January 19, 2024 • 33 mins
Episode 162. With 2023 drawing to a close, it's time to take a look back at the sake year that was. Join us this week for some casual sipping and some discussion on the highlights, surprises and challenges of this past year's sake adventures. Tim and John both let us know their favorite sake stories and their favorite episodes from the past year. Do you know which episode was our most downloaded from 2023? Let us know in the comments and we look forward to another year of great sake and many kanpais. Happy Sake New Year! #SakeRevolution
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Episode Transcript
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John Puma (00:21):
Hello everybody and welcome to Sake Revolution.
This is America's first sakepodcast.
I'm your host John Puma from theSake Notes I'm also the
administrator over at theinternet Sake Discord and
Reddit's r slash sake community
Timothy Sullivan (00:35):
And I'm your host, Timothy Sullivan.
I'm a Sake Samurai, sakeeducator, as well as the founder
of the Urban Sake website.
And every week, John and I willbe here tasting and chatting
about all things sake and doingour best to make it fun and easy
to understand.
John Puma (00:52):
Tim
Timothy Sullivan (00:52):
Happy New Year!
John Puma (00:53):
happy new year.
Happy happy new year.
Timothy Sullivan (00:56):
Welcome to 2024.
It's, it's amazing year so far,isn't it?
John Puma (01:01):
It's, uh, it's, it's a lot like 2023, to be honest,
uh, but yeah, yeah, we are here.
We're, uh, we're in our firstepisode of 2024.
That's exciting.
Uh, and I think, yeah, and Ithink it's a bit of a tradition
around here that, uh, at thestart of every year we kind of
go over the previous year wetalk about, um, you know, some
(01:23):
things about the show.
Uh, we talk about our prioryears, uh, sake, revolution
resolutions.
And we talk about what we'regoing to do for, for this year,
for our little resolutions.
Uh, so, so Tim, uh, not, not,not diving right into that kind
(01:44):
of thing yet, because I thinkthere's an, I think there's
something else we can do alittle bit differently today.
And I think that is we can startwith our Kampai,
Timothy Sullivan (01:53):
Let's do that.
John Puma (01:54):
it is the new year, new year, new ideas.
Probably just for this episode,but you know, it's still fun.
And even though we're talkingabout, we're using the word new
an awful lot, uh, the sake we'regoing to be tasting today is an
old friend, an old standby, uh,for us on the show here.
We've had, uh, this particularsake on the show several times,
and it's, uh, one of our localfavorites, uh, Tim, what do we
(02:17):
have today?
Timothy Sullivan (02:18):
Today, we're going to be tasting the Brooklyn
Kura Blue Door Junmai Nama.
John Puma (02:23):
Mmm, yes, yes, uh, I'm a big fan, and I, I think I
might have mentioned this thelast time we had it on the show,
but as the years have gone on,because Brooklyn Kura has two
flagships, they've got theirnumber 14 and their blue door,
and I was always a number 14guy, I think over the past
couple of years I've, I'vegradually become more of a blue
door guy, and I don't know ifthat's, I don't know if the
(02:45):
sake's been changing or if I'vebeen changing, but it's been a
lot of fun to, to be on thejourney.
is
Timothy Sullivan (02:52):
well, the blue door definitely brooklyn Kura's
flagship sake.
And the name Blue Door, as we'vementioned before on past
episodes, comes from theoriginal taproom had a door that
was painted blue.
Now that I'm out at BrooklynKura more often, I can tell you
that that original door is nowblack.
(03:14):
But
John Puma (03:15):
the black door coming?
Is it a hint?
It's an Easter egg?
Timothy Sullivan (03:20):
I think the Blue Door brand is going to stay
the Blue Door brand for BrooklynKura, just because it's so
iconic.
And the new tap room is allglass windows, so there's no
Blue Door anymore.
John Puma (03:32):
No more blue door?
Timothy Sullivan (03:33):
is a blue door of legend and myth, but, uh,
John Puma (03:37):
Legend and myth, I
Timothy Sullivan (03:38):
but the, the sake is as delicious as ever.
So I think for our listeners whomay not have heard us taste this
before, uh, let me run down thestats real quick.
So we have a 17 percent alcohol.
This is a Junmai grade.
It's also a Nama unpasteurizedsake.
(03:58):
The SMV sake meter value is aplus three.
They use two American grownrices to make this sake, Yamada
Nishiki and Calrose.
Those are milled to 70 percentand 60 percent respectively.
So as you said, this is an olddear friend that we've tasted a
(04:19):
few times on the show.
And, uh, I'm excited to get somein the glass.
So let's pour it.
John Puma (04:25):
Yeah, I have to say, now that I know that the blue
door is no longer a blue door,it's nice that we're having this
to kind of send off the literalblue door in a way.
Timothy Sullivan (04:36):
Yes.
Well, kanpai to the blue door.
All right.
All right.
So we have our Brooklyn KuraBlue Door in the glass.
This has a hint of yellow color,um, from being a nama and
John Puma (04:58):
And it's not charcoal filtered, if I'm not
Timothy Sullivan (05:00):
that's correct.
Yeah, I think that's correct.
All right.
Let's smell this.
Hmm.
So I love the mixture ofriciness and fruitiness on this
sake.
John Puma (05:11):
That's that is a, uh, a fun thing about it.
And it's a rice season.
The fruitiness is a little, tome, a little on the jammier
side.
I got just a touch.
It goes with famously with therice.
Timothy Sullivan (05:25):
right.
Well, John, we promised tokampai in the beginning.
So here's to 2023 and welcoming2024.
Kanpai!
John Puma (05:36):
Kanpai!
Timothy Sullivan (05:38):
Mmm.
It does have a little bit ofthat jammy characteristic.
You're right.
John Puma (05:44):
Yeah, I think that when I, it's like, um, on the
aroma, the aroma informs mybrain.
Oh, the jammy style like that,that it's like, because it's a
little bit of more of a tart.
Fruit on the nose.
My, my brain kind of translatesthat into, well, here comes the
jammy, the jammy stuff.
Timothy Sullivan (06:02):
the thing I like about this particular sake
from Brooklyn Kura is that it isthe most rice forward of their
standard lineup.
And it has just a hint ofriciness to it, a little bit
more structure and body thantheir fruitier styles, and it's
(06:22):
really food friendly and it's sonice to have a nama sake with a
bit more heft to it that we canenjoy with food produced locally
for us here in New York.
So it's a winner all around inmy book.
John Puma (06:36):
Yeah, like I mentioned earlier, I've always
been a big fan of this one, andI've become a bigger fan as
time's gone, as time has goneon.
And again, I'm not sure if, ifthe sake has matured, because
one thing that, you know, whenyou experience a local brewery
from like when they get startedand, you know, until three years
out, I'm sorry, so five or sixyears out.
(06:58):
Things change.
It's, it's, it's, it's thenature of, of, of craft brewing
and so seeing how it's changedand, and, and again, also my
own, um, my own personal tasteshave probably changed as well.
It's been, been a lot of fun tosee how the sake has grown and
grown on me over the years.
Timothy Sullivan (07:17):
Absolutely.
Yeah, it's, it's a reallywonderful sake and I think a
wonderful way to kick off theyear for us, returning to an old
friend.
John Puma (07:26):
Mm hmm.
Yes.
An old friend whose, whosenamesake is now, is now
departed.
Timothy Sullivan (07:33):
But isn't, isn't that a good lesson for
moving forward in life?
Like, nothing ever stays thesame.
John Puma (07:38):
Change is the only constant.
Timothy Sullivan (07:40):
Change is the only constant and yeah, you have
to welcome the new and honorthose things that have passed on
and I think it's a good metaphorfor the start of the year.
John Puma (07:54):
Yeah, I think so too.
Um, so, uh, you mentioning thisis a good metaphor for starting
the new year, but let's talk alittle bit about the previous
year first, before we go toofar.
Timothy Sullivan (08:06):
Should we, should we flash back to our
revolution resolutions for 2023?
