Ep 32 Sarika Sake
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Sara Ferrer: [00:00:00] Welcome to Fearless and Flawed. Today’s guest is Sarika Sake, a certified sake professional who brings a deep reverence for Japanese culture and craftsmanship to her work with sake. Through curated tastings, educational experiences, and storytelling, she helps people connect with the spirit of sake as both a beverage and a cultural ritual.

Serena Reynolds: And I’m Serena and I help bold leaders become the go-to expert in their space.

Sara Ferrer: And I’m Sara, an email marketing pro here to Convi to convert clicks into cash. Together we’re two women in charge. Digging into the fearless, the flawed, and the fabulous journeys of women founders rewriting the rules everywhere.

Serena Reynolds: So let’s dive in. Welcome to our show, Sarika.

Sarika Sake: Well,

Sarika Sake: thank you for having me. [00:01:00]

Sara Ferrer: Before we dive in, but let’s be a little honest with ourselves, Serena, we have been chasing Sarika for a couple months now. Like we have like you, you know, people write into us or we reach out to others. The minute I met Sarika, I was like, Serena, I.

Sara Ferrer: There is this sake expert, master guru. She has like a sake cosmetics line. She does sake tasting. So to be fair, Serena, if you were to just dive into the question, I would get it because we cannot put Sarika into a box and it. It is like, where do we begin? And we have to begin with a question because it’s like, uh, like where, what do we do?

Serena Reynolds: We do have to start with a question. Why sake? Yes, why sake?

Sarika Sake: That’s a great question. Well, have you had sake?

Sara Ferrer: I mean, I’ve had sake. I’ve had sake too, but like I’ve never, I’ve never seen it. I’ll be honest with you. I’ve never seen it as a drink to enjoy.

Sarika Sake: Exactly. That’s exactly how I was. Oh, really? [00:02:00] That’s, yeah,

Sarika Sake: that’s

Sarika Sake: exactly why.

Serena Reynolds: So, so tell us why sake, because I, I’ve drunk it. I’ve had it, it was an experience. And now I’m fascinated. I’m absolutely fascinated with what you do and, and I can’t believe that we’ve got such an amazing female founder on the show that is doing something so different, and I just wanna know everything now.

Sarika Sake: Oh, well thank you really for having me. And your names are, were like all. Triplets. ’cause it’s like Serena, Sara Sarika. So

Sara Ferrer: we’re gonna partner with you in sake, Sara. Exactly.

Serena Reynolds: Sara sake.

Serena Reynolds: Sara sake. Serena

Sara Ferrer: sake. Convince us why we should get into sake. Why did you choose it? It feels like, pardon my, my, my, my expression, but it feels like kind of like an old man’s drink.

Sara Ferrer: Like, like why did you get into it? What the love of it, the taste of it. The, tell us the story. How did you fall into the expert of all things sake? [00:03:00]

Sarika Sake: Yeah, so just like you, Sara. So originally I did not like Sake at all, and in fact, I, I actually disliked Sake. It’s like the opposite. And, and that’s even because, you know, my, my grandfather is.

Sarika Sake: From Lagano, which is one of the major saki production areas in Japan. But unfortunately he was drinking pretty bad sake before, so I always did not like sake, and I always thought that’s the, that’s sake, and then I don’t go there or I don’t need to touch it, but. Life is full of surprises because actually originally I was working in the un.

Serena Reynolds: I was gonna ask, so sake is different, there’s different sakes that taste different.

Sarika Sake: Absolutely. We’ve got sparkling sake, age sake. It the whole spectrum. And if you love champagne or kava, you will love sparkling sake. I do love [00:04:00] champagne. Yeah. So, but, or I did not know any of this because even though I’m Japanese, I’ve been always kind of, you know, looking outside and I never kind of knew much about sake until.

Sarika Sake: Like one day back now, it’s now already 15 years ago, by total coincidence, we were on a family trip in Tohuku region, one of the Northeastern region where there, there’s a lot of rice growing and yeah, we were in a local hotel staying there and they gave us dinner and they told us to Do you wanna try the local sake?

Sarika Sake: And I was, oh sake, no I don’t. Do you have other drinks? But somehow they insisted in, okay. I thought, okay, I’ll be polite. Let me have at least a sip. And when really that sip kind of completely in hindsight changed my life because it was [00:05:00] so good. And I’ve never ever had any drink like that ever.

Serena Reynolds: Sarika, I need to come to Spain and I need, we need to go out and you, you need to educate me because to me, sake is warm.

Serena Reynolds: I dunno how to describe it.

