This week we zone in on sake in the U.K. as we welcome the founder and owner of Tengu Sake, Oliver Hilton Johnson to the show.

Oliver’s carefully

curated portfolio

and user-friendly communication are just a handful of the reasons

that Tengu Sake has been selected as the Specialist

Merchant of the Year

in the Sake category for the International Wine Challenge four years running. From Oliver’s

first forays into the sake business to the exciting developments happening

throughout the sake industry in London, Chris Hughes, Marie Nagata and Justin

Potts fill the tokkuri and dig into the nitty-gritty with one of the country’s

young pioneers of kampai.

Please review and rate us on Apple

Podcasts, and send

your questions and comments to [email protected], or @sakeonair on  Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. We’re on YouTube as well.

More Sake

On Air coming your way in two weeks.

Kampai!

Sake On Air is made possible with the generous

support of the Japan Sake & Shochu Makers

Association and is broadcast from the Japan Sake & Shochu Information Center in Tokyo. The show is a

co-production between Export Japan and Potts.K Productions, with audio

production by Frank Walter.

Our theme, “Younger Today Than Tomorrow” is

composed by forSomethingNew for Sake On Air.

This week

it’s time once again to take a moment to get to know the team here at Sake On

Air. We first aired one of these episodes back in October (Episode 27), where you got to know Sebastie Lemoine and Christopher Pellegrini; aka, “little Chris”.

This week

you’ll be hearing from Christopher’s sake-inspired counterpart, Chris Hughes

(aka, “big Chris”) along with our quiet champion behind the scenes, Shuso Imada.

Despite his

relatively short amount of time based in Japan, Chris’s personal and

professional history with sake extends back to the days when he still called

the U.K. home, which has led him to now becoming one of the most active and

prolific non-Japanese sake educators in Japan. In his endless pursuit of truth,

as well as new questions in the world of sake, his passion and dedication are

both palpable and highly contagious.

Currently

the general manager of the Japan Sake and Shochu Information

Center (where we

broadcast from almost exclusively), Imada-san’s ties to the sake industry reach

deep, and are long and storied. From his family ties to world-renowned

breweries in Hiroshima

to deeply rooted sake distributors in Tokyo, then extending to his own private

ventures in sake-centric marketing and brand development, Imada-san has

arguably one of the broadest perspectives on the industry out of anyone, along

with the experience to match. In his interview, Rebekah takes him down a journey of his

own personal past, but also explores the major turning points of the industry

and its evolution over the past several decades. We let this one run a bit

long, because it we thought it was all important.

As always,

if you’re willing to take a moment to review and rate us on Apple

Podcasts (or

whatever service you listen on) it would mean the world to us.

We also

welcome all of your questions and comments about the show, which you can send

to [email protected], or track us down at @sakeonair on

 Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. You can also listen on our official  YouTube

channel, if that’s

your thing.

Time

stamps:

Chris

Hughes interview

01:46 Start of the interview

05:12 Chris discovers sake for the first time

10:50 Working in sake

26:15 Comics and sake

Shuso

Imada interview

33:44 Start of the interview

37:36 About the Japan Sake & Shochu Makers Association

43:30 Sake in the 1960s and 1970s

50:30 Why Imada-san's English is so good

59:40 What does the Sake world mean to Imada-san now?

We’ll be

back in two weeks.

Kampai!

Sake On Air is made possible with the generous

support of the Japan Sake & Shochu Makers

Association and is broadcast from the Japan Sake & Shochu Information Center in Tokyo. The show is a co-production

between Export Japan and Potts.K Productions, with audio

production by Frank Walter.

Our theme, “Younger Today Than Tomorrow” is

composed by forSomethingNew for Sake On Air.

What

exactly is the scent of sake?

For our

final episode of 2019, Chris Hughes,

Rebekah Wilson-Lye, and Sebastie Lemoine gather to discuss the nature and

role of aroma in sake. Seeing as how the smells that we experience impart so

much influence on our perception of taste and our associated memories, this is

a topic that arguably carries as much weight as any in the dialogue of sake.

From

personal experiences to systematic judging, a bit of the science of sake to the

evolution of aroma in relation to production, this week’s discussion ventures

far and wide in attempt to unravel the influence of smell on our perception of

sake. That being said, we’ve still only scratched the surface. There exists a

plethora of angles we’ve still yet to explore, which means that you can be sure

we’ll be back to expand upon this particular topic again in the future.