Do you remember what youresolved?
John Puma (08:13):
Um, so I actually didn't.
So I went and looked it up.
Uh, so yeah, uh, that'scheating.
I realized, but hey, you know,um, what are, you know, if you
have resources, you don'tutilize them.
What's the point?
Uh, so at SakeRevolution.Com, Iwent back and looked and I saw
that published on January the7th, 2023.
(08:34):
Episode number 133, uh, it'scalled Wild Rice, Akamai.
We talk about red rice in thatepisode.
It's, uh, it's a funky rice,funky sake stuff.
It's really interesting stuff.
That should have been extreme inaddition to being wild rice.
But we did talk about our, uh,resolutions because I think the
previous week we, we went overthe, we went over our 2022
(08:56):
resolutions and then we went, Ohwait, we haven't actually
thought of what we want to dofor 2023 yet.
We're just going to, and wepunted to the next week.
And then there we are.
And so you went with the, thevery structured and attainable,
goal of going to Japan.
(09:16):
And I think we've talked abouthow that went.
Timothy Sullivan (09:19):
yep, spoiler alert, yes,
John Puma (09:24):
Timothy had not been to Japan since 2019.
So his goal was to get overthere.
And then you did it three times.
Timothy Sullivan (09:33):
yes, I overcompensated,
John Puma (09:36):
You made up for lost time.
Now, these weren't all, um,these weren't all leisure trips.
I think only one of them wasreally,
Timothy Sullivan (09:42):
yes,
John Puma (09:43):
For yourself, but the other ones were business trips.
They still count though.
You get a little, you get alittle time there.
I imagine even when you'reworking, but, but yeah, you, put
your, you put your heart intoit.
You made it happen.
now, I went with a vague sort ofresolution.
I wanted to just think moreabout pairing and be more aware
of pairings with food when I'mhaving my sake.
(10:05):
That's very wishy washy, Tim.
And I wish I would have come upwith something better.
on the plus side though, I dothink I was more cognizant of
that sort of thing when I'msipping and when I'm eating, um,
I think I made some notes aboutpairing along the way over the
year, but it wasn't the concretequantifiable goal that yours
was.
So I commend you for coming upwith something very direct and
(10:29):
we're gonna talk about how I'mgonna, how I'm gonna fix that
for next year in my mind.
But, uh,
Timothy Sullivan (10:35):
do you feel like you achieved your goal of
doing more sake and foodpairing?
Because we, we talk aboutpairing almost in every episode
we do.
So I feel like we've talkedabout it a lot.
John Puma (10:47):
and I feel like I dipped my toe into it more than
I had ever done before.
It was something I was moreaware of, but it's, you know,
it's, it's a lot harder to Tosay like, Oh yeah, I definitely
completed that goal when it'ssomething so vague and pardon
the term, wishy washy perhaps,you know, I feel like I, I wish
I would have done something alittle bit more quantifiable, a
(11:10):
little more solid, a littlemore, direct, but you know,
that, that's, it's good to learnfrom these experiences and.
And then, you know, take the,take that knowledge into the
next year.
Timothy Sullivan (11:21):
That's a good lesson for this year.
John Puma (11:23):
It is in fact a really good lesson for this
year.
So, um, now speaking about 2024,Timothy, what are you doing?
What do you want to accomplishthis year?
What's your sake revolutionresolution?
Timothy Sullivan (11:37):
Well, my revolution resolution for 2024,
and I'm going to need your helpwith this one, John.
John Puma (11:44):
Oh, my.
Timothy Sullivan (11:44):
My resolution is to do some live shows of Sake
Revolution.
John Puma (11:54):
2023.
So congratulations.
Timothy Sullivan (11:58):
No,
John Puma (11:59):
understand what you're saying.
Timothy Sullivan (11:59):
for, uh, this is for a new idea.
I would love for us to do somelive shows.
In 2024, have an audience andinteraction.
And we did something, as youmentioned last year at the
American Craft Sake Festival,and that was outdoors in less
(12:20):
than ideal conditions andboiling hot.
John Puma (12:24):
And we still did a great
Timothy Sullivan (12:26):
we still, we did a
John Puma (12:27):
to toot my own horn, but I feel like those were good
episodes.
Timothy Sullivan (12:30):
it, it gave me a taste of.
Something we could do a littlebit more.
And I love it when you and I arejust on the Zoom studio and chit
chatting, but it was sointeresting to have the live
reactions from an audience.
And I'd love to find an occasionor a time to do that again in
2024.
So that's my revolutionresolution.
John Puma (12:54):
Hmm.
All right.
I like it.
I like it.
Um, and you're right, I guess Iam a big part of that one.
Timothy Sullivan (13:00):
I need your help.
I need your help, Puma.
John Puma (13:02):
So if you don't succeed, it's my fault.
So much pressure.
Timothy Sullivan (13:07):
And how about you, John?
What is on tap for you for yourresolution?
John Puma (13:11):
So I want to have something quantifiable.
want to have something that Ican measure.
I want to have something that Ican, you know, set out to do and
accomplish.
And I I In many things in mylife, I'm less, uh, inclined to
formal education.
I am more, um, I am moresomebody who, who learns by
(13:32):
doing, by, by hands on, a littlehard knocks education, I guess.
Um, but I think that when you dothat, there are holes in your
knowledge.
Timothy Sullivan (13:41):
Hmm.
John Puma (13:42):
And so I want to plug some of those holes in my
knowledge and I, for this year,want to do some formal sake
education.
Timothy Sullivan (13:52):
Ooh.
John Puma (13:53):
Yeah, I haven't decided exactly what it's going
to be yet.
Doors are open to, uh, to ideas.
Um, but I'm going to do somesort of a formal Um, sake
education course, uh, this year,preferably something that has
some kind of a test at the end.
So we can see if I actuallylearned something.
That'd be fun.
And then I'll come back andreport about it on the show and
(14:15):
see how it went.
Timothy Sullivan (14:16):
Well, I do know a very well regarded sake
educator.
John Puma (14:20):
Do you, here's the thing though.
I, we can't have any, um, wecan't have any, any bias from
the
Timothy Sullivan (14:27):
no, no,
John Puma (14:28):
know, this has to be fair.
Timothy Sullivan (14:32):
Well, if you seek education elsewhere, JP,
and you want to do a class withanother teacher, I Hold no, um,
what's the word?
Grudge.
John Puma (14:43):
You'll hold no grudge?
Timothy Sullivan (14:44):
No grudge.
you can, seek educationanywhere, and I would be
absolutely delighted.
But if you want to join one ofmy classes, that would be great
too.
Hmm.
John Puma (14:58):
I will.
You know, Brooklyn Kura isconveniently located in New York
City.
Well, good.
I'm excited about this.
I really, um, I want to see howit goes.
I am a bad student.
I have to tell you that rightnow, right off the bat in, in
those educational situations, Iam a poor, poor study.
Uh, I, I learned by getting myhands on things I learned by
(15:19):
doing, uh, so it's gonna bereally interesting to have to
learn by, by listening and, andsee if maybe perhaps in my, in
my old age.
I've, uh, I've learned a few newtricks, we'll see.
Heh heh
Timothy Sullivan (15:31):
Well, so, so the, the resolution is to take
at least one Sake educationclass with a test.
John Puma (15:38):
Right, yeah.
Some Earn some sort of a,perhaps, certification or
something like that.
Timothy Sullivan (15:43):
All right.
I like that.
John Puma (15:44):
Yeah.
We'll figure out the details andwe'll keep the sake revolution
universe appraised of myprogress.
And let's see how it goes.
I'm excited about that.
I'm a little nervous because nowit's like, I have, um, our, uh,
you know, we have all of ourlisteners that I'm now being
(16:05):
held accountable to.
So, um, now that it's out there,I've got to do it, right?
So,
Timothy Sullivan (16:10):
This time next year could be a little awkward
if you don't.