Sarika Sake: Exactly, exactly. That’s It’s not, it’s not great. Absolutely. So Exactly. You are Artie. Exactly. That’s how I felt. And when I tasted this for that reason, it was like, what is this? It’s completely different from what I know. And it’s like angels singing in the background.

Serena Reynolds: I had that with gin rhubarb up gin.

Sara Ferrer: But Sarika I to ask you, like we’ve all had experiences in our life where we’ve had like a really good gelato or really good sake, but we also decide to become experts in it. Like, like. Like we all don’t decide, Hey, I had a really good pizza. I’m gonna go like, were you already in the wine industry? Wine and and beverage [00:06:00] industry?

Sara Ferrer: Were you, you had mentioned the un, like what point were you at and where did that one sip? Like did, did you immediately change careers? Where were you at career-wise and how did that one sip transform itself to a business? ’cause right now it. It’s like a great vacation memory.

Sarika Sake: Exactly. You know, I mean, it wasn’t overnight, of course.

Sarika Sake: And originally, you know, I, I joined the UN because I wanted to change the world. Right. And that’s what I thought I would do until I retire until 62, I had absolutely no doubt, but. Um, after that, after I sip that sake, of course, then I realized, okay, it’s completely different from my grandfather’s drink, so I wanna try a bit more.

Sarika Sake: And when I started exploring the world of sake, I just went into a rabbit hole because it’s so unique and it’s so well delicious, of course. But it [00:07:00] wasn’t overnight to answer your question. In fact, it took about 10 years. From the point I si to making it into a business during the pandemic, it was a gradual thing because of course I never ever thought, I mean, I never thought I would change careers and, and of course I never thought I would be a second professional.

Sarika Sake: That was like the last thing that I could, if you told me at that time, I would laugh, but you know. I learned about sake. There’s like all these certifications that I had no idea. It’s, you know, it’s like the wine, so maier, so it’s like different levels. So as I went through these, I discovered more and more that, uh, sake is in a serious decline right now in Japan.

Sarika Sake: So it’s a 2000 year old beverage, but the consumption and the demand is going so low during my lifetime alone. It’s only one third of what it used to be. 50 years ago. So yeah, [00:08:00] it sounded like a tragedy that I think I have to step in and save the

Sarika Sake: sake

Serena Reynolds: You have what? Cosmetics, facials. Te tell us about that side.

Sarika Sake: Yeah, so I originally started by, you know, just sharing my love of sake through workshop education and consultancy. And I have a certification course and everything sold by the Japanese sake industry. But then I also realized little by little that you know.

Sarika Sake: It’s more than just a drink. It’s not just a, of course it’s a great drink, but it’s, there’s so much more because you know, the 2000 year old history of sake is so tied into, you know, the 2000 years of Japanese history too, and it has so much symbolism and it’s, yeah, it’s more than an alcohol. So I was trying to think, how can I [00:09:00] share.

Sarika Sake: You know, the beauty of sake, not just through tasting, but through a different way. And, uh, yeah. And then I realized, oh wait, I’ve been making my own DIY, you know, product since I was living in Vietnam. Not because, um, not ever to commercialize this ever. Because, you know, you probably know that in Asia there’s so much.

Sarika Sake: Stuff inside, uh, creams and cosmetics, like bleach and, oh, God knows what. So rather than that, I thought, okay, I’m, I think I’m better off with coconut oil. So, so the, like, I, I’ve been experimenting with, you know, just, just for myself and my family. Lots of coconut oil ingredients and naturally I. I remembered my grandma putting sake on her hand because it’s super nourishing and nutritious and you know, Keisha have been bathing in sake.

Sara Ferrer: It hydrates like so because one would think like, oh that’s cute. It’s kind of has like a cute little angle to it, but. The benefit is it’s [00:10:00] hydrating and geisha have been doing it for years. Does it lighten the skin? Does it just hydrate? Like what does it do?

Sarika Sake: Oh, absolute. Oh, everything. In fact, you might know, since you’re in Connecticut, like SK ll is, it’s one of these, uh, high-end cosmetics.

Sarika Sake: So they use sake as a ingredients because of course there’s this anecdotal evidence of geisha’s bathing, but there’s also so-called. Not so-called real scientific research that that sake can, because it during that fermentation process, you get all that enzymes and amino acids. So those are all like brightening, exfoliating, nourishing, all of these stuff.

Sarika Sake: Yeah, it’s all that stuff. In fact, it’s called hundred a hundred medicine Sake. Is 100 medicine in moderation, moderation.