In what

turned out to be a rather discussion-heavy episode, there are a lot of tasty

tidbits interwoven throughout the show from beginning up until the very end.

Engaged listening is highly encouraged this week!

In

addition, we also need to express a special ‘Thanks’ to all of our listeners

that have supported us throughout our first year of Sake On Air, having seen us

all the way through to the end of 2019. Thanks to all of your excitement and

support for the show, every month our listener base grows in countries spanning

the globe, resulting in more opportunities to share the wonderful world of sake

and shochu with a passionate and sake-curious population. We have a lot planned

for 2020. We can’t wait to bring you along for the ride.

If you

feel like Sake On Air contributed just a little something to your enjoyment of

sake and shochu this past year, please do take a moment to review and rate us on Apple

Podcasts (or

whatever service you listen on). If you feel like giving back to the Sake On

Air team in some way, that’s unquestionably the best way to do it.

Keep

sending us your questions and comments about the show to [email protected], and be sure to continue following

us at @sakeonair on  Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. You can also listen on our official  YouTube

channel.

Happy New Year everyone! Thank you so much for your patience as we worked out what went wrong with the audio of the first version of this episode.

Kampai!

Sake On Air is made possible with the generous

support of the Japan Sake & Shochu Makers

Association and is broadcast from the Japan Sake & Shochu Information Center in Tokyo. The show is a

co-production between Export Japan and Potts.K Productions, with audio

production by Frank Walter.

Our theme, “Younger Today Than Tomorrow” is

composed by forSomethingNew for Sake On Air.

We’ve been

doing this for an entire year (and then some) already! To commemorate we

decided to get the entire cast together (minus John,

sadly, who was fully there in spirit) to talk about the nature of the show

itself, as well as address a few audience and listener questions, in front of a

small live audience in Tokyo back on November 25th. 

The format

this week is a bit unique, as the show was designed to be an enjoyable listen,

but also to speak directly to a live audience. For those that would appreciate

a small taste of the live experience, we livestreamed the show on our

Facebook page. The

audio quality is definitely going to be better via the podcast, but if a bit of

visual context will help you get the most out of the show and attach names to

faces, please do have a look at the

livestream video,

as well.

Since starting Sake On Air just over a

year ago the show

has now grown to have listeners in more than 50 countries across the globe and

is downloaded thousands of times every month. Hitting the ground running with

almost zero promotion or prep time back in October of 2018, we charged forward

with excitement and confidence that there was both a strong need and interest

for an open and readily available place to share a new kind of dialogue about

the fascinating and ever-changing nature of sake, shochu and awamori. Thanks to

all of our listeners and supporters that have followed along and championed us

over the past year, you’ve proven us right. We can’t thank you enough.

Knowing

that most of our listeners are scattered across the globe and not having the

opportunity to engage face-to-face with our supporters can be a challenge at

times, as sending data out into the digital void every other week can feel much

less tangible, both for us, and we imagine for many of our listeners as well.

Being able to speak in front of a live group of supporters, while also having

listeners send in questions and words of encouragement throughout the

broadcast, was incredibly rewarding.

We’d love to

hear your thoughts about this week’s format. Having tried this, we feel like

there’s potential to continue to explore this style of show and further engage

with our audience both locally and digitally in more new and direct ways. We’d

love to travel for shows as well! While it may not happen right away, if

there’s interest, we’d love to find a way to make a tour of some sort happen…!

But for

now, this week you can settle in with Sebastie Lemoine, Rebekah Wilson-Lye, Christopher Pellegrini, Marie Nagata,

Chris Hughes and Justin Potts

for a small celebration of all things sake, shochu and awamori, here in Tokyo.

Last but

not least, after listening to this week’s show, if you could take just a moment

to leave a review for us on Apple

Podcasts or your

favorite podcast streaming service it would mean a great deal to us and help

more than you know. Info and instructions about how to

do this can be found here.

Stitcher users can leave reviews directly in-browser here.

While

you’re listening, you can further keep tabs on us through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and our  YouTube

channel.

Any and

all questions and comments are welcome via [email protected], or directly through our contact

page.