Yeah.
John Puma (16:19):
what we said we were going to set out to do last year
and what we're going to try andset out to do, this year,
thought it'd be kind of fun totalk a little bit about how sake
revolution went for us last yearas a show, uh, cause we do have,
um, we do have good, some statsour, so our host goes and sends
us, um, I want to blame Spotifyfor this.
So one of those, like kind ofthe idea of like Spotify
(16:40):
wrapped, but they do it for yourpodcast when they're, when
you're hosted on their platform.
And it kind of like, they callit the podcasting recap, uh, and
it has a couple of reallyinteresting tidbits in here,
Tim, what's your, what's yourfavorite on here?
Timothy Sullivan (16:53):
Well, they let us know what are the most
popular cities for downloadingand listening to our podcast and
surprise, surprise, Brooklyn andNew York are in the very, very
top.
And then we also have a lot oflisteners in Tokyo, Japan, which
(17:13):
is not so surprising, but kindof our number three.
Listing is Seattle, Washington.
So shout out to Seattle.
John Puma (17:21):
Yeah, you know, up and coming sake, city, I think,
uh, I was in Seattle earlierthis year.
Uh, it was some really greatplaces that had really good
sake.
So I was, I can, I can see thathappening.
That's a blossoming sake city,perhaps.
Timothy Sullivan (17:37):
Well, I'm proud of Seattle for all the
sake lovers.
They're downloading SakeRevolution.
Thank you so much.
John Puma (17:43):
they also gave us a listing of our top episodes.
So, you know, top episodes bydownload for the year.
Um, and so the number one, uh,little bit of a surprise, back
to school, uh, sake courses andcertifications, which maybe I
should go back and re listen to.
Going into, uh, going into my,uh, resolution.
this says to me that people arekind of looking at our show and
(18:04):
being like, oh, where can Ifurther my, uh, my sake
education and
Timothy Sullivan (18:10):
yeah, yeah.
I think there's, there's a real,pardon the pun, but there's a
real thirst for knowledge here.
And, and I think that, uh, that,that episode idea was a really
good one.
Because When I go out to doevents in person, people ask me
quite often, Oh, where can I geta certification?
Where can I take a class?
(18:31):
So I thought that might be apopular episode, but I'm
surprised to see it come out asthe number one most popular
episode from last year.
John Puma (18:39):
Yeah.
Yeah., uh, number two was, um,rice advice, which was the, when
we had, uh, Brandon Doughan fromBrooklyn Kura on the show
talking about, um, Uh, aboutsake rice.
And what we did with thatepisode was we had two sakes
that were more or less identicalexcept for the rice that was
used.
Uh, I believe he was like tryingto, recreate Blue Door but using
(19:02):
a new rice.
And so that was actuallyprobably the last time we had
Blue Door on the show.
and it was a really interestingchat about just like how much of
a difference rice makes in sake.
Like we all know that rice is ahuge, is a huge component of
sake.
It drives a lot of the flavor,uh, drives the texture, all
these things.
But it was really interesting tojust like experience it in
(19:23):
person and talk to the personthat made it.
That was a lot of fun.
number three was exploring sakelabels as a, that was a fun
episode, Tim.
I really enjoyed doing that one.
Timothy Sullivan (19:32):
Yeah, that, was fun, but I have to be honest
when we were making it andrecording it, I thought, how is
this going to translate forpeople who are just listening to
us talk about describing the waya label looks, but we made a
point to put it all in the shownotes.
So I hope people went to thewebsite, looked at the show
notes and listened along and gota sense of all the visuals, but,
(19:55):
uh, yeah, I think Sake Labelswas a popular episode.
I'm so glad to see it at spotnumber three.
John Puma (20:01):
Yeah, yeah.
Um, the next one after that wasthe sake spotlight of Shiga
Prefecture.
Timothy Sullivan (20:06):
Wow, that's a dark horse.
John Puma (20:07):
Yeah, that surprised me a lot.
That was a dark, very much adark horse, uh, episode.
Uh, that really, really, I waslike, hmm, okay.
Timothy Sullivan (20:15):
do you know, what I think was driving the
popularity of that episode?
John Puma (20:18):
please, tell me.
Timothy Sullivan (20:19):
We talked about the most disgusting food
I've ever eaten in Japan.
That was pretty graphic content.
John Puma (20:27):
Oh, my goodness.
It, definitely was.
It definitely was.
I forgot about that.
I have a trauma.
I think I blocked it out.
and then rounding it out.
Number five was, the U.
S.
Sake Brewer Series.
That, when we had Todd Bellamyon from, uh, Farthest Star Sake.
Todd is a friend of the show.
He's been on a few times now, Ithink, but this was, I think,
the first time we had him on.
(20:48):
we talked a little about his newbrewery, and sipped some of his,
uh, some of his very good sake.
So that was a fun one.
I'm glad we got to have him on.
I can't wait to have him onagain.
So yeah, that rounds out, thatwas our top five, I, surprises,
I want to tell you, I wassurprised at these results, I
thought it was going to be alittle bit different, there were
a couple that I'm not surprisedto see on the list, but where
(21:08):
they were surprised me a littlebit, and then Shiga, that's just
such a surprise, it's just, youknow, just, we were having a fun
time making that episode, and itjust shows up that people really
enjoyed it, that's nice.
Timothy Sullivan (21:18):
yeah.
So, John, that is the view fromwhat our listeners downloaded.
But I have to ask you, do youhave any favorite memory or
favorite episode from 2023yourself?
John Puma (21:33):
Hmm.
All right.
So this is cheating a littlebit, but being, uh, live on
stage at the, uh, American craftsake festival, that was my
favorite memory of the, of theyear for the show.
It was a great experience.
I had so much fun doing it.
And, you know, honestly, it'smade me open to doing live
(21:54):
shows, uh, again, going forwardand in 2024, so hopefully I can
help you make your, your, yourresolution come true, but yeah,
like that, that for me, it wassuch a great experience minus
the heat, but what are you goingto do?
Um, like it was just such agreat time.
Timothy Sullivan (22:09):
Yeah, it was a great time.
However, my thought on thatexperience, I really enjoyed it
too, but I really felt like itwas our first time doing
anything live and in front of anaudience and we were there for
the whole day and getting up onthe stage and we really didn't
know if we could get our audioequipment to like, you know,
(22:32):
Hook up?
John Puma (22:33):
Yes, there was, there was an awful lot of, um.
Uh, last minute, maybe not lastminute, but there was an awful
lot of where we think this isgoing to work.
Let's cross our fingers.
Let's say that.
I think there was definitely,that was definitely a factor.
Timothy Sullivan (22:51):
But the flip side of that is it was an
amazing learning experience,wasn't it?
John Puma (22:56):
Yes, it was.
And I think that futureexperiences of this nature, uh,
are going to be a littlesmoother, a little bit less, uh,
fraught.
Uh, and it wasn't on anybodyelse.
It was, you know, it's just whenyou're doing something for the
first time, you learn all thehiccups, you learn where the
holes are, and you're, oh, wedidn't think about that.
(23:17):
And then here we are.
Now we know.
Timothy Sullivan (23:19):
Totally.
Yeah.
It's like you have, you, untilyou do it, you don't know what
you need to ask or what you needto prepare or what type of
setups might await you indifferent recording locations.
So it was a really good learningexperience.
And.
You know, I'm proud of us forlike, just going for it.
(23:39):
Like we could have said, Oh, wedon't know how it's going to
work.
Let's maybe next year orwhatever.
But no, we went for it and welearned the lessons we needed to
learn and we got some reallygood content out of it.
So yeah, for me, that was areally good memory as well.
And definitely a highlight forlast year.
John Puma (23:55):
All right.
But now that, that was.
You know, a highlight, butwhat's he, what is your, your,
what is your full highlight?
What is the, what was yourfavorite moment?
Timothy Sullivan (24:02):
Oh, well.
