Any regular drinker of Japanese whisky has heard about them. The infamous Matsui Shuzo. They’re behind the highly controversial Kurayoshi and Tottori brands of “Japanese whisky.” Japanese whisky is a term we must put in quotes when talking about this particular company. Why? At least […]

The Kyoto Distillery surprised us this past weekend with the sudden release of Ki No Bi “Edition K.” Currently only available at Amazon JP, Edition K brings Ki No Bi into the cask-aged gin realm once again. I say once again since we’ve already seen […]

As Japanese whisky makers enjoy their time in the worldwide spotlight, more and more people are waking up to the reality that Japanese consumers may also know a thing or two about the ways to drink Japanese whisky. Of course there’s the izakaya staple whisky […]

Kanagawa prefecture’s Koganei Shuzo is now making a craft gin fairly nearby Tokyo, with a focus on Kanagawa botanicals.  They’ve named it “Koganei,” and they are aiming for a good variety of fruit, herbs, spices, and woody notes, with most of the botanicals sourced from […]

Background: Local taxes in Japan Like many other countries in the world, residents of Japan pay taxes on their income at three levels: national, prefectural, and local. In the US this equates to paying federal, state, and city income taxes (14 states have places with […]

The Shizuoka Distillery recently posted details of their all-Shizuoka whisky on their blog, giving us more insight into what’s going on behind the scenes at one of Japan’s newest craft whisky distilleries. Up until now, Japanese whisky has generally used imported ingredients, though the actual […]

Mitsubishi Pencil’s uni Jetstream series of pens is adored worldwide. The purported “answer to every negative stereotype you ever had about ballpoint pens,” the uni Jetstream is also wirecutter.com’s Best Pen for 2018. Now the worlds of wonderful penning and whisky are colliding, as uni […]

The Kinmon Akita Sake Brewery has revealed some aged sakes due out on December 17th that supposedly have a whisky finish. This, combined with the long maturation of 10 to 30 years — ultra long for sake — should bring about some rather unique flavors. […]

Nikkei reports that Okayama’s Tenmaya department store is teaming up with the Okayama Distillery to do a single-cask whisky release over the course of the next decade. Tenmaya will celebrate their 200th anniversary in 2029. The plan is for the Okayama Distillery to release 100 […]

2018 marks a century since the founder of Nikka Whisky, Masataka Taketsuru, set out on a journey that would alter the history of Japanese whisky. Based primarily on his serialized autobiography originally published in Nikkei in 1968, in Part Eight Taketsuru strikes out on his own […]