We’ve got

one more episode of Sake On Air on the way this month before we close out 2019.

Thanks again everyone.

Kampai!

Sake On Air is made possible with the generous

support of the Japan Sake & Shochu Makers

Association and is broadcast from the Japan Sake & Shochu Information Center in Tokyo. The show is a

co-production between Export Japan and Potts.K Productions, with audio

production by Frank Walter.

Our theme, “Younger Today Than Tomorrow” is

composed by forSomethingNew for Sake On Air.

It was

right around this very same time last year that we sat down with a whole slew of

splendid bartenders and mixologists to discuss shochu following their tour across

Kyushu.

This week,

we’ve done it again! Only this time instead of trying to squeeze a large group

into a single episode, we pulled aside a single specialist – the one-and-only Philip

Duff – to explore

shochu in the context of the greater spirits landscape.

Philip has a long and storied history in

the world of bartending, cocktails and shaping the future of spirits. From

opening Holland’s first speakeasy, Door 74, to serving as the educational

director for Tales

of the Cocktail,

writing for many of the industry’s most respected media, judging for many of

the industry’s largest bar and cocktail awards, and circling the globe as one

of the most prolific educators and consultants in the world of spirits, Philip

is now concentrating his efforts on his original genever label, Old Duff

Genever, and

further developing his on-trade consultancy at Liquid Solutions.

While

shochu does indeed dominate the conversation, given Philip’s unique experience

and perspective on the industry, Sebastien and Justin also pick his brain about the rise

of Japanese gin, the world’s misconceptions of genever, how Japan might be able

to learn from the U.S. tequila industry, and more!

After

listening to this week’s show, please do take a moment to leave us a

review for us on Apple Podcasts

or your favorite podcast streaming service. It really helps!

While

you’re listening, you can further keep tabs on us through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and our  YouTube channel.

Any and

all questions and comments are welcome via [email protected], or directly through our contact

page.

We’ll be

back in a couple more weeks for just a bit more Sake On Air before we close out

2019.

Stay

tuned, and Kampai!

Sake On Air is made possible with the generous

support of the Japan Sake

& Shochu Makers Association and is broadcast from the Japan Sake & Shochu

Information Center in Tokyo. The show is a co-production between Export Japan and Potts.K Productions, with audio

production by Frank

Walter.

Our theme, “Younger Today Than Tomorrow” is

composed by forSomethingNew for Sake On Air.

Sake On

Air has taken the show on the road! Well, sort of.

The gang

isn’t all here, but Justin recently spent a bit of time in the Pacific

Northwest and along the way managed to sit down with a few of the individuals

helping to shape the future of sake in the region.

While in Portland Oregon for the annual Portland Fermentation Festival Justin sat down with sake samurai and vice president of the sake category for Young’s Market Company, Marcus Pakiser, together with SakeOne sales and marketing manager, Midori Nakazawa.

Portland is a city gathering the attention of the world for its approach to sustainable development, with it now regularly ranked as one of the best cities to live in the U.S. But what does Portland look like as a “sake city?” Does the local populace’s relatively high level of awareness in relation to food and beverage, as well as preference for “local” as well as “natural” (a word to tackle another day!) give it the potential to develop a unique local sake market that sets it apart from other major cities across North America?

Its these

topics and more that we delve into in this week’s episode of Sake On Air!

A quick

caveat about this week’s episode before listening: This was our first-time

recording “on the road.” To make a long story short, our recording tools and

methods for this (and a couple more upcoming shows that were recorded in the

U.S.) were highly makeshift. As a result, the recording quality and volume has

suffered a bit, but we hope that you’ll stick with us and that we were able to

make up for it with some fun and insightful content.

Let us

know what you thought of this week’s show (and the show in general) by leaving

a review for us on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast streaming

service.

You can

follow along with our adventures on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and our  YouTube channel.

Send your

thoughts and feedback to as at [email protected],

or via the contact page on our

brand new website.

Thanks for listening.

Kampai!

Sake On Air is made possible with the

generous support of the Japan Sake & Shochu Makers Association and is broadcast from the Japan Sake & Shochu Information Center in Tokyo. The show is a co-production between Export

Japan and Potts.K

Productions, with audio production

by Frank Walter.