This, there's no question in mymind what my favorite memory
from 2023 was, and that wasputting John Puma in a sake kasu
mask in our cosmetics episode.
John Puma (24:20):
Somehow that didn't make my list.
Timothy Sullivan (24:25):
But you do admit your skin felt soft and
supple after that episode.
John Puma (24:30):
Fine.
Yes, it did.
Timothy Sullivan (24:33):
And if
John Puma (24:34):
So did my beard, Tim.
Timothy Sullivan (24:37):
If any listeners, uh, need a jump scare
warning before they look at theshow notes, please be
John Puma (24:45):
Oh my goodness.
Timothy Sullivan (24:46):
that there's a photo of us with our sake kasu
masks on.
But I thought that episode wasreally fun and I don't know a
lot about sake cosmetics,obviously, but I think it was
fun to try it out and give itthe old whirl while drinking
(25:07):
sake.
John Puma (25:08):
I have to tell you, uh, I didn't know a lot about
sake cosmetics going into thatepisode.
I think after the episode, Iknow less sake cosmetics than I
did before somehow.
Uh, but it was, uh, yeah, itwas, uh, a lot of fun and
there's a lot of, so here's thething.
When, when we do an episode andI'm like doing the editing and,
(25:30):
and we are laughing constantly,I'm like, all right, this is,
this is gonna be a good one.
And so.
And that was, that episode wasjust constant hilarity.
We just could not stop, couldnot stop laughing at how
ridiculous it was with thisthing on my head.
Timothy Sullivan (25:48):
Well, I do have to say you were, you were a
good sport about the whole thingand I think it came out pretty
well.
So that was episode 148, ifanyone wants to go back and
listen to our sake skincareepisode.
Uh, yeah.
So that was, that was, you know,honestly, it was a highlight for
me cause we had so much funrecording that episode.
John Puma (26:08):
Yeah, and, and for reference, uh, my episode, the
Sake Brewers Roundtable Live atthe American Craft Sake
Festival, that was, um, episode152.
So yeah, we had a good time withthat.
one thing that didn't makeeither of our lists, but we
should mention, cause it was alot of fun also, is we did a
live stream for the first time.
Timothy Sullivan (26:29):
Yes, we sure did.
John Puma (26:31):
did.
We did.
a two hour live stream on sakeday on October 1st, with
listeners over at our YouTubechannel and in the near future,
we're actually going to bepublishing that.
Episode on YouTube so you cansee, so people who were not
there could, can listen in andsee it.
And we're also gonna have it onthe Sake Revolution, uh, podcast
(26:54):
listing as well.
So you'll be able to listen toit.
There are a couple of site gagshere and there, but um, you
know, you can always look at iton, on YouTube if you want.
Uh, we, uh, I said it was twohours long.
We had a good time.
We, we drank some really goodsake.
We had a lot of really funguests, and it was, it was a
great time.
Timothy Sullivan (27:11):
Yes, and that was another, just like the, the
American Craft Sake Festivalbeing live in front of an
audience.
That was like flying by the seatof our pants as well, getting
the live streaming on YouTube towork.
John Puma (27:26):
Yeah.
And I have to say, like, I,talking about how we learned all
these things, at the festivaland like the, the wonder about
how it's going to work, if it'sgoing to go the way we plan,
reminded me of, of the livestream.
I was like, Oh yeah, there wasthat.
And that was, that was a littlecrazy.
Uh, but it went well.
(27:46):
And, and, uh, we had a reallyfun time doing that.
Timothy Sullivan (27:49):
Yeah.
The thing that I'm most proudabout is that we even try it.
You know, when you and I firststarted recording podcasts back
in 2020, we didn't know what theheck we were doing.
And you just learn over time.
You just have to throw yourselfout there, not be worried about
making a mistake and learn asyou go.
And that's something I'm proudof from 2023 is that we did take
(28:15):
these chances to try somethingnew, try a new medium, and it's
been.
Really good.
And I think it'll get betterthis year.
We'll probably try both of thosethings again and see how it
goes.
John Puma (28:26):
Absolutely.
I'll be disappointed if we don'ttry both of those things again.
Because I had a fun time doingboth of them.
Timothy Sullivan (28:34):
for last year was to go to Japan.
You got big travel plans forJapan this year?
John Puma (28:39):
Yes.
I do.
So I will be I talked about thisa little bit on a previous
episode, but I have alreadybooked for 2024.
And I made what Many peoplewould consider a critical error.
(28:59):
I booked everything.
Cause we had a lot of, there's alot of stuff going on, um, here
in our, in our lives.
So we had to book around a lotof like, you know, of our, our
life stuff here.
Um, in the US, uh, and I foundthe time to, to book it and I
went ahead and I did it and wewere all set and then I learned
that it's Golden Week and you'renot supposed to, you're not
(29:22):
supposed to go to Japan onGolden Week.
Timothy Sullivan (29:24):
For our listeners who may not be
familiar, John, what is GoldenWeek?
John Puma (29:31):
Golden Week is a set of several holidays that take
place over one week during theend of April, typically the last
week in April, and the wholecountry pretty much shuts down.
Now, from what I understand,it's primarily the big cities
that shut down, and kind of thesmall towns maybe bounce up a
little bit because you havepeople visiting from the big
(29:54):
cities, but yeah, I don't know,I've never done it.
The, um, the Popular wisdom isalways never to do that.
We're gonna experience it.
Uh, it's definitely going to bea unique trip
Timothy Sullivan (30:08):
Yep.
I think my advice would be justto reserve trains in advance.
Golden Week tends to be verybooked up for hotels and trains.
So if you get those thingssquared away, you may have some
more crowds more than usual, butyou can really enjoy yourself
and enjoy Japan.
John Puma (30:23):
I plan to hopefully, uh, hopefully It's just a matter
of being aware of those things.
'cause yeah, we're, our flightsare booked.
Our, um, hotels are all bookedwhere we're good to go.
Timothy Sullivan (30:33):
Awesome.
John Puma (30:34):
Yeah.
Um, are you going back yourself?
Oh, we're just leaving it at,yeah.
Mm
Timothy Sullivan (30:40):
I, right now, I don't have any concrete plans
booked, but I would be extremelysurprised if I don't go to Japan
maybe one or two times in 2024,so it's high on my agenda.
But nothing concrete booked atthe moment, so we'll have to see
how things shake out.
We had so much fun on our lasttrip to Japan, and I just can't
(31:05):
wait to go again.
John Puma (31:06):
Great.
Well, Tim, it has been a delightsitting here and, uh,
reminiscing about the past yearand, and kind of setting the
stage for next year with you,
Timothy Sullivan (31:17):
Yes, we had our ups, we had our downs,
John Puma (31:20):
Yes, we did.
Timothy Sullivan (31:21):
we had our roundabouts, and it was all a
lot of fun.
Uh, John, it was so great totaste with you today and revisit
our dear friend, Blue Door, RIP.
John Puma (31:33):
Pour one out for the blue door.
The sake lives on, but the dooris gone.
Timothy Sullivan (31:39):
The door's gone, but the sake and the brand
lives on.
Uh, it was so great to tastesome Blue Door.
Nice to chat with you andreminisce.
And I'm really looking forwardto see how our revolution
resolutions shake out for 2024.
I also want to say a specialthank you to our listeners.
Thank you so much for checkingin again today.
(32:00):
And we're so happy you joinedus.
A special hello and thank you toour patrons as well.
Sake Revolution would not bepossible without their very
generous support.
If you'd like to learn moreabout supporting Sake
Revolution, please visitPatreon.com/SakeRevolution to
learn more.
John Puma (32:19):
and, mentioned a lot of previous episodes on today's
show.
You might want to go over toSakeRevolution.Com and take a
look at them.
We've got some show notes forevery single episode and a
written transcript in caseyou're just kind of, you don't
feel like listening to somethingyou just want to read through,
you can do that.
we even have a little swag shopat the site.
