Louis Anderman, founder of Miracle Mile Bitters, used to make Celery Bitters in very limited quantities only. We love his rendition of these bitters, savory and earthy, and have been begging him for years to make this a part of his regular line-up. And it's finally here! Made with celery...
We love chuhais, the ubiquitous, thirst quenching drink served at any watering hole or found in a can at any conbini (convenience store) in Japan. The word chuhai is a combination of shochu-highball – get it? They have yet to get their day in the limelight here in...
Last spring, after a grueling flight from San Francisco and a layover, Yoko and I landed in a dark and rainy Kagoshima, a city on the southern island of Kyushu. We were exhausted, but so excited to start the visit – we had been invited by the Kyushu government who would take us...
Shochu is a drink that I have enjoyed immensely in the last decade, and to further my education about the spirit, I flew to Los Angeles last summer to take a certification course to become a Shochu Adviser. Put on by the Sake School of America near Little Tokyo,...
If we were in Japan right now, Yoko and I would shut down Umami Mart for a week and spend our days hanami-ing – picnicking under sakura (cherry blossom) trees with bentos and sake with friends, joyful that spring is here while blossoms flutter all around. Just look at...
I've been really excited to see the umeshu (Japanese plum infused in shochu) popping up on cocktail menus in non-Japanese restaurants. My most recent experience of having an umeshu cocktail in an unexpected place was at Al's Place in San Francisco. Their approach was very...
Since celebrating Solstice last week, we can finally say that summer is here. In the Bay Area, we've already experienced a heat wave that rivals those in New York or Tokyo - we could not handle it. I've created a cool, refreshing beer cocktail for just those days...
A list of the latest and upcoming Bay Area Japanese restaurants, including new ramen in Burlingame, sushi + omakase in San Francisco, and shochu in Oakland.
Step-by-step instructions on how to make a cocktail using with fresh passion fruit, barley shochu, ume bitters, and honey.
[caption id="attachment_27469" align="alignnone" width="640"] All photos by Patrick Lu[/caption] 
Check out a this article in Playboy about Japan's national distilled spirit, featuring an interview with Umami Mart's own, Yoko Kumano!
A step-by-step recipe on making a root beer float with Kannoko Mugi Shochu, a barrel aged barley shochu that's akin to whisky.
Turn sweet and sour kumquats into a delicious and refreshing liqueur with this easy, step-by-step recipe.
Four friends find themselves in a secluded VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) on the North Shore of Oahu. They thought paradise was at arm's length, but they were wrong. One by one each thirty-something is lured by the mysterious, irresistible charms of the tropical...
Alchemy Bottle Shop opened this year in March on Grand Avenue in Oakland. Owners Tova and Peter's selection is second-to-none, featuring everything from single malts (including a great selection from Japan) to hard-to-find amaros. Kayoko and I get lost in la-la land whenever we enter Alchemy....
We just completed our fourth shochu talk and tasting, this time at Alchemy Bottle Shop in Oakland. What a great audience! We had a fantastic time talking to people about shochu, and thought that Washi Washino's first blog post about shochu would be...
The Bay Area has been so good to us. First, we opened our flagship store in Oakland in 2012 -- to our surprise, people were into our Japanese kitchen and barware shop! Then, back in November, we opened up as a...
We made it! After a restless 16 hours of travel -- I read this month's New Yorker (excellent expose on Amazon and its monopoly on the publishing industry) and Vanity Fair (The Hollywood Issue! Rupert Murdoch's marital betrayal!) cover to cover, whilst...
UPDATED 11/19/13, 8:47pm We get a lot of phone calls about where to buy shochu in the Bay Area. I love talking to people about this -- as you know, we are here to spread the shochu gospel here at Umami Mart. So here's a...
From the refreshing mugi (barley) varieties to musty imo (sweet potato) that demand your full attention, shochus are always the choice of drink for me. I fell in love with shochu while I lived in Tokyo. From oolong-hai's to oyuwari imo (sweet potato shochu with hot...
