Obsessives: Sake

Published on Friday, December 14, 2007, by Meredith Arthur and Eric Slatkin / Edit Post

Obsessives: Sake

By Meredith Arthur and Eric Slatkin

Beau Timken of True Sake is proud to be called a sake samurai. His fanaticism comes across in his enthusiasm for junmai, daiginjo, and ginjo, and he rails against those who encourage libation without education. Take the hint: learn from Beau.

This is a regular series called Obsessives, in which CHOW explores the worlds of singularly focused food-industry figures. These are the people with the dirty hands, answering detailed questions about the work they do.

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POST A COMMENT |13 Comments

COMMENT

  • Sake martini's rock , just substitute sake for vermouth wow what a difference

  • Wonderful to see & hear the passion of his craft. We need more people like Beau in the world of food that can seriously educate our minds and palettes.

    Continue the great Obsessives series...i need more.

  • passionate, informative- nice video. 日本酒を広げましょう！

  • Wow, I love this.
    I had my first sake last week & can't wait to experience all the love that he has for this drink.

  • I'd to have a few glasses of sake with Beau. Its amazing g anybody talk about something that they are passionate about.

  • This guy totally cracked me up. Can't wait to check out his store in San Francisco. Thanks for the heads up, Chow!

  • This is excellent stuff! I live in Taipei, and I'm interested in becoming a "sake drinker", but the selection is too huge and often quite expensive. Can anyone suggest a place to start?

  • Thanks for the great videos!

  • Thank you so much for these videos. Now I won't feel like quite as much of an uneducated ass when ordering sake.

  • Doubtless sake is a more varied, nuanced beverage, but shochu can't possibly be the devil. My wife's BIL, the Buddhist priest in Kumamoto, enjoys his watered imo jochu.

    Curious about what the sake brewers do with the part of the grain they mill away.

  • Nice work - Beau speaks very passionately about sake (I suppose that's why the series is called "obsessives"). I'd have to disagree slightly on shochu - I'm no expert, but I've tasted some that were very flavorful. It would be a crime to mix them with anything other than ice, perhaps water. But in general, yeah, it's the devil.

  • Great stuff!

    If you're in the NYC area looking for sake classes check these out!

    http://astorcenternyc.com/series-sake-not-so-simply.ac

  • Beau Rules!

    I am SOOOOO happy to see a Westerner loving fine sake.

    I got into daiginjo sakes a few years ago here in Kyoto and I too was amazed to find that rice and water (and most importantly koji) could produce something really fruity and complex!

    Beau, BRING IT ON!!

    Peko@KyotoFoodie