You can buy t shirts andstickers, all that kind of
(32:41):
stuff.
go ahead and take a look thereand, uh, let us know what you
think of the site.
I'd like it personally.
on that note, I'm going to graba glass of blue door.
Remember to keep drinking sakeand
Timothy Sullivan (32:54):
kanpai!
Hello everybody and welcome to Sake Revolution.
This is America's first sakepodcast.
I'm your host John Puma from theSake Notes I'm also the
administrator over at theinternet Sake Discord and
Reddit's r slash sake community
Timothy Sullivan (00:35):
And I'm your host, Timothy Sullivan.
I'm a Sake Samurai, sakeeducator, as well as the founder
of the Urban Sake website.
And every week, John and I willbe here tasting and chatting
about all things sake and doingour best to make it fun and easy
to understand.
John Puma (00:52):
Tim
Timothy Sullivan (00:52):
Happy New Year!
John Puma (00:53):
happy new year.
Happy happy new year.
Timothy Sullivan (00:56):
Welcome to 2024.
It's, it's amazing year so far,isn't it?
John Puma (01:01):
It's, uh, it's, it's a lot like 2023, to be honest,
uh, but yeah, yeah, we are here.
We're, uh, we're in our firstepisode of 2024.
That's exciting.
Uh, and I think, yeah, and Ithink it's a bit of a tradition
around here that, uh, at thestart of every year we kind of
go over the previous year wetalk about, um, you know, some
(01:23):
things about the show.
Uh, we talk about our prioryears, uh, sake, revolution
resolutions.
And we talk about what we'regoing to do for, for this year,
for our little resolutions.
Uh, so, so Tim, uh, not, not,not diving right into that kind
(01:44):
of thing yet, because I thinkthere's an, I think there's
something else we can do alittle bit differently today.
And I think that is we can startwith our Kampai,
Timothy Sullivan (01:53):
Let's do that.
John Puma (01:54):
it is the new year, new year, new ideas.
Probably just for this episode,but you know, it's still fun.
And even though we're talkingabout, we're using the word new
an awful lot, uh, the sake we'regoing to be tasting today is an
old friend, an old standby, uh,for us on the show here.
We've had, uh, this particularsake on the show several times,
and it's, uh, one of our localfavorites, uh, Tim, what do we
(02:17):
have today?
Timothy Sullivan (02:18):
Today, we're going to be tasting the Brooklyn
Kura Blue Door Junmai Nama.
John Puma (02:23):
Mmm, yes, yes, uh, I'm a big fan, and I, I think I
might have mentioned this thelast time we had it on the show,
but as the years have gone on,because Brooklyn Kura has two
flagships, they've got theirnumber 14 and their blue door,
and I was always a number 14guy, I think over the past
couple of years I've, I'vegradually become more of a blue
door guy, and I don't know ifthat's, I don't know if the
(02:45):
sake's been changing or if I'vebeen changing, but it's been a
lot of fun to, to be on thejourney.
is
Timothy Sullivan (02:52):
well, the blue door definitely brooklyn Kura's
flagship sake.
And the name Blue Door, as we'vementioned before on past
episodes, comes from theoriginal taproom had a door that
was painted blue.
Now that I'm out at BrooklynKura more often, I can tell you
that that original door is nowblack.
(03:14):
But
John Puma (03:15):
the black door coming?
Is it a hint?
It's an Easter egg?
Timothy Sullivan (03:20):
I think the Blue Door brand is going to stay
the Blue Door brand for BrooklynKura, just because it's so
iconic.
And the new tap room is allglass windows, so there's no
Blue Door anymore.
John Puma (03:32):
No more blue door?
Timothy Sullivan (03:33):
is a blue door of legend and myth, but, uh,
John Puma (03:37):
Legend and myth, I
Timothy Sullivan (03:38):
but the, the sake is as delicious as ever.
So I think for our listeners whomay not have heard us taste this
before, uh, let me run down thestats real quick.
So we have a 17 percent alcohol.
This is a Junmai grade.
It's also a Nama unpasteurizedsake.
(03:58):
The SMV sake meter value is aplus three.
They use two American grownrices to make this sake, Yamada
Nishiki and Calrose.
Those are milled to 70 percentand 60 percent respectively.
So as you said, this is an olddear friend that we've tasted a
(04:19):
few times on the show.
And, uh, I'm excited to get somein the glass.
So let's pour it.
John Puma (04:25):
Yeah, I have to say, now that I know that the blue
door is no longer a blue door,it's nice that we're having this
to kind of send off the literalblue door in a way.
Timothy Sullivan (04:36):
Yes.
Well, kanpai to the blue door.
All right.
All right.
So we have our Brooklyn KuraBlue Door in the glass.
This has a hint of yellow color,um, from being a nama and
John Puma (04:58):
And it's not charcoal filtered, if I'm not
Timothy Sullivan (05:00):
that's correct.
Yeah, I think that's correct.
All right.
Let's smell this.
Hmm.
So I love the mixture ofriciness and fruitiness on this
sake.
John Puma (05:11):
That's that is a, uh, a fun thing about it.
And it's a rice season.
The fruitiness is a little, tome, a little on the jammier
side.
I got just a touch.
It goes with famously with therice.
Timothy Sullivan (05:25):
right.
Well, John, we promised tokampai in the beginning.
So here's to 2023 and welcoming2024.
Kanpai!
John Puma (05:36):
Kanpai!
Timothy Sullivan (05:38):
Mmm.
It does have a little bit ofthat jammy characteristic.
You're right.
John Puma (05:44):
Yeah, I think that when I, it's like, um, on the
aroma, the aroma informs mybrain.
Oh, the jammy style like that,that it's like, because it's a
little bit of more of a tart.
Fruit on the nose.
My, my brain kind of translatesthat into, well, here comes the
jammy, the jammy stuff.
Timothy Sullivan (06:02):
the thing I like about this particular sake
from Brooklyn Kura is that it isthe most rice forward of their
standard lineup.
And it has just a hint ofriciness to it, a little bit
more structure and body thantheir fruitier styles, and it's
(06:22):
really food friendly and it's sonice to have a nama sake with a
bit more heft to it that we canenjoy with food produced locally
for us here in New York.
So it's a winner all around inmy book.
John Puma (06:36):
Yeah, like I mentioned earlier, I've always
been a big fan of this one, andI've become a bigger fan as
time's gone, as time has goneon.
And again, I'm not sure if, ifthe sake has matured, because
one thing that, you know, whenyou experience a local brewery
from like when they get startedand, you know, until three years
out, I'm sorry, so five or sixyears out.
(06:58):
Things change.
It's, it's, it's, it's thenature of, of, of craft brewing
and so seeing how it's changedand, and, and again, also my
own, um, my own personal tasteshave probably changed as well.
It's been, been a lot of fun tosee how the sake has grown and
grown on me over the years.
Timothy Sullivan (07:17):
Absolutely.
Yeah, it's, it's a reallywonderful sake and I think a
wonderful way to kick off theyear for us, returning to an old
friend.
John Puma (07:26):
Mm hmm.
Yes.
An old friend whose, whosenamesake is now, is now
departed.
Timothy Sullivan (07:33):
But isn't, isn't that a good lesson for
moving forward in life?
Like, nothing ever stays thesame.
John Puma (07:38):
Change is the only constant.
Timothy Sullivan (07:40):
Change is the only constant and yeah, you have
to welcome the new and honorthose things that have passed on
and I think it's a good metaphorfor the start of the year.
John Puma (07:54):
Yeah, I think so too.
Um, so, uh, you mentioning thisis a good metaphor for starting
the new year, but let's talk alittle bit about the previous
year first, before we go toofar.
Timothy Sullivan (08:06):
Should we, should we flash back to our
revolution resolutions for 2023?
Do you remember what youresolved?
John Puma (08:13):
Um, so I actually didn't.
So I went and looked it up.
Uh, so yeah, uh, that'scheating.
I realized, but hey, you know,um, what are, you know, if you
have resources, you don'tutilize them.