Serena Reynolds: So Al, so sake is alcoholic, but alcohol’s quite drying for the skin. I kind of avoid it, [00:11:00] rosea and all the rest of it. Alcohol isn’t my friend, so. What makes it different?

Sarika Sake: Yeah, so that, yeah.

Sarika Sake: Well, first of all, there’s actually non-alcoholic sake as well, which is, uh, just like, it’s not like sour grau, it’s like fermented rice, you know, like fermented cabbage. So that’s one. But for this,

Serena Reynolds: that doesn’t sound like a sale.

Sarika Sake: But for the second duty products, we use the one that’s actually brewed as a alcoholic beverage because.

Sarika Sake: It’s a fermented product. So when you think of like a highly drying, drying out alcohol, it’s, those are mainly distilled alcohol, like vodka or you know, spirits. Yeah. Or gin whiskey. Actually, maybe they do have their own beauty properties to maybe, but sake is. Is, uh, alcohol, that’s not distilled. It’s fermented.

Sarika Sake: And it’s during that fermentation process where you have, [00:12:00] because it’s only made of four ingredients, so water, rice, yeast, and, uh, cozy, which is one of these bacteria. I know it sounds a bit weird, but it’s a bacteria to kickstart the fermentation, and that’s what it makes the, um, fermentation magical in sake with all that nourishing properties.

Sarika Sake: The cosic acid there.

Serena Reynolds: But now I want to ask ’cause of course, uh, I mean you said fermented cabbage. But all that, you know, the gut health, I, I can’t remember what, what, what it’s called at this point in time. You know, this whole gut health about the bacteriums and, and stuff like that, that we’re, we’re supposed to have in our stomachs and we don’t have so sake’s good for, for that as well.

Sarika Sake: Yeah, absolutely. Because it’s live. It’s live of bacteria.

Serena Reynolds: Well, actually, well, okay. Okay. I was gonna say it’s like alcoholic yogurt, but,

Sarika Sake: oh, yeah, yeah. But I do have to say [00:13:00] there are pasteurized,

Sarika Sake: normally the exported products are pasteurized, so normally the live enzymes are not alive anymore for the pasteurized ones.

Sarika Sake: Oh, I saw your disappointed face, Serena.

Serena Reynolds: Doesn’t, doesn’t make sense. Why do we have to clean everything?

Sarika Sake: Exactly. But if you find, um, unpasteurized sake, then it’s all full of that great stuff. So in fact, um, because I’m actually a, a Doku ambassador. I’m an ambassador in Japan for, um, Doku, which is like the. Prototype of sake, which is completely unpasteurized.

Sarika Sake: So that is just, yeah, it’s like drinking yogurt. It’s full of all that good. Live enzymes for your guts. Yeah. The best kind,

Sara Ferrer: let me, is this like when someone, ’cause I know there’s so many things you do with sake. You have the cosmetics line, which I have to say, uh, which, you know, we’ll shout out your website later, but I think it’s important to mention that.[00:14:00]

Sara Ferrer: So beauty bomb won the, the European Natural Beauty Awards. So 24. So there is something to say that like sometimes, I’ll be honest, sometimes you hear these things and I’m a former aesthetician where I worked on the skin and you’re like, it’s good, but does it, does it work? Is it actually winning any awards?

Sara Ferrer: And yes, the answer is yes, you’re stock line is, but I’m assuming that the majority of of your sake work. I’m assuming, so, correct me if I’m wrong, is like tastings and educational sessions kind of like we’re having now, except we don’t have the sake in front of us, so we’ll, uh, podcast. But that would’ve been nice to be sipping and speaking, but is that what happens?

Sara Ferrer: Is it, is the bulk of what this seminars and the courses, and if so, is it one-on-one? Is it like a bachelorette thing? Is it in person, is it corporate? Who are your customers for this, if this is your main kind of sake, um, avenue.

Sarika Sake: Yeah. So first of all, it’s not one-on-one. They’re a [00:15:00] group normally. ’cause I have one-on-one, but that’s my other business, which is face yoga, which I combined also with sake infused self-care.

Sarika Sake: But yes, we’re talking, so to answer your question about sake. So originally when I started it, it was during the pandemic and my first customer was the Polish Vodka Museum. The staff who actually, uh, was um, wanted to learn about Japanese sake because it’s very similar to Polish vodka in a way that. It’s got a negative stereotype in it, in the country, in their, in the native country, and, uh, they wanna do something about the image change.

