Yes, Assemblage 2 is exclusively out for those of us lucky to be in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia however it’s far from a simple encore of what happened with the inaugural IWA 5. It will nevertheless still be leaving drinkers demanding “more”.

“Hello tartness, my old friend,” is either my best or singularly worst title for an article so far. I guess it depends on how much of a Simon & Garfunkel fan you are.

The Ninja throwing star shaped Sado Island is like a cooler version of an asterisk or ‘You Are Here’ arrow. It’s not that Niigata needs its own iconic homing beacon, but the Prefecture has one nonetheless.

I love food, don’t we all, but it’s been a real part of my life. My first job entailed selling rice, pasta and ready to use sauces to Chefs at universities, hospitals and workplace catering hubs which sounds rather dated now but back then we would fax orders to Head Office and having a cellphone seemed the coolest thing ever.

First of all, Kung Hei Fat Choy. The Year of the Ox is here. Got to say the Rat didn’t do much to break any vermin stereotypes last year.

Despite having some R&R opportunities over the New Year holidays, it’s been a busy period but I found time to say goodbye (good riddance) to the Year of the Rat with a Sake that left me a little shocked. In a good way.

A few weeks back I inadvertently blurted out a phrase that has made me giggle a few times ever since: ratfaced. Possibly on the cusp of being a little ratfaced myself, I employed this wonderful epithet to categorise all those revellers pouring en masse out of Britain’s pubs, choosing to sport their beer-soaked face masks as a chin warmer or avant garde jewellery accessory. Hope you all had a good night…

The more I learn about Sake, the more admiration and respect I have for those passionate folks on the other side of the brewery walls to me. Similarly, each time I hear from Zenkuro and taste their latest creations, I feel even happier to be a consumer of their fine Sake.

Happy World Sake Day everyone for 1 October! Please be sure to Kanpai all the hardworking folk in the industry around the world.

This is a timely Sake review to celebrate one of the enduring greats, in my opinion, from Hokkaido.

Although summer sake - known as Natsuzake - has no specific technical definitions surrounding it, we shouldn’t be so fast (‘natsu fast’, get it?!) in dismissing it as a clumsy seasonal marketing ploy.

As the media continues to share an almost Groundhog Day-like monologue of virus centric headlines, I hear many talking about what they achieved in the first half of 2020 in lieu of a normal existence.

Conveniently following on from my recent review of Daimon Brewery’s delicious Road To Osaka Nigori, this week I lucked out by stumbling across a just delivered consignment of Origarami Namazake.

Welcome to my first official Sake review. Yōkoso!

And, a quick search online makes me believe this may well be the first Asia review of Road To Osaka, recently created by Daimon Brewery. Either way, I’m claiming it as a ‘first’, so I hope you enjoy reading it, although probably not as much as I enjoyed researching and tasting for it.