What's the point?
Uh, so at SakeRevolution.Com, Iwent back and looked and I saw
that published on January the7th, 2023.
(08:34):
Episode number 133, uh, it'scalled Wild Rice, Akamai.
We talk about red rice in thatepisode.
It's, uh, it's a funky rice,funky sake stuff.
It's really interesting stuff.
That should have been extreme inaddition to being wild rice.
But we did talk about our, uh,resolutions because I think the
previous week we, we went overthe, we went over our 2022
(08:56):
resolutions and then we went, Ohwait, we haven't actually
thought of what we want to dofor 2023 yet.
We're just going to, and wepunted to the next week.
And then there we are.
And so you went with the, thevery structured and attainable,
goal of going to Japan.
(09:16):
And I think we've talked abouthow that went.
Timothy Sullivan (09:19):
yep, spoiler alert, yes,
John Puma (09:24):
Timothy had not been to Japan since 2019.
So his goal was to get overthere.
And then you did it three times.
Timothy Sullivan (09:33):
yes, I overcompensated,
John Puma (09:36):
You made up for lost time.
Now, these weren't all, um,these weren't all leisure trips.
I think only one of them wasreally,
Timothy Sullivan (09:42):
yes,
John Puma (09:43):
For yourself, but the other ones were business trips.
They still count though.
You get a little, you get alittle time there.
I imagine even when you'reworking, but, but yeah, you, put
your, you put your heart intoit.
You made it happen.
now, I went with a vague sort ofresolution.
I wanted to just think moreabout pairing and be more aware
of pairings with food when I'mhaving my sake.
(10:05):
That's very wishy washy, Tim.
And I wish I would have come upwith something better.
on the plus side though, I dothink I was more cognizant of
that sort of thing when I'msipping and when I'm eating, um,
I think I made some notes aboutpairing along the way over the
year, but it wasn't the concretequantifiable goal that yours
was.
So I commend you for coming upwith something very direct and
(10:29):
we're gonna talk about how I'mgonna, how I'm gonna fix that
for next year in my mind.
But, uh,
Timothy Sullivan (10:35):
do you feel like you achieved your goal of
doing more sake and foodpairing?
Because we, we talk aboutpairing almost in every episode
we do.
So I feel like we've talkedabout it a lot.
John Puma (10:47):
and I feel like I dipped my toe into it more than
I had ever done before.
It was something I was moreaware of, but it's, you know,
it's, it's a lot harder to Tosay like, Oh yeah, I definitely
completed that goal when it'ssomething so vague and pardon
the term, wishy washy perhaps,you know, I feel like I, I wish
I would have done something alittle bit more quantifiable, a
(11:10):
little more solid, a littlemore, direct, but you know,
that, that's, it's good to learnfrom these experiences and.
And then, you know, take the,take that knowledge into the
next year.
Timothy Sullivan (11:21):
That's a good lesson for this year.
John Puma (11:23):
It is in fact a really good lesson for this
year.
So, um, now speaking about 2024,Timothy, what are you doing?
What do you want to accomplishthis year?
What's your sake revolutionresolution?
Timothy Sullivan (11:37):
Well, my revolution resolution for 2024,
and I'm going to need your helpwith this one, John.
John Puma (11:44):
Oh, my.
Timothy Sullivan (11:44):
My resolution is to do some live shows of Sake
Revolution.
John Puma (11:54):
2023.
So congratulations.
Timothy Sullivan (11:58):
No,
John Puma (11:59):
understand what you're saying.
Timothy Sullivan (11:59):
for, uh, this is for a new idea.
I would love for us to do somelive shows.
In 2024, have an audience andinteraction.
And we did something, as youmentioned last year at the
American Craft Sake Festival,and that was outdoors in less
(12:20):
than ideal conditions andboiling hot.
John Puma (12:24):
And we still did a great
Timothy Sullivan (12:26):
we still, we did a
John Puma (12:27):
to toot my own horn, but I feel like those were good
episodes.
Timothy Sullivan (12:30):
it, it gave me a taste of.
Something we could do a littlebit more.
And I love it when you and I arejust on the Zoom studio and chit
chatting, but it was sointeresting to have the live
reactions from an audience.
And I'd love to find an occasionor a time to do that again in
2024.
So that's my revolutionresolution.
John Puma (12:54):
Hmm.
All right.
I like it.
I like it.
Um, and you're right, I guess Iam a big part of that one.
Timothy Sullivan (13:00):
I need your help.
I need your help, Puma.
John Puma (13:02):
So if you don't succeed, it's my fault.
So much pressure.
Timothy Sullivan (13:07):
And how about you, John?
What is on tap for you for yourresolution?
John Puma (13:11):
So I want to have something quantifiable.
want to have something that Ican measure.
I want to have something that Ican, you know, set out to do and
accomplish.
And I I In many things in mylife, I'm less, uh, inclined to
formal education.
I am more, um, I am moresomebody who, who learns by
(13:32):
doing, by, by hands on, a littlehard knocks education, I guess.
Um, but I think that when you dothat, there are holes in your
knowledge.
Timothy Sullivan (13:41):
Hmm.
John Puma (13:42):
And so I want to plug some of those holes in my
knowledge and I, for this year,want to do some formal sake
education.
Timothy Sullivan (13:52):
Ooh.
John Puma (13:53):
Yeah, I haven't decided exactly what it's going
to be yet.
Doors are open to, uh, to ideas.
Um, but I'm going to do somesort of a formal Um, sake
education course, uh, this year,preferably something that has
some kind of a test at the end.
So we can see if I actuallylearned something.
That'd be fun.
And then I'll come back andreport about it on the show and
(14:15):
see how it went.
Timothy Sullivan (14:16):
Well, I do know a very well regarded sake
educator.
John Puma (14:20):
Do you, here's the thing though.
I, we can't have any, um, wecan't have any, any bias from
the
Timothy Sullivan (14:27):
no, no,
John Puma (14:28):
know, this has to be fair.
Timothy Sullivan (14:32):
Well, if you seek education elsewhere, JP,
and you want to do a class withanother teacher, I Hold no, um,
what's the word?
Grudge.
John Puma (14:43):
You'll hold no grudge?
Timothy Sullivan (14:44):
No grudge.
you can, seek educationanywhere, and I would be
absolutely delighted.
But if you want to join one ofmy classes, that would be great
too.
Hmm.
John Puma (14:58):
I will.
You know, Brooklyn Kura isconveniently located in New York
City.
Well, good.
I'm excited about this.
I really, um, I want to see howit goes.
I am a bad student.
I have to tell you that rightnow, right off the bat in, in
those educational situations, Iam a poor, poor study.
Uh, I, I learned by getting myhands on things I learned by
(15:19):
doing, uh, so it's gonna bereally interesting to have to
learn by, by listening and, andsee if maybe perhaps in my, in
my old age.
I've, uh, I've learned a few newtricks, we'll see.
Heh heh
Timothy Sullivan (15:31):
Well, so, so the, the resolution is to take
at least one Sake educationclass with a test.
John Puma (15:38):
Right, yeah.
Some Earn some sort of a,perhaps, certification or
something like that.
Timothy Sullivan (15:43):
All right.
I like that.
John Puma (15:44):
Yeah.
We'll figure out the details andwe'll keep the sake revolution
universe appraised of myprogress.
And let's see how it goes.
I'm excited about that.
I'm a little nervous because nowit's like, I have, um, our, uh,
you know, we have all of ourlisteners that I'm now being
(16:05):
held accountable to.
So, um, now that it's out there,I've got to do it, right?
So,
Timothy Sullivan (16:10):
This time next year could be a little awkward
if you don't.
Yeah.
John Puma (16:19):
what we said we were going to set out to do last year
and what we're going to try andset out to do, this year,
thought it'd be kind of fun totalk a little bit about how sake
revolution went for us last yearas a show, uh, cause we do have,
um, we do have good, some statsour, so our host goes and sends
us, um, I want to blame Spotifyfor this.