Sarika Sake: So it was very, so yeah, I started as a corporate thing. So my, um, earlier customers were all, uh, corporate customers after the Polish Vodka Museum. Very surprisingly, the MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Japan [00:16:00] program contacted me because it was during the pandemic and actually, um, who, the person who was heading it, was my colleague from my time in Africa in the un.

Sarika Sake: So yeah, she saw that. I just saw. You are doing this sake thing and we want to have a, you know, a Japanese cultural appreciation seminar. So that’s how I originally started. So it was all group in corporate, but then once people heard that around me, they said, oh wait, I wanna learn too. Can you do it like for us?

Sarika Sake: So, so yeah, to answer your question, it’s groups and corporate and, um.

Sara Ferrer: And I imagine if it’s in person, you provide the drinks or like if it’s virtual, how does that work out with getting the right sake? Like

Sarika Sake: Yeah. Mm-hmm. So it’s, it’s a hybrid. So like right now, I mean, right now there’s no more pandemic. So for example, I just had an event in, uh, Dublin, Ireland, so it was in [00:17:00] collaboration with the Ireland Japan Association at the Ireland’s oldest Japanese restaurant.

Sarika Sake: So I don’t, I don’t. They didn’t provide the sake ’cause they all have it there. So basically you can do the education where people like we can collaborate and um, bring, so I bring the expertise and they have all the sake and good food and so, et cetera. But normally, um, my largest, um, customers are people who took the, because you can get certified.

Sarika Sake: Um, as a sake expert. So I have the certification courses, uh, online in Japanese, which is sold by the Japanese, um sake, educational authority. And I also have these exact course sold in English by myself. So those are the, the ma, the majority. I mean, it’s kind of in a way, I’m not. I make it, but I’m not involved anymore because it’s all automated that you have to take a test and, and then if you pass over 75, you get the [00:18:00] certificate.

Serena Reynolds: So, so what I’m hearing from a business perspective is that I, I mean this accidental, I mean, uh, it’s, I don’t know, was, it sounds very deliberate. It sounds as though, you know, you saw a niche and you just kind of went for it. And, and it’s very, it’s so niche. It’s so niche to think that you could, you know, form a career and, and a life out sake is just, just brings me aspirations for my gin love.

Sarika Sake: Exactly. No, this was definitely not what

Sarika Sake: I never, ever expected or imagined because as you can imagine, like. Background is on urban development and gender in the un. So it was nothing to do with sake, but it just kind of, you know, organically happened by, okay. I mean, little by little by chance in a way,

Serena Reynolds: but it also sounds very deliberate.

Serena Reynolds: You don’t just accidentally start running sake courses. You can’t

Sarika Sake: Oh, no, no, but so [00:19:00] always, because I’ve been so the last whatever before the pandemic. You know, I, I was always drinking Sake. If I had a party, I would always have Sake, so people were already associating Sake with me because I, I love Sake and I never thought, you know, you can make a career.

Sarika Sake: Of course, I didn’t even know that there’s such a industry because,

Serena Reynolds: but you, is there an industry or have you just created it?

Sarika Sake: Oh. There is the sake has been around for 2000 years, so there are 1,300 sake brew in Japan and uh, 60 outside of Japan in the UK as well.

Serena Reynolds: Oh, the thing you, you are in a niche area.

Serena Reynolds: ’cause there’s only 60 breweries outside of I I, that’s where I did try sake was at a brewery. Yeah.

Sarika Sake: You’ve got four local breweries there in the uk.

Sara Ferrer: So what is your biggest, I mean, you have a great personality. Super bubbly. Super passionate, right, but every entrepreneur naturally [00:20:00] has. Some pain points to their business.

Sara Ferrer: Right?

Sarika Sake: Of course. Every day

Sara Ferrer: I wanna mention that because, because you, the, I’ve met you in person and you radiate this energy, which I just think that is, is natural and it’s wonderful. But yes, you walkthrough what drew the pain points of running a saki sake educational. Business sake face yoga sake makeup. What are some challenges that you’ve endured and how have you managed to overcome them?

Sarika Sake: Yeah. Well, I mean, it’s full of challenges of course, every, from the moment I started because I had absolutely no idea. Right? I don’t have any background whatsoever on marketing or whatever. I mean, you know, the, the UN is like the world’s biggest bureaucracy and, uh, it’s, it’s like probably the farthest removed thing from entrepreneurship.

Sarika Sake: It was, it’s exact opposite in a way. So of [00:21:00] course, when I started, I had no idea I had. No, I mean, even just to decide things, because I was so used to getting five signatures for anything, to have anything approved, and now you’re on your own and you have to decide everything. It’s like, oh, okay. Great. Okay.

