Blog

Preparing the rice for sake-making at Tsuji Honten, maker of Gozenshu Omachi Bodaimoto 1859 Junmai I have...

Bodaimoto being made at Terada Honke by creating soyashi-mizu (water of soaked, uncooked rice) We are kicking off Sake Gumi 2.0 with a theme I've wanted to run for the last six years – bodaimoto. With...

We are obsessed with this furikake by our brother Casa de Kei, who collaborated with Daybreak Seaweed Co. on this special edition mixture blending tart ume, earthy shiso, umami rich seaweed, and roasted sesame seeds. Yoko starts her day by sprinkling this furikake on a bagel or her morning oats....

When we pulled up to Ikehara Shuzo this past February, I would have never guessed that the building housed an awamori distillery. Situated in a residential neighborhood with no interior space to waste, the pint-sized distillery and tasting room is extremely organized, well-planned,...

Every Tuesday, I host Shochu’sday at our bar and guess what’s the most popular drink, week after week? After each shift, the recycling bin is full of tiny club soda cans, proof that I had just made a gajillion sodawari (spirits...

Umami Mart seeks a friendly and responsible team member to fill a hybrid, role supporting both the front of the house and Umami Mart Bar. This will be at our shop located at 4027 Broadway in Oakland. This position...

Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 200 members throughout the country. Join today!   Welcome to the 9th annual celebration of Sakqueso! Through the years,...

So far, this year has been an exciting year of events. And oh boy did y'all show up for NamaFest! It was a smashing event and the rain in the forecast did not deter anyone from celebrating namas from around the world....

  Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 200 members throughout the country. Join today!   Doburoku is considered one of the oldest...

  Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 200 members throughout the country. Join today!   My sake-loving father Kuni always calls himself a Junmai Guy – I didn’t...

Mizuba Tea's Daily Matcha is something we've carried since the early days of Umami Mart. In fact, it has been since Lauren Purvis of Mizuba Tea Co. visited our store in 2014, so that's a whole decade of Mizuba Tea's matcha living on our shelves....

Shochu Gumi is our quarterly subscription service with 80+ members throughout the country. Join today! We’re starting 2024 with a big bang here at Shochu Gumi HQ! Yoko and I are fresh off the heels of a trip to Okinawa, where we toured...

Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 200 members throughout the country. Join today!  It feels especially...

Sake Gumi is our monthly sake subscription service with 200 members throughout the country. 

Visiting President Chobei Yamamoto at Yucho Shuzo in Gose City was one of the most educational brewery visits I’ve ever experienced. He invited me into his meeting room, where he had piles of very old books on Nara’s...

Yoshitani Woodworks was one of my favorite stops during my trip to Nara back in March. Yuki Yoshitani (the son) of the operation was there to greet me. He was energetic and really wants to visit the...

Me with Ohara-san, master brewer of Shroyakuji in Nara, at the birthplace of Bodaimoto and Seishu During my time in Nara in March 2023, I visited woodworkers,

After my visit to Nishiyoshida Shuzo in Chikugo, Fukuoka back in January, I had the distinct pleasure to tour Ikekame Shuzo in nearby Kurume. We first featured Ikekame Shuzo in February 2021 for Sake Gumi's theme Experimentations in Koji  –...

PINKBERRY DECRYPTED! (well, not completely, but this is as close as it gets without using crack/cocaine/heroin/chemical powder!)I went there 3 times last week, and each time, i was very careful to figure out what...

Our Holiday Shopping Guide has been updated this year! We first came out with this in 2021 when the world was coming out of the pandemic, and we wanted to make sure that our community of small retail businesses were being recognized during the holiday...