When it’s you versus 370 sakes, you need a plan. No way you can try them all. The flavors would all run together, and your brain would lose contact with your feet.

If you’re attending the Joy of Sake mega-tasting Friday, you’ll need a strategy.

Dereck Kim’s is li hing mui.

Kim had a bagful at a preliminary tasting session last month and was sharing them with everyone he met, along with his theory that the sour, salty Chinese dried plum helps your palate get from sip to sip. "It kind of clears it, and you can taste the next one."

Joy of Sake started in Hono­­lulu in 2001 and has expanded since to massive tasting sessions also held in New York and Tokyo. Friday’s event will be the first of 2014, bringing together, as usual, premium sakes from all regions of Japan, and 13 from American breweries. More than half are available only in Japan, except for this event.

Mari Taketa, restaurant coordinator and social media director for the event, says some people focus on those sakes, marked with a black star. Others over the years have developed the strategy of tasting only the sakes awarded gold stars by judges. And others stick with those chosen to match the food.

Yes, there is food to soak up all that rice wine, designed to be sake-friendly by chefs from Vintage Cave, the Pig and the Lady, MW Restaurant, Chef Chai, Buho Cocina y Cantina and BLT Steak, among others. Joining them will be Cali­for­nia restaurants Memphis Minnie’s from San Francisco and Hopscotch from Oakland.

"Sake and food totally change when they go together," Taketa said.

Well, li hing mui is food, right?

Chris Pearce, the event’s organizer and one of Hono­lulu’s foremost experts on sake, was skeptical of Kim’s theory. "I would just drink water," Pearce said.

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CORRECTION: The Joy of Sake tasting is Friday. An earlier version of this story and the story in the print edition said it was Saturday.