Due to its selected and natural flavours, the Far Eastern variation is particularly smooth. And this is where Japanese gin wants to score. Even its pure taste can be absolutely amazing. In the last years, gin became the most popular drink. Since a long time, gin is used as the basic for lots of classical cocktails, especially the iconic long drink Gin & Tonic and nowadays a spirit that shouldn’t be missing in any bar. Smooth taste – even with high alcohol content It is easy to taste the botanicals clearly. This guarantees a totally new exotic taste experience. Whether floral and delicate, malty and smooth, or vibrant and citrus-forward, juniper typically takes a back seat, setting them apart from Western styles. While it’s difficult to assign a signature flavor profile to Japanese craft gins, they uniformly exhibit characteristics that distinguish them from their Western counterparts. “In their whisky houses, the master blender is often the most respected position, in contrast with the Western distiller, so the way companies like Ki No Bi, Roku and Nikka Coffey are making gin makes sense when you take that into consideration.” “The distilleries use blending in a way that’s undeniably Japanese,” says Caer Maiko Ferguson, co-founder of Austin’s Daijoubu, a nomadic Asian cocktail pop-up. At many facilities, botanicals are macerated and distilled separately before blending, to retain their inherent flavors and distinct aromas. Indigenous botanicals are carefully selected and hand-harvested to form the foundation of a Japanese gin, which some distilleries-notably, Ki No Bi and Roku-construct around six flavor categories: Base, Citrus, Tea, Herbal, Spice and Floral. New Exotic Taste Experience made in Japan While most Japanese gins are made from rice-, barley- or corn-based neutral grain spirit derived from shochu or whisky production, a new wave of distillers is utilizing everything from sweet potato ( imo, used to make shochu) to sugarcane. “They’re using fewer botanicals than most Western gins – you can actually taste the spirit, as well as the (flavoring) components.” “It’s truly incredible what Japan is bringing to the spirits world,” says Fanny Chu, head bartender at Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s Donna. Native botanicals like sakura (cherry blossom), hinoki (Japanese cypress), gyokuro (a variety of shade-grown green tea), sansho ( a close relative of the Sichuan peppercorn, with the same lip-tingling qualities) and many varieties of indigenous citrus – ingredients often unfamiliar to foreign markets – have set these gins apart from their Western counterparts. In order to stand out from the existing market, Japanese gin maker offer a deliberately reduced use of ingredients. Of course, this has not escaped the attention of gin manufacturers from Japan. Gin connoisseurs know: It is the various aromas of juniper, aniseed, lavender, orange, rosemary and many other ingredients that make this high-proof spirit interesting. Selected local ingredients make the difference Since then, Japan launched a growing number of gins. In 2016, The Kyoto Distillery released the country’s first craft gin, Ki No Bi, a brand that falls well outside the typical profile of traditional London dry-style gin: The product’s immediate success led Beam Suntory to launch Roku, a gin also built around Japanese botanicals, in 2017. With their local botanicals and meticulous handmade productions, the Japanese gin makers are creating their own gins with totally new taste experiences.īut Gin production in Japan isn’t new! Suntory launched a London Dry style under the label Hermes Dry Gin in 1936, but, for reasons relating to historical bans on imports, the spirit wasn’t widely consumed there until recently. With its numerous amazing selfmade whiskys, Japan is nowadays a big player in making their own whisky, but also Japanese Gin is getting more and more popular in Nippon, the country of crazy video games, Mangas and traditional tea ceremonies. Meanwhile, the Far East is opening its doors for other spirits. Normally, Japan is known for its rice wine (Sake) or the stronger spirit Shochu. Japanese Gin – The N ew Sustainable Trend
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