Sake and Shochu Gumi
Sake Gumi News

The Terroir of Iwate Sake (September 2022)

Daiji Shimizu Spring in Iwate (photo courtesy of Asabiraki) Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 250 members throughout the country. Join today! Iwate Prefecture is one of the northernmost prefectures on Honshu, just south of Aomori and east of Akita. It is the...

Event Recap

10 Year Matsuri

10 Year Matsuri on August 6, 2022 at Umami Mart On a cloudy Saturday morning in August, all of our favorite collaborators converged to set up for our 10 Year Matsuri. This is a tradition, one decade strong, where Kayoko and I populate the back parking...

10 Years of Umami Mart

Here we are, 10 years after opening our doors at 815 Broadway, August 3, 2022. How sweet are we???  It all feels like a million years ago but know that our adventures are only beginning. Ten years is certainly...

Sippers for Summer - Gin Sonic with Osuzu Gin

Hi everybody!  Ian here, hoping all of you good people are enjoying the dog days of summer wherever you are. I just learned (in the process of writing this) that the "Dog Days" officially occur between July 3rd and August 11th. For many of you, this should sound obvious as...

Umami Mart 10 Year Logo by Mike Cerwonka

What I love most about our community is all the creativity that grows here. I love talking to our friends, colleagues, and customers, who are always working on different projects across various industries, and I look to them for creative inspiration. The Bay is such a vibrant...

Extreme Junmai 90: Interview with Yoshi Sako

To celebrate 10 Years of Umami Mart, Kayoko and I have been collaborating with our favorite makers. So far, this year we've launched the Kabamaru x Umami Mart Furoshiki, and the Umami Mart Bitters by Miracle Mile to commemorate this milestone. If you've been reading...

Event Recap

Sakqueso! 2022

It's been two years since we did Sakqueso! in person, and it's GREAT to be back! This year, Kevin Corcoran joined me behind the bar, so we could all eat cheese and drink sake together. The knowledge he offered during the class was both entertaining and...

Lazyass Cookin

Shio Konbu Cabbage Salad

Behold: the laziest of all Lazyass Cookin' recipes I've ever written in the 15 years of this column. This salad is going to make the most uninspired cook weep with joy. I sure did. And with the summer heat coming up, when the last thing you want to do is cook...

Event Recap

Making Umeboshi w. Hannah Kirshner

I read Hannah Kirshner's book Water, Wood, & Wild Things on the Greek Island of Ikaria. The gentle breeze, the occasional rooster cawing in the distance, and the sounds of the Aegean Sea was a perfect soundtrack to this book that follows master makers all around Yamanaka,...

Hanami Cocktail

Hanami (sakura viewing) season is upon us, as fruit blossoms are exploding worldwide, if not already. We are celebrating our release of the long-awaited Umami Mart Bitters by Miracle Mile and have been tinkering with it night and day to create a perfect cocktail for the season....