Our theme, “Younger Today Than Tomorrow”

is composed by forSomethingNew for Sake On Air.

Over the

past year of doing Sake On Air, believe it or not, one of the most highly

requested show topics that we get from our listeners has been for us to do a deep-dive

exploring the backgrounds and stories of your regular hosts here on the show.

Originally

a bit hesitant – the entire purpose of the show is to provide a voice to those

in and around the industry that are underrepresented – we realized that we’ve been

doing this for quite a while now without ever properly communicating to our

listeners exactly who is involved and their

motivations behind, not only Sake On Air, but their involvement in the world of

sake.

So with

that, we bring you Part 1 of our “Know Your Hosts” series. Each episode will

include in-depth interviews with two of your regular Sake On Air hosts. Over

four episodes to be released intermittently over the coming months, you’ll have

the chance to learn a bit more about the people that came together in order to

make Sake On Air possible.

For Part

1, we hear from the show’s shochu ambassador, Christopher

Pellegrini, as

well as our deep culture guru and resident Frenchman, Sebastien

Lemoine.

Now that

we’ve gone through the process of recording all of these, we’re actually really

excited to finally share the stories of the people behind the microphones with

all of our listeners. If you have any questions for this week’s hosts (and

interviewees!), feel free to reach out to us at [email protected], or via the contact

page on our brand

new website.

If you

could take a moment to leave a review for us on Apple

Podcasts or your

favorite podcast streaming service, it really does wonders for helping us to

promote and grow the show.

Also be

sure to follow along with us on Instagram, Twiiter, and Facebook, and our  YouTube

channel is finally

in motion as well.

Thanks for listening, and kampai!

Sake On Air is made possible with the generous

support of the Japan Sake & Shochu Makers

Association and is broadcast from the Japan Sake & Shochu Information Center in Tokyo. The show is a

co-production between Export Japan and Potts.K Productions, with audio

production by Frank Walter.

Our theme, “Younger Today Than Tomorrow” is

composed by forSomethingNew for Sake On Air.

This week’s episode is especially timely, as Justin managed to

squeeze in an interview with Stephen

Lyaman to coincide with the launch of his brand new book, The

Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks, co-authored together with Chris

Bunting, author of Drinking Japan, which released

October 1st in the U.S. and is already largely available

internationally thanks to Tuttle

Publishing.

Those familiar with Stephen’s work may associate mostly with Japan’s

beloved indigenous spirit, shochu. Sake On Air’s shochu aficionado, Christopher

Pellegrini sat down for an extensive interview with Stephen back in Episode

14. Giving that show a listen first will be a great primer for this week’s

discussion.

This week’s show is a lot of fun because we delve into a great deal

more than just sake and shochu. A rarity for the show, Stephen’s new book gave

us a great opportunity to discuss Japanese wine, whiskey, beer, cocktails, and

how all of these things play into the greater landscape of ‘drinking in Japan.’

Stephen is currently on the road promoting his new book, so be sure to

listen in for upcoming tour dates, as well as follow him on Twitter and Instagram in order to

keep tabs on the Kyushu-based founder of Kampai.us

and East Coast instructor for the Sake

School of America Certified Shochu Advisor Course, and hopefully thank him

in-person for his great contribution with The

Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks.

We’d love your thoughts and feedback on this week’s episode. Let us

know what excites you about shochu at [email protected]

You can always follow us on Instagram, Twiiter, and Facebook, and if you’re so

inclined, our YouTube

channel is finally just about up-to-date as well, for those that prefer

plenty of video-distractions just one click away.

Also, reviews

are great. If you have a moment, please do share a few kind words. It helps

the show like you wouldn’t believe.

Thanks for listening, and kampai!

Sake On Air is made possible with the generous

support of the Japan Sake & Shochu Makers Association and is broadcast from the Japan Sake & Shochu Information Center in Tokyo. The show is a co-production between Export

Japan and Potts.K

Productions, with audio

production by Frank Walter.

Our theme, “Younger Today Than Tomorrow” is

composed by forSomethingNew for Sake On Air.

Cody Brailsford is a rather rare breed.

Now fuku-toji (assistant head

brewer) as of this recording, at Watanabe Sake Brewery, makers of Hourai brand

sake in the small countryside town of Hida

Furukawa in Gifu Prefecture, Cody has been toiling away in the brewery for well

over a decade.