So one of those, like kind ofthe idea of like Spotify
(16:40):
wrapped, but they do it for yourpodcast when they're, when
you're hosted on their platform.
And it kind of like, they callit the podcasting recap, uh, and
it has a couple of reallyinteresting tidbits in here,
Tim, what's your, what's yourfavorite on here?
Timothy Sullivan (16:53):
Well, they let us know what are the most
popular cities for downloadingand listening to our podcast and
surprise, surprise, Brooklyn andNew York are in the very, very
top.
And then we also have a lot oflisteners in Tokyo, Japan, which
(17:13):
is not so surprising, but kindof our number three.
Listing is Seattle, Washington.
So shout out to Seattle.
John Puma (17:21):
Yeah, you know, up and coming sake, city, I think,
uh, I was in Seattle earlierthis year.
Uh, it was some really greatplaces that had really good
sake.
So I was, I can, I can see thathappening.
That's a blossoming sake city,perhaps.
Timothy Sullivan (17:37):
Well, I'm proud of Seattle for all the
sake lovers.
They're downloading SakeRevolution.
Thank you so much.
John Puma (17:43):
they also gave us a listing of our top episodes.
So, you know, top episodes bydownload for the year.
Um, and so the number one, uh,little bit of a surprise, back
to school, uh, sake courses andcertifications, which maybe I
should go back and re listen to.
Going into, uh, going into my,uh, resolution.
this says to me that people arekind of looking at our show and
(18:04):
being like, oh, where can Ifurther my, uh, my sake
education and
Timothy Sullivan (18:10):
yeah, yeah.
I think there's, there's a real,pardon the pun, but there's a
real thirst for knowledge here.
And, and I think that, uh, that,that episode idea was a really
good one.
Because When I go out to doevents in person, people ask me
quite often, Oh, where can I geta certification?
Where can I take a class?
(18:31):
So I thought that might be apopular episode, but I'm
surprised to see it come out asthe number one most popular
episode from last year.
John Puma (18:39):
Yeah.
Yeah., uh, number two was, um,rice advice, which was the, when
we had, uh, Brandon Doughan fromBrooklyn Kura on the show
talking about, um, Uh, aboutsake rice.
And what we did with thatepisode was we had two sakes
that were more or less identicalexcept for the rice that was
used.
Uh, I believe he was like tryingto, recreate Blue Door but using
(19:02):
a new rice.
And so that was actuallyprobably the last time we had
Blue Door on the show.
and it was a really interestingchat about just like how much of
a difference rice makes in sake.
Like we all know that rice is ahuge, is a huge component of
sake.
It drives a lot of the flavor,uh, drives the texture, all
these things.
But it was really interesting tojust like experience it in
(19:23):
person and talk to the personthat made it.
That was a lot of fun.
number three was exploring sakelabels as a, that was a fun
episode, Tim.
I really enjoyed doing that one.
Timothy Sullivan (19:32):
Yeah, that, was fun, but I have to be honest
when we were making it andrecording it, I thought, how is
this going to translate forpeople who are just listening to
us talk about describing the waya label looks, but we made a
point to put it all in the shownotes.
So I hope people went to thewebsite, looked at the show
notes and listened along and gota sense of all the visuals, but,
(19:55):
uh, yeah, I think Sake Labelswas a popular episode.
I'm so glad to see it at spotnumber three.
John Puma (20:01):
Yeah, yeah.
Um, the next one after that wasthe sake spotlight of Shiga
Prefecture.
Timothy Sullivan (20:06):
Wow, that's a dark horse.
John Puma (20:07):
Yeah, that surprised me a lot.
That was a dark, very much adark horse, uh, episode.
Uh, that really, really, I waslike, hmm, okay.
Timothy Sullivan (20:15):
do you know, what I think was driving the
popularity of that episode?
John Puma (20:18):
please, tell me.
Timothy Sullivan (20:19):
We talked about the most disgusting food
I've ever eaten in Japan.
That was pretty graphic content.
John Puma (20:27):
Oh, my goodness.
It, definitely was.
It definitely was.
I forgot about that.
I have a trauma.
I think I blocked it out.
and then rounding it out.
Number five was, the U.
S.
Sake Brewer Series.
That, when we had Todd Bellamyon from, uh, Farthest Star Sake.
Todd is a friend of the show.
He's been on a few times now, Ithink, but this was, I think,
the first time we had him on.
(20:48):
we talked a little about his newbrewery, and sipped some of his,
uh, some of his very good sake.
So that was a fun one.
I'm glad we got to have him on.
I can't wait to have him onagain.
So yeah, that rounds out, thatwas our top five, I, surprises,
I want to tell you, I wassurprised at these results, I
thought it was going to be alittle bit different, there were
a couple that I'm not surprisedto see on the list, but where
(21:08):
they were surprised me a littlebit, and then Shiga, that's just
such a surprise, it's just, youknow, just, we were having a fun
time making that episode, and itjust shows up that people really
enjoyed it, that's nice.
Timothy Sullivan (21:18):
yeah.
So, John, that is the view fromwhat our listeners downloaded.
But I have to ask you, do youhave any favorite memory or
favorite episode from 2023yourself?
John Puma (21:33):
Hmm.
All right.
So this is cheating a littlebit, but being, uh, live on
stage at the, uh, American craftsake festival, that was my
favorite memory of the, of theyear for the show.
It was a great experience.
I had so much fun doing it.
And, you know, honestly, it'smade me open to doing live
(21:54):
shows, uh, again, going forwardand in 2024, so hopefully I can
help you make your, your, yourresolution come true, but yeah,
like that, that for me, it wassuch a great experience minus
the heat, but what are you goingto do?
Um, like it was just such agreat time.
Timothy Sullivan (22:09):
Yeah, it was a great time.
However, my thought on thatexperience, I really enjoyed it
too, but I really felt like itwas our first time doing
anything live and in front of anaudience and we were there for
the whole day and getting up onthe stage and we really didn't
know if we could get our audioequipment to like, you know,
(22:32):
Hook up?
John Puma (22:33):
Yes, there was, there was an awful lot of, um.
Uh, last minute, maybe not lastminute, but there was an awful
lot of where we think this isgoing to work.
Let's cross our fingers.
Let's say that.
I think there was definitely,that was definitely a factor.
Timothy Sullivan (22:51):
But the flip side of that is it was an
amazing learning experience,wasn't it?
John Puma (22:56):
Yes, it was.
And I think that futureexperiences of this nature, uh,
are going to be a littlesmoother, a little bit less, uh,
fraught.
Uh, and it wasn't on anybodyelse.
It was, you know, it's just whenyou're doing something for the
first time, you learn all thehiccups, you learn where the
holes are, and you're, oh, wedidn't think about that.
(23:17):
And then here we are.
Now we know.
Timothy Sullivan (23:19):
Totally.
Yeah.
It's like you have, you, untilyou do it, you don't know what
you need to ask or what you needto prepare or what type of
setups might await you indifferent recording locations.
So it was a really good learningexperience.
And.
You know, I'm proud of us forlike, just going for it.
(23:39):
Like we could have said, Oh, wedon't know how it's going to
work.
Let's maybe next year orwhatever.
But no, we went for it and welearned the lessons we needed to
learn and we got some reallygood content out of it.
So yeah, for me, that was areally good memory as well.
And definitely a highlight forlast year.
John Puma (23:55):
All right.
But now that, that was.
You know, a highlight, butwhat's he, what is your, your,
what is your full highlight?
What is the, what was yourfavorite moment?
Timothy Sullivan (24:02):
Oh, well.
This, there's no question in mymind what my favorite memory
from 2023 was, and that wasputting John Puma in a sake kasu
mask in our cosmetics episode.
John Puma (24:20):
Somehow that didn't make my list.
Timothy Sullivan (24:25):
But you do admit your skin felt soft and
supple after that episode.
