True History – The Newsletter Hits An Amazing Milestone
"It's one thing to be the first sake-specific retailer in the US, but to be promoting sake tirelessly and continuously the ENTIRE damn time is what really blows me away – if it weren't for the tenacity of team TRUE SAKE, the thirst for this beautiful brew in the US wouldn't be what it is today. I've cherished this knowledge drop in my inbox over the months and years, and I've got a feeling we can expect at least another 200 newsletters ahead of them! Kanpai, True Sake!"
Monica Samuels - Vice President of Sake & Spirits Vine Connections
"Not sure how Beau does it, but every True Sake Newsletter still entertains and brings tidbits of sake knowledge. And OK I do love those occasional oddities that only Beau knows or finds, makes me smile. Congratulations, another milestone in sake history, thank you for sharing with all of us. To the next 200 and beyond."
Jake Myrick – Owner and Brewer Sequoia Sake
“Congratulations to True Sake for reaching their 200th newsletter! That's almost 17 years' worth of monthly newsletters and so many more hours of labor and love that went into making them all possible. Thank you, Beau and True Sake for your long standing passion and appreciation for good sake and for sharing it with the world. I wish you many more years of newsletters and bottles of sake. Kanpai!”
Toshio Ueno – Sake School of America & Mutual Trading Co. Inc
“If there was an Ironman competition for interesting newsletters - of any kind - Beau would have owned it. Congratulations on 200 consecutive monthly True Sake newsletters! Here's to 200 more!
Two hundred months ago, Beau began a True process of publishing enjoyable and informative True Sake newsletters that may be one of the only semblances of continuity many of us have known. Congratulations, thanks, and don't stop now!
So much has changed in the sake world over the last 200 months. But through it all, we knew we could count on Beau cranking out yet another great True Sake newsletter every single month. Thanks for guiding us all through the sake fog for so long!”
John Gauntner – Sake Industry News, Sake World Newsletter, Sake Professional Course
"Anyone can write once about an obscure beverage.
The enthusiasm of early discovery gets lots of people up to a few dozen posts.
200 is either a pathology or a vocation.
Congratulations on the double ton."
Philip Harper -Master Brewer of Tamagawa sake.
“I've known Beau for about 14 years in this industry and his enthusiasm for introducing a different cultural value through Sake into the world has never changed since the beginning. I want to express great respect for his accomplishment of 200 months in a row.”
Yoshi Sako – Owner and Brewer Den Sake Brewery
“Beau really is a true pioneer in the sake industry. I know what that feels like because I started an importing company in 2000 not long before Beau opened True Sake with the express purpose of introducing Argentine wine to US wine lovers. Not long after that, I had the opportunity to start importing fine sake. You have to have pretty thick skin and a dedicated vision to survive the looks you get every time someone looks at you like you are crazy, and in those years, that was the standard look. At least we were among a few other small importers of quality sake at the time. True Sake, however, was the ONLY sake-only retailer in the US, so the need to know deep down that this was a calling is certainly what helped Beau and True Sake survive and prosper. Today very few people give Beau or I that "you're crazy" look—they just say, "That's really cool." Yeah, it is. Congrats on 200 issues Beau!”
Ed Lehrman - Vine Connections Co-Founder & Owner
"Congratulations on the 200th issue of the newsletter. True Sake has been and continues to be a Sake force to be reckoned with. It has been essential for the growth of the category in the United States and has been an important part of my career and love for Sake"
Eduardo Dingler - Sake Ambassador, sakedrinker.com, Independent Journalist/Judge
“Sake continues to grow each and every year....in large part due to Pioneers and our Sake Hero's such as Beau. 200 continuous newsletters educating the world about Sake is AMAZING. True Sake is known throughout the Sake world due to Beau's passion for Sake. I am honored to work with and learn from you Beau! Thank you and we look forward to continuing to learn from you for another 200 issues of True Sake Newsletter!!!!!”
