Japanese gins and vodkas combine classic distillation techniques with ingredients and aromatic profiles connected to Japan.
Gin readily highlights yuzu, tea or sansho, while vodka focuses more on purity, balance and the texture of grain spirits.
Drier than Japanese liqueurs, both spirits can be enjoyed neat or used as the base for simple cocktails.
Like all gin, Japanese gin must retain juniper berries as its principal flavour. Its personality then comes from the botanicals, citrus fruits and spices added during production. Japanese distilleries notably use tea, sansho, sakura blossom and the fresh aromas of yuzu, without necessarily trying to combine all of them in the same bottle.
Japanese vodka generally aims for a clean, smooth mouthfeel, but it is not necessarily lacking in character. Nikka vodka combines malted barley and corn distillates produced in a Coffey still, then filtered through birch charcoal. Despite its name, the Coffey still has nothing to do with coffee: it is named after its inventor, Aeneas Coffey.
This grain base produces a vodka that is rounder and more textured than a completely neutral spirit, with notes of dried fruit, herbs and citrus. It can be served very cold, over ice, with sparkling water or in a lightly sweetened cocktail. For a more direct expression of sweet potato, barley or rice, Japanese shôchû provides another approach to distilled spirits. Those interested in cask ageing and woody notes may prefer Japanese whisky.