Sarika Sake: All right. Okay. Um, do I like this? Sure. Yes. And it’s, it’s like, yeah, you’re. Kind of learning by doing. But I think the biggest struggle in recent years is the fact that I love Sake, but I also have my other, um, brand, which is my physical product, and. Face Yoga is my other passion, so they’re all like my three babies.

Sarika Sake: And so how to bring them together has been like the number one struggle for multiple the whole time, really. Because if it was just one thing, I guess it’s easy. And that’s how I [00:22:00] started. I started originally with second. At that time it was. In hindsight so-called easier because you’re doing one thing.

Sarika Sake: But when I realized that I have all these other passion that I wanna bring to, then things started going so chaotic and so confusing for me. And of course, the normal advice that you get is that you should niche down and forget the rest.

Serena Reynolds: Okay. I, I’m, I’m gonna chuck in here like I have not met a real entrepreneur.

Serena Reynolds: That can be tied down to one thing because the entrepreneurial brain doesn’t work like that. It’s always looking for the next shiny object. Always. I’m yet to find one, but that’s only focused on the one thing that it just doesn’t happen. I think. I think as companies progress and get bigger, I think you bring somebody in to be that person.

Serena Reynolds: It doesn’t necessarily have to be the founder. [00:23:00] The founder can still be the dreamer, the inventor, the, the, the imagination, the drive of that company. But you need somebody else to, to do the, the, the, the mundane, the, the day to day to deal with putting out the little fires that crop up day to day. I, I mean, that is my biggest problem dealing with the everyday stuff.

Serena Reynolds: Silly little things that shouldn’t bother me, but they do much more so than than that next big exciting idea that I’m, I’m going to run with. So I, I mean, even if you look at like, larger organizations, I’m, I’m, you know, like Apple for example. Steve Jobs was the dreamer, the speaker, the, but he had this, he had CEOs, he had other founders with him that were the drive and the, the, the normality and, and whatever, you know.

Serena Reynolds: It wasn’t, it was different personalities for different roles.

Sarika Sake: No, no, no. [00:24:00] Absolutely true. I guess you were, we’re always like, oh, about this. Oh, what about that idea? Right. And it’s, it’s always different. No, that’s, I guess that has been the number one struggle to kind of, even you when you have these three little.

Sarika Sake: Things that are, especially, you know, if it’s yoga and Pilates, that’s easy to combine, but when you have face yoga Exactly, which seems to not be related at all. That’s been a struggle because in a way it’s, I wouldn’t say they’re opposite, but for example, in the, in the yoga world, like in my yoga teacher training world kind of thing.

Sarika Sake: Many people don’t drink alcohol and, and it’s like what you, you’re an alcohol expert.

Sara Ferrer: I’m smiling because alcohol expert in yoga, hysteric.

Serena Reynolds: I, I’m trying really not, hard not to ask Sarika her age. I, I reckon she’s in her nineties and she just looks absolutely fabulous. She looks fabulous. All that face [00:25:00] yoga and, uh, sake creams.

Serena Reynolds: Well,

Sarika Sake: I’m 51, so not nineties. Yes.

Sara Ferrer: Still looking. Fabulous. No, really, and I’m not just saying this, like I feel like it wouldn’t shock me if you said, Hey, I just, I’m 21. It’s her energy. It’s like, but then I’m also sake doing that to your skin because if so, send me a bottle that would

Sarika Sake: Oh yeah. Sake is, I mean if you look at the textbook, of course some are sponsored by the sake industry, but if you look at the saki studies, there’s all these, uh, research that say that.

Sarika Sake: One cup of day. Does you? Well, of course, nowadays they say you shouldn’t drink alcohol whatsoever, but I like to believe those sake. Industry sponsored researches.

Serena Reynolds: Well, it’s okay. My, my grandmother used to swear by a pint of Guinness.

Sarika Sake: Exactly. Guinness, it’s good for you,

Sara Ferrer: [00:26:00] Appearently. I think I, I appreciate One thing I’m, I’m learning is that.

Sara Ferrer: People hear sake, or I used to always think about sake as like, oh, it’s an alcohol. Alcohol equals bad. Right. To a degree. Like it’s not good for the body. But you’ve mentioned it’s about the, especially the unpasteurized, which, what is that drink? Is it kombucha?

Sarika Sake: No, it’s the same logic. It’s when you’re. When you ferment something and then it multiplies in vitamins and minerals and you have that good gut health bacteria.

