Two of the newest Japanese craft gins to hit the scene are 9148 from Sapporo’s Benizakura Distilley, and Hinata from Kyoya Distillery in Miyazaki Prefecture. Tonight we’re drinking both! Benizakura Distillery 9148 Recipe 0101 Review Full disclosure, both of the gins I’m drinking tonight I’ve […]

Today is July 3, 2018. Exactly 100 years ago today, 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 One of […]

The newly refurbished Saburomaru Distillery is looking for 100 people to become partial cask owners. For 26,000 yen, you’ll receive two bottles of whisky from Saburomaru roughly five years from now. They expect the new pot to head into a bourbon cask in August, then mature, […]

The clear drink fad currently happening in Japan isn’t stopping at soft drinks. Japan now has two clear beers: Suntory All-Free All-Time and Asahi’s Clear Craft. Bottoms up! Suntory All-Free All-Time As previously reported, this one was released on June 19. It’s 0% abv, zero […]

Two new awards to add to the mantle! Sakurao Gin Original has won “Best of Gin” at the Los Angeles International Spirits Competition, a first for any Japanese gin. Read my recent review of Sakurao Original here! Right behind that, Asahi has announced that Nikka […]

Nikka Black Deep Blend Extra Sweet looks to be the latest variation of budget-friendly blended whisky out of Nikka, slated for release on or around September 11. It has just popped up on Amazon JP for a 2,138 yen, so a 700 yen premium over […]

Osaka was rocked by a fairly strong earthquake at 7:58AM this morning, and Suntory has announced the Yamazaki Distillery and all facilities will be closed for the day as a result. There are no reports of damage to the distillery though. Information is still rolling […]

Scotch bottler Blackadder has a new release coming up, this time a Chichibu 4yo cask, marking their third release for a Japanese whisky. And it has a hell of a descriptive name, “BLACKADDER Chichibu 4yo Virgin American Oak Barrel Cask No.2862 63%.” Anyway, previous releases […]

GINfest Tokyo was held for the first time ever this year out at Tennoz Isle! Over this past weekend, around 3500 gin lovers made their way to the event, which featured around 100 different types of gin from both within and outside of Japan. While […]

Japan’s Professional Bartender’s Organization has announced the date of this year’s PBO Cocktail & Bar Festa will be July 29. So around a month earlier than last year. Now in its 4th year, the 2018 edition will once again it will be held at Courtyard […]