Sake Facts – The Year of the Rooster Is The Year of Sake!
The Chinese Year of the Rooster is the tenth sign of the zodiac and represents my 12th year of writing the newsletter
The rooster represents punctuality according to some as it wakes you up in the morning to work on making your fortune. It also represents the awesome ability of exorcising evil spirits! Making money and making bad things go away – you go rooster!
Of course, there is the goofy stuff like this year’s lucky numbers are 5,7, and 8; the lucky colors are gold, brown, and yellow, the lucky flowers are gladiolas, impatiens, & cockscomb, and your lucky directions will be Northeast, Southwest and West! (For the very concerned you should avoid numbers 1, 3, and 9; colors white and green, and the very unlucky directions of North and East)
And here is the really important part! What celebrities are cocks? Matt Damon. I should stop there, but let’s not forget Matthew McConaughey, Britney Spears, Jennifer Aniston, Jessica Alba, Elijah Wood, Shinsuke Yamamoto, etc. etc.
What does the year of the rooster have to do with sake? Well for one there is this little word called Yakitori! Ha! Hells Yes! Japan is dotted with restaurants that specialize in all things chicken! Or better yet, chicken on a stick! Does sake go with chicken? Ummmm, does prison go with toilet wine? You bet! There is literally nothing better in this world (my kids included) than amazing yakitori with a killer bottle of sake. Nothing! The wonderful oily and savory bits of chicken are complimented with a dry and clean, or rich and fat sake that moves the flavor and cleans the oils. I am literally drooling as I type this!
The year of the rooster also so happens to be the year of sake! Huh? What? How is that? Well, it’s not because of Yakitori. In the “olden” days the kanji for rooster and sake were almost identical. In fact, they are the same in this white guy’s eyes. And so it was thought amongst the sake folks that the year of the rooster was actually the year of sake!
Do I believe this? Well, 12 years ago I started this newsletter during the year of the rooster! So, yes! Since I have written 145 issues since then the year of the rooster was the wind in my sails, the sun in my face, the libation in my cup! Cock-a-doodle Can DO!
So let’s make this year of the rooster your own personal year of sake! Make a point to have some Yakitori some time soon. And don’t forget to have some sake this year. It’s a great year to head West to True Sake! It’s a great year to put on your gold outfit and come to the store and explore our sake coop!