As more sake breweries open across the

globe, and as breweries in Japan gradually open their doors (and minds) to the

prospect of greater diversity in the brewery, the number of non-Japanese people

working stints in Japanese sake breweries has grown significantly in recent

years.

However very few have dug in for the

long haul in the way that Cody has at Hourai. And his time and hard work have

clearly been recognized and appreciated, as he was just offered the position of

fuku-toji a matter of days before he sat down with us here at Sake On Air.

In addition to Cody’s “origin story”

and life as a brewer, we also discuss the challenges of taking a brewery from

hyper-local to international, the shift from brewing to communicating, the

transition from one toji guild to another, and much more.

Christopher Hughes and Justin

Potts are your navigators for this session.

Pour yourself a beverage (or several) and settle in for fascinating glimpse

into the world of sake brewing in Japan with a gentleman whose experience and

perspective are truly one-of-a-kind.

You can learn more about, as well as

follow the adventures of Cody and Hourai Sake at any of the outlets below.

Watanabe

Sake Brewery Official Website:

Cody on Instagram

Hourai on Instagram

Be sure to let us know what you think

by leaving us a review on Apple

Podcasts, or wherever you get your regular serving of Sake On Air.

You can follow the show on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter via @sakeonair. Feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] as well.

Until next week – kampai!

Sake

On Air is made possible with the generous support of the Japan Sake & Shochu Makers Association and is broadcast from the Japan Sake

& Shochu Information Center in Tokyo. The show is a co-production between Export Japan and Potts.K Productions, with audio

production by Frank Walter.

Our

theme, “Younger Today Than Tomorrow” is composed by forSomethingNew for Sake On Air.

This week’s episode is exactly what the title says: an interview with Shinichiro Shimizu, the president of Shimizu Seizaburo Shoten, better known as makers of the incredibly popular brand of sake, ZAKU.

Zaku has taken both Japan and the world by storm in recent years, being awarded top accolades in just about every sake competition under the sun, while simultaneously establishing itself as a staple on the drink menus of many casual dining izakaya, as well as appearing regularly on the drink menus of establishments committed to the super high-end of the spectrum. Continually permeating into more and more international markets, this humble brewery of Mie Prefecture is turning into a household name.

Chris and Justin wanted to know how Zaku got to where it was today and understand the ethos driving this brewery that is creating an outstanding place for itself in the sake world on it’s own terms.

You’ll notice immediately that this week’s episode is a bit different. This particular interview was conducted several months back entirely in Japanese. We’ve been sitting on this for a while because it takes a significant amount of resources to transform such content into something that will be useful to the majority of our listeners.

That being said, we think that content of this nature is terribly important. One of our primary goals here at Sake On Air is to help give a voice to the amazing people shaping the future of the sake industry. Arranging, conducting, dubbing and editing in the way that we have this week is one way to go about doing that.

Being an entirely auditory platform, the means through which we can make this sort of content available to our listeners is somewhat limited. We took a first crack at it this week. We know that it isn’t perfect, but we’re proud of it. We also know that we have plenty of room to improve.

Please do let us know what you thought of this week’s episode. Let us know if you enjoy and would like more of this type of content. Or, if you have other ideas or suggestions for how we might make this sort of content accessible to our listeners, please let us know.

While you’re at it, please do take a moment to review the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your regular dose of Sake On Air.

A huge ‘Thank You’ is in order. Mr. Shuso Imada, took on the gargantuan job of being the voice of this week’s interviewee, Mr. Shinichiro Shimizu. We sort of threw him right into the fire and he did a stellar job. Imada-san, arigato!

You can follow Shuso and the rest of the Sake On Air team’s adventures on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter via @sakeonair.

Be sure to send your questions and comments to [email protected]

Thanks for tuning in.

Kampai!

Sake On Air is made possible with the generous support of the Japan Sake & Shochu Makers Association and is broadcast from the Japan Sake & Shochu Information Center in Tokyo. The show is a co-production between Export Japan and Potts.K Productions, with audio production by Frank Walter.

Our theme, “Younger Today Than Tomorrow” is composed by forSomethingNew for Sake On Air.