John Puma (24:30):
Fine.
Yes, it did.
Timothy Sullivan (24:33):
And if
John Puma (24:34):
So did my beard, Tim.
Timothy Sullivan (24:37):
If any listeners, uh, need a jump scare
warning before they look at theshow notes, please be
John Puma (24:45):
Oh my goodness.
Timothy Sullivan (24:46):
that there's a photo of us with our sake kasu
masks on.
But I thought that episode wasreally fun and I don't know a
lot about sake cosmetics,obviously, but I think it was
fun to try it out and give itthe old whirl while drinking
(25:07):
sake.
John Puma (25:08):
I have to tell you, uh, I didn't know a lot about
sake cosmetics going into thatepisode.
I think after the episode, Iknow less sake cosmetics than I
did before somehow.
Uh, but it was, uh, yeah, itwas, uh, a lot of fun and
there's a lot of, so here's thething.
When, when we do an episode andI'm like doing the editing and,
(25:30):
and we are laughing constantly,I'm like, all right, this is,
this is gonna be a good one.
And so.
And that was, that episode wasjust constant hilarity.
We just could not stop, couldnot stop laughing at how
ridiculous it was with thisthing on my head.
Timothy Sullivan (25:48):
Well, I do have to say you were, you were a
good sport about the whole thingand I think it came out pretty
well.
So that was episode 148, ifanyone wants to go back and
listen to our sake skincareepisode.
Uh, yeah.
So that was, that was, you know,honestly, it was a highlight for
me cause we had so much funrecording that episode.
John Puma (26:08):
Yeah, and, and for reference, uh, my episode, the
Sake Brewers Roundtable Live atthe American Craft Sake
Festival, that was, um, episode152.
So yeah, we had a good time withthat.
one thing that didn't makeeither of our lists, but we
should mention, cause it was alot of fun also, is we did a
live stream for the first time.
Timothy Sullivan (26:29):
Yes, we sure did.
John Puma (26:31):
did.
We did.
a two hour live stream on sakeday on October 1st, with
listeners over at our YouTubechannel and in the near future,
we're actually going to bepublishing that.
Episode on YouTube so you cansee, so people who were not
there could, can listen in andsee it.
And we're also gonna have it onthe Sake Revolution, uh, podcast
(26:54):
listing as well.
So you'll be able to listen toit.
There are a couple of site gagshere and there, but um, you
know, you can always look at iton, on YouTube if you want.
Uh, we, uh, I said it was twohours long.
We had a good time.
We, we drank some really goodsake.
We had a lot of really funguests, and it was, it was a
great time.
Timothy Sullivan (27:11):
Yes, and that was another, just like the, the
American Craft Sake Festivalbeing live in front of an
audience.
That was like flying by the seatof our pants as well, getting
the live streaming on YouTube towork.
John Puma (27:26):
Yeah.
And I have to say, like, I,talking about how we learned all
these things, at the festivaland like the, the wonder about
how it's going to work, if it'sgoing to go the way we plan,
reminded me of, of the livestream.
I was like, Oh yeah, there wasthat.
And that was, that was a littlecrazy.
Uh, but it went well.
(27:46):
And, and, uh, we had a reallyfun time doing that.
Timothy Sullivan (27:49):
Yeah.
The thing that I'm most proudabout is that we even try it.
You know, when you and I firststarted recording podcasts back
in 2020, we didn't know what theheck we were doing.
And you just learn over time.
You just have to throw yourselfout there, not be worried about
making a mistake and learn asyou go.
And that's something I'm proudof from 2023 is that we did take
(28:15):
these chances to try somethingnew, try a new medium, and it's
been.
Really good.
And I think it'll get betterthis year.
We'll probably try both of thosethings again and see how it
goes.
John Puma (28:26):
Absolutely.
I'll be disappointed if we don'ttry both of those things again.
Because I had a fun time doingboth of them.
Timothy Sullivan (28:34):
for last year was to go to Japan.
You got big travel plans forJapan this year?
John Puma (28:39):
Yes.
I do.
So I will be I talked about thisa little bit on a previous
episode, but I have alreadybooked for 2024.
And I made what Many peoplewould consider a critical error.
(28:59):
I booked everything.
Cause we had a lot of, there's alot of stuff going on, um, here
in our, in our lives.
So we had to book around a lotof like, you know, of our, our
life stuff here.
Um, in the US, uh, and I foundthe time to, to book it and I
went ahead and I did it and wewere all set and then I learned
that it's Golden Week and you'renot supposed to, you're not
(29:22):
supposed to go to Japan onGolden Week.
Timothy Sullivan (29:24):
For our listeners who may not be
familiar, John, what is GoldenWeek?
John Puma (29:31):
Golden Week is a set of several holidays that take
place over one week during theend of April, typically the last
week in April, and the wholecountry pretty much shuts down.
Now, from what I understand,it's primarily the big cities
that shut down, and kind of thesmall towns maybe bounce up a
little bit because you havepeople visiting from the big
(29:54):
cities, but yeah, I don't know,I've never done it.
The, um, the Popular wisdom isalways never to do that.
We're gonna experience it.
Uh, it's definitely going to bea unique trip
Timothy Sullivan (30:08):
Yep.
I think my advice would be justto reserve trains in advance.
Golden Week tends to be verybooked up for hotels and trains.
So if you get those thingssquared away, you may have some
more crowds more than usual, butyou can really enjoy yourself
and enjoy Japan.
John Puma (30:23):
I plan to hopefully, uh, hopefully It's just a matter
of being aware of those things.
'cause yeah, we're, our flightsare booked.
Our, um, hotels are all bookedwhere we're good to go.
Timothy Sullivan (30:33):
Awesome.
John Puma (30:34):
Yeah.
Um, are you going back yourself?
Oh, we're just leaving it at,yeah.
Mm
Timothy Sullivan (30:40):
I, right now, I don't have any concrete plans
booked, but I would be extremelysurprised if I don't go to Japan
maybe one or two times in 2024,so it's high on my agenda.
But nothing concrete booked atthe moment, so we'll have to see
how things shake out.
We had so much fun on our lasttrip to Japan, and I just can't
(31:05):
wait to go again.
John Puma (31:06):
Great.
Well, Tim, it has been a delightsitting here and, uh,
reminiscing about the past yearand, and kind of setting the
stage for next year with you,
Timothy Sullivan (31:17):
Yes, we had our ups, we had our downs,
John Puma (31:20):
Yes, we did.
Timothy Sullivan (31:21):
we had our roundabouts, and it was all a
lot of fun.
Uh, John, it was so great totaste with you today and revisit
our dear friend, Blue Door, RIP.
John Puma (31:33):
Pour one out for the blue door.
The sake lives on, but the dooris gone.
Timothy Sullivan (31:39):
The door's gone, but the sake and the brand
lives on.
Uh, it was so great to tastesome Blue Door.
Nice to chat with you andreminisce.
And I'm really looking forwardto see how our revolution
resolutions shake out for 2024.
I also want to say a specialthank you to our listeners.
Thank you so much for checkingin again today.
(32:00):
And we're so happy you joinedus.
A special hello and thank you toour patrons as well.
Sake Revolution would not bepossible without their very
generous support.
If you'd like to learn moreabout supporting Sake
Revolution, please visitPatreon.com/SakeRevolution to
learn more.
John Puma (32:19):
and, mentioned a lot of previous episodes on today's
show.
You might want to go over toSakeRevolution.Com and take a
look at them.
We've got some show notes forevery single episode and a
written transcript in caseyou're just kind of, you don't
feel like listening to somethingyou just want to read through,
you can do that.
we even have a little swag shopat the site.
You can buy t shirts andstickers, all that kind of
(32:41):
stuff.
go ahead and take a look thereand, uh, let us know what you
think of the site.
I'd like it personally.
on that note, I'm going to graba glass of blue door.
Remember to keep drinking sakeand
Timothy Sullivan (32:54):
kanpai!
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