On this episode of A Taste of the Past, Linda Pelaccio is in the studio with Tim Sullivan, sake educator and founder of the site UrbanSake.com. Tune in to hear about how rice processing and milling determines sake quality, why sake is more similar to beer than wine, and why sake is unlikely to give you a hangover. Did the tsunami affect sake quality and production in Japan? Is the sake contaminated by nuclear material? Tim says that sake production is monitored by the Japanese government and is completely safe! Sake doesn’t necessarily need to accompany traditional Japanese food; it suits all types of cuisines and can compliment any meal. Learn more about the history of sake, and try some with your next dinner. This program has been brought to you by Hearst Ranch.

“Sake today can be very elegant. There’s a lot of nuance. That’s a modern phenomenon. That is something that has only been around for the last forty or fifty years. Sake itself has been around for 2,000 years.”

“The more you mill down [the rice], the higher the quality. All the rice we eat is brown; if you’re eating white rice, it has been milled.”

—Tim Sullivan on A Taste of the Past