Sara Ferrer: So let me ask you, Sarika, so like, because when I hear of yoga, I hear like, okay, yoga obviously has benefits, right? And we’ve talked about sake benefits and you’ve talked about your pain point of merging them together. The face yoga, first of all, what is face yoga? But then what is. Where are you at with kind of having them all live under the same umbrella?

Sara Ferrer: Because that’s been a pain point you said for many years.

Sarika Sake: Oh yeah, it’s been, that’s been the largest struggle because yeah, I mean, trying to [00:27:00] bring something that superficially don’t have any links, but now with my sake beauty bomb that I developed in 2024 last year, so. So finally it’s coming together.

Sarika Sake: Kind of. It all happened organically that I can actually, well, face yoga is a yoga for the face, as you can imagine. It’s, and you can do it while drinking sake. So. So that’s my kind of exercise.

Serena Reynolds: I, I think you need to have sake yoga parties.

Sarika Sake: Yeah, that’s what I’ve been doing. So people have been requesting it.

Sarika Sake: I mean like people who, there’s a crossover in clients, people who come. As a sake person, I. And they discover face yoga and they also convert to face yoga. But also my friends who know me, they know me that I like face. I do face yoga and I do. So sometimes, you know, normally my [00:28:00] workshops are either or, but I’ve had requests to, can you do like both at the same time?

Sarika Sake: So I’ve done those as well. And yeah, it’s fun. But this has been really a struggle because as. Like it’s kept completely. Originally there were completely different people. As you can imagine, face yoga is very female. Um, and, uh, non-alcoholic.

Serena Reynolds: Yeah. I don’t see yoga as being no, no alcohol.

Sarika Sake: I, I don’t at all.

Sarika Sake: But for example, like when, when, when I was doing my teacher training and stuff and like the last party, oh yeah, let’s have a party, like a celebration. I said, wait, can I bring sake? And the teacher was. Oh sake. Oh, okay. No, I’m not sure about that

Serena Reynolds: downward dog in front of each other. You can’t have a drink.

Sarika Sake: Yeah, and, and like the sake audience is also completely different. [00:29:00] Um, because as you can imagine, the sake or alcohol industry in general is, um, much more male dominated. When you look at. Yoga and, uh, the sake world. It’s like a different world in a way.

Serena Reynolds: Funnily enough, I actually saw sake being more of a female drink.

Sarika Sake: That’s good. In the UK there’s so many women doing Sake, so that’s a great thing that you think of it that way. But

Serena Reynolds: yeah, I, I didn’t see it as a male drink at all.

Sarika Sake: Um, yeah. Well that’s, in a way the origins of sake brewing is by temple priestess by women. But then actually, yeah. But women were banned from entering sake breweries for hundreds of years, uh, in Japan because, you know, there’s all this superstition that women’s, um, menstrual cycle will.

Sarika Sake: Interfere with the fermentation process of sake and for example, yeah, there with all these reasons, women were [00:30:00] actually not allowed to enter the sake brewery. Yeah. In modern kind of hundreds of years and only like 40 years ago, women started brewing against.

Serena Reynolds: That’s actually fascinating. But even, even brewing, brewing sake is.

Serena Reynolds: Just, wow. Okay. So, so what saki drinks would you recommend? Well, I need some names ’cause I need, I, I want to try Saki now, but I’m, I’m only going to be willing to try, if you tell me it’s good, I’m scared to try the stuff I had before.

Sarika Sake: Well, it depends on like what, because there’s so many varieties. You know, we have the sparkling, uh, sake, which is really, if you love the sparkling style, you, you will love it.

Sarika Sake: Normally. Normally I start with sparkling sake in tastings because it, everyone’s always so surprised with this.

Serena Reynolds: Do you always drink it warm?

Sarika Sake: The sparkling sake. No, never. [00:31:00] It’s always cold. Just like how you would not drink champagne. Cold, a warm, right? No. So for sparkling sake, I mean, you can drink sake.

Sarika Sake: Sake is like the drink in the world where you can drink from a minus five all the way to 60. We have every temperature difference. We have a different, like very poetic name, like five degrees will be flower cold and it becomes, um, oh no, no. First it’s snow cold, flower cold. So we have different temperature names and it goes all the way to 60.

Sarika Sake: But for, yeah, sparkling sake, you would only drink cold.

Serena Reynolds: When I was in, when I was in Washington, this blew my little English brain. There was fizzy milk.

Sara Ferrer: Never heard of that, Fizzy. I’d never heard of that.

