to learn that Hayashi Honten is owned by a female. Reiko Hayashi is the fifth generation Hayashi to take over the brewery. We have featured Hayashi Honten sakes in the store...
Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 150 members throughout California. Join today! Every May, we celebrate the women who are in the center of our industry, whether that's for drinks, design, or Japan. We take every...
Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 150 members throughout California. Join today! This month at Umami Mart, we are waking up to spring. That means many...
This month at Umami Mart, we are featuring our closest collaborators and friends in the restaurant and bar world in the Bay Area. Our month-long celebration coincides with our annual Camino Sake Dinner (this year will be our third!)...
This February at Umami Mart, it's Love Yuzu month. Although we are grateful for our boos and family during the month of love, here at Umami Mart, it's all about loving certain foods and drinks. Thanks to my sister's tree in Berkeley...
It's no secret here at Umami Mart – I am a huge fan of yamahai and kimoto style sakes. So much so that I dedicate one month of Sake Gumi to them every year. Earthy, mushroomy, acidic, and savory are just...
The sakes that I selected for Sake Gumi this month are all premium versions of popular sakes that we carry in Oakland. Each and every bottle on the shelves of our Bottle System in Oakland is hand-selected after tasting and deliberation. It has...
In Japan, animals are everywhere. Besides Hello Kitty and Pikachu, animal imagery adorn temples, shrines, storefronts, crackers and candy. Last names are also fair game for animals. For example, my own last name includes 熊, the character for bear –...
My love for sake can be traced back to a winter night in 2006 when I had my first sip of Shinkame junmai. After that night, I was hooked. Shinkame had revealed to me the potential for sake that I had never known. I wanted to...
