The Cherry Seller, Sara Ploos van Amstel This is the second installment in our series on JFEX 2023, which was held at Tokyo Big Sight in June. This week we turn our attention to Yamagata Prefecture. On the afternoon of June 23, 2023, I had the great pleasure of meeting Mr. Katsutoshi Suzuki of the … Continue reading Cherries, Cherry Wine, and Gastronomic Tourism in Yamagata Prefecture
Tokyo Big Sight The 3rd Japan International Food & Beverage Expo (JFEX) was held at Tokyo Big Sight from June 21 to June 23, 2023. One of us attended, and from what he observed it was a resounding success. The number of interesting, innovative, and otherwise noteworthy products far exceeds what our weekly blog can … Continue reading Amazake and Serendipity at Tokyo Big Sight
This is the fifth installment of our multi-part series on trees. This week we look at the genesis of a problem firmly rooted in the best-intentions terrain and discuss two solutions. We are indebted to Dr. Toshihiro Osada, who kindly took the time to answer our questions. Readers who might like more information on this … Continue reading Drinking Trees, Part 5: Can’t See the Forest for the Pollen
This is the fourth installment of our multi-part series on trees. This week we answer the rhetorical question that is our subtitle and speak on behalf of the mute. Hudson River, Logging, Winslow Homer In last week’s entry we gave a summary of our tasting notes on some of the wood-derived distillates that we had … Continue reading Drinking Trees, Part 4: Is It Worth the Effort?
This is the third installment of our multi-part series on trees. This week we make history; seriously, we do. Sweet? Sour? Savory, or Umami, if You Prefer? Bitter? and/or Salty? We contemplated writing this entry entirely in capital letters, but we did not want to make it unnecessarily difficult for historians of the next millennium … Continue reading Drinking Trees, Part 3: The Tasting
This is the second installment in our multi-part series on tree-derived alcoholic beverages. Professor Otsuka met with us in April of this year and took the time to explain the production process. He also showed us a video that illustrated it. Though not quite as complex as the the contraption that is featured above, it … Continue reading Drinking Trees, Part 2: The Production Process and the Importance of a Good Name
This is the first installment of a multi-part series on tree-derived alcoholic beverages. We start off with an original poem that is evocative of Joyce Kilmer’s “Trees” (1913). https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/12744/trees. “Trees” Revisited I think that I shall never see A liquor store as generous as a tree A tree whose rugged “skin” when stripped Can yield … Continue reading Drinking Trees, Part 1
Drinking Japan 