Read my sake piece at The Takeout

I contributed the piece, “Ease Yourself Into the Singular Joy of Sake” to The Takeout, the food and beverage site owned by the folks behind The Onion, The A.V. Club and others. Give it a read here!  

Happy Sake Day! (Yes, it’s a real thing, every Oct. 1)

Oct. 1 is Sake Day (Google it, I’m not making this up!) and this year’s is particularly meaningful for me. It’s the first one I get to celebrate as a Certified International Kikisake-shi (Master of Sake/sommelier) from the Sake School of America. I’m also in the middle of writing my fourth book, tentatively titled Sakepedia,…

The Drinkable Week: Japan through a glass

It’s the first “very special episode” of The Drinkable Week. (Grab the tissues and don’t do drugs, kids.) This week, I’m in Tokyo and in the Kagoshima and Kumamoto Prefectures experiencing shochu, the treasured spirit of the southern island of Kyushu. The itinerary, very generously organized by the Japan Sake & Shochu Makers Association (JSS), included tours of…

Introducing…The Drinkable Week!

We’re excited to present the inaugural edition of The Drinkable Week, hosted by Jeff Cioletti, founder of The Drinkable Globe and author of the upcoming book, The Year of Drinking Adventurously. We kick off our weekly drinking news show with a few thoughts on Steven Soderbergh’s Singani 63, Cachaça and saké. We’d love to hear…

Image of the Day: Kumamoto, Japan

Kumamoto, on the southernmost Japanese island of Kyushu, has an enormously popular mascot, Kumamon—so popular that he inspired a local watering hole, KumaBar.

Saké in Osaka (Osaké?), Part 1

After a bit of a hiatus, the video featurettes (vide-ettes?) return with the first of several shot in Japan. Ever drink saké with fish parts in it? Unless you accidentally dropped a piece of sashimi in your cup (happens to the best of us), the answer is “probably not.” A tiny, hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Osaka…