Our guest is Yuichiro Murai, the 29th generation of Kojiya Sanzaemon based in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Koji, which is also called the national mold of Japan, has been used to make a majority of anything delicious in Japanese cuisine, such as miso, soy sauce, sake, and shochu. In the last...

Our guest is Maurice Dudley, who is an awamori specialist based in Okinawa. Awamori is a very important traditional alcoholic beverage from Okinawa Prefecture, but its preciousness is yet to be known outside Japan. Maurice went to Japan for the first time in 1994 as an Airman. He was stationed...

Take a splash into HRN’s drinks archive to discover episodes on coffee, cocktails, cider, and more!

Our guest is Michael Tremblay who is a Sake Samurai, international sake judge, sake sommelier, and certified sake educator based in Toronto, Canada. Michael is also the co-author of the excellent new book “Exploring the World of Japanese Craft Sake: Rice, Water, Earth” from Tuttle Publishing. This book is not...

Our guest is Blake Richardson who is the president and owner of Moto-i in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Moto-i opened as a sake brewery and brewpub in 2008. There are around 20 craft sake breweries in the U.S. now, but when Blake started Moto-i, there was not much information available about Japanese...

Our guest is Mehdi Alexandre Medhaffar, who is a kurabito, or a brewmaster’s support, at Terada Honke in Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo. Mehdi is Franco-Tunisian and he has made sake at five breweries in Japan for the last 8 years. Terada Honke is distinctively unique and known for its strong...

Our guest is Marcin Miller who is the founding partner of the Kyoto Distillery in Japan. The distillery is the maker of the award-winning beautiful Japanese-style craft gin called KI NO BI. Before he co-founded the Kyoto Distillery in 2014, Marcin has been in the spirits industry for a long...

Our guest is Genki Ito, who is the founder of Tippsy Sake, an online store that specializes in Japanese sake, based in California. Japanese sake has been increasingly popular globally in recent years and the US is one of the most promising markets for the sake industry. For example, between...

Our guest is Matthieu Guerpillon, the Marketing Manager Brand Ambassador of NAMI, the first sake brewery in Mexico. Japanese sake has been produced outside of Japan in recent years, and it is very exciting to see that there is a sake brewery in Mexico, which is the home of...

Our guest today is Kou Sundburg, who is the founder of Kiraku. Kiraku operates multiple projects that aim to preserve Japan’s rich cultural and natural heritage for future generations. Kou has a strong business background with a unique bi-cultural vantage point of the Japanese tradition. Kou’s diverse projects include transforming...