When we pulled up to Ikehara Shuzo this past February, I would have never guessed that the building housed an awamori distillery. Situated in a residential neighborhood with no interior space to waste, the pint-sized distillery and tasting room is extremely organized, well-planned,...
Every Tuesday, I host Shochu’sday at our bar and guess what’s the most popular drink, week after week? After each shift, the recycling bin is full of tiny club soda cans, proof that I had just made a gajillion sodawari (spirits...
Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 200 members throughout the country. Join today! Welcome to the 9th annual celebration of Sakqueso! Through the years,...
So far, this year has been an exciting year of events. And oh boy did y'all show up for NamaFest! It was a smashing event and the rain in the forecast did not deter anyone from celebrating namas from around the world....
Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 200 members throughout the country. Join today! Doburoku is considered one of the oldest...
Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 200 members throughout the country. Join today! My sake-loving father Kuni always calls himself a Junmai Guy – I didn’t...
Mizuba Tea's Daily Matcha is something we've carried since the early days of Umami Mart. In fact, it has been since Lauren Purvis of Mizuba Tea Co. visited our store in 2014, so that's a whole decade of Mizuba Tea's matcha living on our shelves....
Shochu Gumi is our quarterly subscription service with 80+ members throughout the country. Join today! We’re starting 2024 with a big bang here at Shochu Gumi HQ! Yoko and I are fresh off the heels of a trip to Okinawa, where we toured...
Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 200 members throughout the country. Join today! It feels especially...
Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 200 members throughout the country.
Visiting President Chobei Yamamoto at Yucho Shuzo in Gose City was one of the most educational brewery visits I’ve ever experienced. He invited me into his meeting room, where he had piles of very old books on Nara’s...
Yoshitani Woodworks was one of my favorite stops during my trip to Nara back in March. Yuki Yoshitani (the son) of the operation was there to greet me. He was energetic and really wants to visit the...
Me with Ohara-san, master brewer of Shroyakuji in Nara, at the birthplace of Bodaimoto and Seishu During my time in Nara in March 2023, I visited woodworkers,
After my visit to Nishiyoshida Shuzo in Chikugo, Fukuoka back in January, I had the distinct pleasure to tour Ikekame Shuzo in nearby Kurume. We first featured Ikekame Shuzo in February 2021 for Sake Gumi's theme Experimentations in Koji –...
PINKBERRY DECRYPTED! (well, not completely, but this is as close as it gets without using crack/cocaine/heroin/chemical powder!)I went there 3 times last week, and each time, i was very careful to figure out what...
Our Holiday Shopping Guide has been updated this year! We first came out with this in 2021 when the world was coming out of the pandemic, and we wanted to make sure that our community of small retail businesses were being recognized during the holiday...
The jet lag was hitting me at once on the car ride to Furuse Gyozo Akahadayama in Nara Prefecture. But as soon as we pulled up to the gravel lot and I saw Noriko Furuse greet us, I was alert...
Shochu Gumi is our quarterly subscription service with 80+ members throughout the country. Join today! Looking back at 2023, we had some amazing club bottles, didn’t we?!? These past few quarters I have brought in shochus from Japan...
Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 200 members throughout the country. Join today! As we approach the end of 2023, I look forward to...
Yume Ikkon rice growing in Fukuoka. Photo by Ikekame Shuzo In 2016, Yoko and I met our friend Anders in Kyushu. It was my first time on the southern most island of Japan (excluding Okinawa), and I absolutely...
