SAKE DAY 2022 – Summary and Wrap Up!
Talk about fun! SAKE DAY 2022 was absolutely a massive success as we saw the East Coast and entire West Coast sake crews put on a show for the ages. And it came flying out of the gate.
If there is a documented record for pouring and emptying 12x 1.8Ls sake bottles in the shortest time frame possible I want to know, because we blitzed through 12 bottles of Chokaisan Junmai Daiginjo from Akita Prefecture in 55 minutes. That’s fast and maybe it’s on account of the fact that we had 735 guests come through our doors in the first hour.
We sold 1,000 tickets to SAKE DAY 2022 and all (100%) of the ticket proceeds went directly to the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California. Many guests that I spoke to at the event did not know that, so it bears repeating. We at True Sake do not benefit from the ticket proceeds. I even had to reiterate that to the Consulate General of Japan, who personally visited SAKE DAY 2022.
Photo By Eduardo Dingler. View from East West's Sake Table. Thanks Eduardo for the photo! We would love to see yours if you have any. Please email them to info@sakeday.com
From Go Sakeman to HEAVENSAKE, from Komé Collective to World Sake Imports, from East West and EHH to Skurnik Wines and from Sake Tengoku to Fifth Taste, which had SIX tables, the vendors totally outdid themselves this year. And we had so much craft sake from our local Sequoia Sake and Den, to Sawtelle, Moto-i, Sake One, and Brooklyn Kura with a few private label brands too. We had over 30 individual brewery tables as well as 15 sake brewery owners.
This was the 17th Anniversary of SAKE DAY and I personally feel that it was the first time this event was recognized as the largest and longest standing Sake Day celebration outside of Japan. But, we also learned that this SAKE DAY was larger than any Nihonshu no Hi celebrations in Japan, so we aren’t only the “original” day of sake celebration, but we were the largest event in the world! How cool is that?
And for those of you who did not heed our annual warning “SAKE DAY ALWAYS SELLS OUT” please get your tickets early for SAKE DAY’23.
We have selected Saturday September 30th for SAKE DAY’23 so please save the date!