For many drinkers in the West, the pursuit to go beyond conventional boundaries is complex, thus consumers seek foreign offerings which allow for the spirit of adventure to continue. As gin doesn’t have to age in barrels for years, it can be an easy way to top up earnings.Īt the moment, there’s a shortage of Japanese whiskey due to its immense popularity in 2015, so making gins is an increasingly wise strategy.Ĭharles Sissens, associate consumer analyst at GlobalData told Verdict:Īs the craft movement in the West continues to prosper, the drinks market in Asia is booming. The gin trend makes sense for whiskey distillers watching their bottom line. In the US consumption increased 802% between 20. There has been a renewed interest in Japanese spirits since critic Jim Murray’s Whiskey Bible 2015 named Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013 whiskey the World Whisky of the Year.Īs a result sales of Japanese whiskey skyrocketed. The result is a gin which other Japanese distillers should definitely be aspiring towards.Ī post shared by Suntory ROKU GIN spirits spurring excitement in alcohol trends It is both distinctly gin-like and brazenly Japanese. The finish of Roku is actually sweet and a little peppery.Īs it stands, Roku definitely does seem to set the benchmark for Japanese gins. There’s a sweet, light tea sensibility that comes through without losing the distinctive gin taste. The nose of Roku is buttery and warm, but the taste is earthy and floral. Roku’s story is boldly Japanese, completely unique, and very different to traditional Western gins. This means that each craft gin tells a unique story. The joy of craft gin is that the distillation process allows craft producers to infuse their gins with local tastes and flavours. There are also more traditional gin botanicals such as juniper, orange peel, lemon peel, coriander and cinnamon. The interest in the number six is because the gin itself is distilled with six authentic Japanese botanicals: cherry blossom, cherry leaves, green tea (sencha), refined green tea (gyokuro), Japanese pepper and yuzu (a citrus fruit found in parts of east Asia). Likewise, the bottle is hexagonal, and decorated with etched cherry blossoms.įor gin collectors, the bottle certainly makes an attractive addition to any drinks cabinet. The name of the drink, Roku, is the Japanese word for the number six. In terms of taste, Suntory’s gin really does stand out as the pinnacle of Japanese gin. Unlike Hermes though, Roku is becoming a global phenomenon.Ī post shared by Suntory ROKU GIN height of Japanese gin Roku is actually the second Suntory gin, after it released Hermes gin in 1936. Suntory purchased London gin distillery Sipsmith in 2016, and by 2017 it had launched its own Roku gin. It wasn’t long before the big drinks players started to pay attention. By 2017, Ki No Bi gin was winning major awards. The Japan Times reported that the Kyoto Distillery was on track to create 60,000 bottles of their gin in their first year of business, back in 2016. These include orris root, hinoki (cypress), various citrus fruits, and kinome (Japanese pepper leaf). Like traditional Western gins, Ki No Bi is distilled with distinctive local botanicals. The result in Japan was Ki No Bi from the Kyoto Distillery. In both cases, a prominent whiskey business, Number One Drinks in Japan and William Grant And Sons in the UK, having found success with whiskey distillation decided to branch out a little further. The story of gin’s growing popularity in Japan is almost an exact recreation of the modern gin craze in the UK. However, as Japanese whiskies start to become more established in the drinks market, that gives their creators a bit more leeway to branch out into other avenues too.
Now Nikka and Suntory whiskies have won plenty of awards and they often out-perform their Scottish counterparts in blind taste tests. In the intervening years, some of the snobbery around Japanese-made Scotch whiskies started to dissipate. In that year, Nikka’s 10-year Yoichi single malt won Best of the Best at Whisky Magazine’s awards. A post shared by Jamie Cornelius Chau their popularity domestically, it wasn’t until 2001 when Japanese whiskies started to make waves internationally.
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