Marcus Pakiser - Sake Samurai - Vice President Sake RNDC
“Holy moly, is it 200 newsletters already? Thank you Beau and the entire True Sake team for keeping us informed on what's hot at the US's first and favorite sake shop. Congratulations, here's to 200 more!”
Jesse Pugach – Founder Fifth Taste
"200 issues is truly amazing. I have ultimate respect for trailblazers of the world, and True Sake definitely is the 'True-Blazer' of Sake in America and beyond."
Tamiko Ishidate - Director of Sake Republic National Distributing Company
“The True Sake newsletter predates even my earliest memories. For 200 consecutive months, I have loved to watch the dedication that transpires and inspires each month as my dad writes another witty newsletter. From dinners where he would bring sake to pair with any cuisine to questions planted in the AskBeau section, being a sounding board for ideas and proof reading the newsletter has been an integral part of my childhood. Watching the last 17 years transpire has taught me diligence, passion and instilled the idea that I must pursue a career in something that captivates me the way sake has for my dad. The sake world is beyond lucky to have such an advocate, it is his third child, one that will leave a lasting mark 200 months and counting.”
Riley Timken – True Sake Part Time Employee & Daughter of Boss
In 2004, Lance Armstrong won his 6th Tour De France, the Red Sox broke their curse and won their first World Series since 1918, and Martha Stewart was convicted of a felony and sentenced to five months in prison. I started the True Sake Newsletter when George Bush was in office, Janet Jackson had a wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl, and Mark Zuckerberg flipped the switch on Facebook. The Newsletter started when my second daughter was born. She is now a year away from college. 200 months is a long time.
Why did I start it? For me it was like a journal documenting the wild frontiers of sake in the western world. I felt like Kevin Costner in Dances With Wolves writing in his journal about the beauty of exploring a newness - a new way of life for an ancient beverage.
The Newsletter was many things in the process. It was scientific as I explored sake in ways that were never thought of in Japan. It was commercial as I looked for ways of getting customers into a bottle of sake. It was challenging as I dared skeptical folks to bring sake to their favorite western cuisines. It was admiration as I put sake on a pedestal high above wine and spirits. It was a teaching mechanism for consumers and the industry itself.
The good news is that sake itself wrote each monthly issue. Sake provided a new and interesting glimpse each month. I was not only producing our own unique content about selling sake on the frontlines, I included perspectives from others in the industry sharing their experiences.
The True Sake Newsletter achieved many firsts, because we had the best seats in the sake theater. We lead the market in thinking about sake in our own perspective not beholden to the morays and the historical constraints of sake in Japan. In a sense, we let the Genie out of the bottle and we had fun.
I always joked that the Newsletter didn't write itself. Some issues did! But most were a labor of love. And of course I had the easy job of writing them whereas Miwa and now Mei had the difficult task of making them work electronically. For that, I will always be indebted to the amazing people who made this rag happen each month.
Since the Newsletter was a diary in a sense, it saw me through good times and bad. It helped me document the upbringing of my two daughters in a sake centric household, it navigated me through a terrible divorce, it helped me collect my fearful thoughts during and after the Tohoku earthquake (The April 2011 issue almost didn't happen - this was the one month where the consecutive streak could have stopped), and it helped me with a new family, my sake family that stretched from the Bay Area to the four corners of the US, Japan, and the entire world.
And amazingly we have so many family members still with us. I refer to them as "readers" but the True Sake Newsletter mailing list IS my family. From day one, my goal was to treat you like a family member and a passenger on this first time ride that took sake to so many places. I cannot begin to explain how a simple reply to the Newsletter gave me energy and was the fuel for my further motivation. Each reply, compliment, challenge, disagreement, humorous retort pushed me further in the only direction where I knew to go - the unknown. You gave me the strength. You gave me the courage. You gave me the will to be awesome. The True Sake Newsletter is the glue that kept the whole True Sake movement together. This simple monthly email "update" gave the sake industry wings it did not know it had.
In a phrase, it made sake history.
So thank you for that!