Serena Reynolds: It was, it was little bottle pop. Pop bottles. Or fizzy milk is that

Sara Ferrer: I feel like I’ve had a Korean drink that is kind of like a Oh yeah.

Serena Reynolds: Like [00:32:00] ay, yeah. In Washington, I thought all Americans drank fizzy milk. I was like, Ugh. No.

Sara Ferrer: Did they have like a red foil top? I, I had a Korean roommate back in college and she always loved these. I guess it was like a fizzy yogurty milky. Yeah. I

Serena Reynolds: really, really didn’t know even know how to process that in my head.

Serena Reynolds: Okay, so I’m leaving that in Washington. So tell me about sparkly sake.

Sarika Sake: That’s definitely a easy one to start with because, because you have all kinds of sake and there are more that traditional styles, like my grandfather was drinking, which is more rice and savory, and that one you would drink warm.

Sarika Sake: Actually, it’s super, super versatile. You can do very cold and um. It’s super refreshing. So it’s great with oily food, like fried chicken or this kind of thing. Yeah. So depending on, yeah, burger is perfect and cheese and sake is a effortless, um, pairing. You [00:33:00] can never go wrong with cheese and sake because there’s lactic acid in both and it pairs so beautifully.

Sarika Sake: In fact, we just, um, I just went to a cheese and sake pairing, uh, last month at. The Japanese ambassadors residence here in Madrid and the Spanish cheese with Japanese sake is like one of the best pairings I’ve tasted.

Sara Ferrer: We have been so informed by so much. Now, at this point in the conversation, we like to ask you a question and Serena I know has the question ready from our previous guest.

Sara Ferrer: This is gonna be kind of random ’cause our previous guest, uh, was not in the sake industry. So it’s not related. What’s that question we have?

Serena Reynolds: The

Serena Reynolds: question was, what is your favorite film and why film?

Sara Ferrer: Oh my goodness. I don’t, this is one thing. I always fall asleep, so I don’t

Serena Reynolds: It’s all, that sake, you’ve been drinking.

Sara Ferrer: We thought [00:34:00] the same thing. Serena, we see Sarika’s in like row 15, passed out her little box. It’s not really facial yoga, it’s the. Yeah,

Sarika Sake: because I don’t watch much move films either. And I guess the last one, I’m so, such a geek about sake. All, all I read is like Sake textbooks and sake films. Like

Serena Reynolds: there’s Sake films.

Serena Reynolds: Oh

Serena Reynolds: yeah. Like, like Feel.

Serena Reynolds: I’ve

Serena Reynolds: missed

Serena Reynolds: that on a whole world here.

Sarika Sake: I do love this. Beautiful, um, um, it’s not a movie or a film as such, but it’s such a gorgeous video of, um, one of the sake breweries in Japan. And I’ve watched it, I don’t know, like probably 100 times. It’s so beautiful. It’s, it’s a Simon movie.

Sarika Sake: It’s like, uh, no lyrics. I mean, no, no words, no actors. I mean, it’s just a silent movie of how the Sy brewers are [00:35:00] fermenting and brewing.

Sara Ferrer: I didn’t expect that answer to be honest, but after you said it, like I’m not, I’m not surprised by it ’cause I’m like she really kept it on brand with that, with that answer.

Sara Ferrer: She does love hasa. She honestly, I mean, she’s got face yoga, cosmetic and educational program. Serena, she lives, eats, breathes it and apparently watches it too. Now Sarika, what would you ask our next guest? You don’t know who they’re gonna be, you, what industry they’re gonna work in. Um, you can ask them anything you want.

Sara Ferrer: It can be soccer related, it can be non, non, it can be un related. I mean, you could talk about whatever face, yoga related, face yoga, whatever it could be. What’s your favorite color? Like, what would you like to ask them?

Sarika Sake: Okay, since I have no idea, but I’m always curious if people have tried sake. So that will be my question.

Sarika Sake: Have you, have you tried sake? And, and, and did you like it?

Sarika Sake: Did you like it? And if not, please talk to me. [00:36:00]

Serena Reynolds: I love it. See, she said she’d never done marketing before. She’s straight in there with a hard, with the hard ball.

Sara Ferrer: Honestly, Ika, we’d ask this question probably. I don’t know, maybe 50 times to our guests, you know, each guest gets the question that is the most direct targeted question we have ever been asked.

Sara Ferrer: Like, usually like if someone’s working in, like in the film industry, it’s like, what’s your favorite movie? Or someone’s a a travel agent, what’s your favorite? You’re like, not just like, what’s your favorite drink? You’re like, do you like sake? And if not, what’s with you? We love you for that. Like, Sina, we will not forget that for our next guest ’cause it’s so.

