“Ask Beau” – “You’ve produced so much sake content over the years, what do you intend to do with it?”
This is a great question!
Okay! I’ll admit it! Nobody asked me this question. But it is a damn good question, so thanks for asking! This month’s issue of the True Sake Newsletter is the 156th production. 156 ÷ 12 = 13 years of stupendously written prose about a subject so near and dear to our hearts! Sake! For the past 156 months I have been scribing the daily life of sake in all of its glorious forms. What have you been doing the last 156 months? It’s a damn long time, and yes there is a damn lot of information accumulated in all those years. In truth it is a pretty accurate “Baby Book” for sake – pictures included – for the growth of sake in the American context.
The Archives! That’s what we call it! That is the nest where baby sake lives and matures on a monthly basis. We have 156 issues of unique sake content from the retailer’s perspective. Actually it’s from an educator, promoter, author, and consumer’s perspective as well. It’s straight up sake history with a smidge of humor and a dash of personality kicked in.
People have asked for years for me to aggregate the “Archives” and put it into a book! Who needs a book when it’s in the “Archives?” I once received an email from a customer who told me that she “binged” the archives. Say what? She said that she started at issue one and read through 7 years of newsletters in one sitting. Wow! That’s sick. No seriously that is sick! But she said the takeaway was that there was always something new, and “despite being entertained she learned so much.”
Not long ago KJ started a section in the Newsletter called “Mining The Archives.” She put on an awesome miner’s helmet and started digging around in the Archives for interesting and relevant articles that could coincide with the current issue. I loved it! But we can’t tell if it’s getting any traction. I think it’s a great way of getting back some of the history and putting new meaning to it! For example when I opened the store there was only one sparkling sake available in the market and it sold for $115 for a 720ml bottle. Today there must be at least 25 in various forms! So in a sense you can track the history of exported sparkling sake to the US via the archives by reading a section or two!
I personally want the archives to go out on the nets! I want folks who were not lucky enough to watch the growth of exported sake from a retailer’s perspective to be able to do so wherever in the world they might be! So I put it out to you good readers! What should we do with the archives? I think Kj is doing a killer job making them current and relevant in little bite size pieces! But can we do more with 13 years of very pure and “TRUE” content?