Sara Ferrer: We will not. It’s so, it’s so sarika sake related. I love this. Now if someone,

Sarika Sake: I’m so curious now for the, about the next one, you’ll have to listen to the person. Absolutely.

Sara Ferrer: I’m curious too, who is the next one? I don’t know, but there, I mean, watch it be like a yoga studio owner. Like what’s your favorite?[00:37:00]

Sara Ferrer: You know, like exactly what Sarika was talking about was like usually not the target market. Now, if someone’s listening to us Sarika and they’re like, wow, like she’s got your bubbly personalities coming through and someone’s curiosity is peaked. Maybe they’re a makeup enthusiast or they’re someone that’s always looking to do something.

Sara Ferrer: Like I have two girlfriends who one lives in Chicago. And the other lives in Northern California and like we meet up for like our girl chats. But like sometimes we’ll get like the same snacks from CVS or from like the corner store and like we’ll be like, okay, snack time, 12 o’clock. So this is, maybe there’s someone listening who’s like, Hey, this should be a great corporate thing.

Sara Ferrer: How can people find you and get contact with Sarika Sake.

Serena Reynolds: You said that really seductive.

Sara Ferrer: I love it. Sarika. Like, honestly, you could go so many angles with that G, very pg, very sarika sake after dark. And it’s like, it’s like, so it’s like, it’s [00:38:00] like, I don’t know, you could really just, just go with it. It could be like a line of sake that’s like.

Sara Ferrer: Extra alcohol. And then she pours it with like cocktail little snacks. Like she can go crazy.

Serena Reynolds: I, I think, I think it needs rebranding and I think you are the perfect person for it.

Sara Ferrer: No, we’d have, we’d have Sion on our voiceover, uh, actor. Remember? She’s the one that you want to do the, uh, the, the seductive voice, not me.

Serena Reynolds: Yeah. When she’s woken up All crockie. We found that.

Sara Ferrer: Yeah. So how do people find you? Shout out the website, the Instagram, all that good stuff.

Sarika Sake: Oh, well, it’s sarika sake or sarika dot sake on Instagram. And, uh, my website, in fact, that that was what part of the struggle. ’cause I used to have like three different ones, you know, for each thing.

Sarika Sake: And I finally, finally brought it together under thesarika.com.

Serena Reynolds: You’ve got the sarika.com. That is such an iconic. [00:39:00]

Sarika Sake: No, it was just because sarika.com was taken by a Indian, um, painting company, so this was the only other option left.

Serena Reynolds: I’ve had

Serena Reynolds: sarikasake.com.

Sarika Sake: Oh,

Sarika Sake: I also have that too. Oh, there you go. That’s still live.

Sara Ferrer: That makes sense. So, so thesarika.com, your Instagram. We’ll have all this on our website. Fearlessandflawed.com, our, our listeners, if you’re not following fearless and flawed on Instagram, on Facebook, on LinkedIn, we are there. We will happily promote you. Sarika. This was just such a fun talk. Like, listen, it’s, it’s 1:18 PM on a Friday in Connecticut, and I have to resist every urge, not to cancel every meeting I have after this, just to drink copious amounts of sparkling sake.

Sara Ferrer: Just a, to find it. To find it in within a 15 mile radius and B,

Serena Reynolds: what the hell hard it would be to find it there.

Sarika Sake: [00:40:00] Oh, it’s, it’s very easy now in the US you, you’ve got about 30 sake breweries. Yeah.

Sarika Sake: So

Sarika Sake: it,

Sara Ferrer: it’s amazing. It was a good time. You already know if, like, if all my, my afternoon meetings, I’m gonna be like, Hey, last minute thing came up and they’re like, we listened to the podcast.

Sara Ferrer: Are you out?

Serena Reynolds: They didn’t today. They didn’t. We’re safe. We’re safe for a couple of weeks.

Sara Ferrer: That’s true that I might still be at the brewery in two weeks. Who knows? If I really like it, I might get a. You have been such a joy and a treat to talk to, and, uh, we wish nothing but your, uh, success in your journey of taking this old man drink and making it fun, making it exciting, and literally making it bubbly and effervescent and enthusiastic as much as your personality is.

Sara Ferrer: So thank you so much for joining us. This was awesome.

Sarika Sake: Oh, thank you, Serena, Sara, it. So fun talking to you. Really, it was so fun, and thank you for having [00:41:00] me.