Another stealth release out of the Kyoto Distillery: Ki No Bi Edition G, aged in ex-Henri Giraud Champagne Barrels. Seems that the idea came out of a recent visit by Claude Giraud, 12th generation winemaker at the Champagne house of Henri Giraud, to the Kyoto […]

Wapirits Tumugi claims to be Japan’s first spirit for cocktails. “The UK has gin, Russia has vodka, Cuba has rum, Mexico has tequila. And Nippon has Wapirits,” reads the potentially incendiary marketing copy. “But Whiskey Richard, you cover Japanese gin all the time,” you respond. […]

Medicinal liqueur maker Yomeishu is getting into craft spirits with the upcoming release of two craft gins and a gin-based liqueur. All three of them lean on Kuromoji, or Lindera umbellata, as a botanical. Their chief product of the same name, Yomeishu, is probably Japan’s […]

Japan now has its first non-alcoholic gin, and it’s named NEMA. NEMA gets its name from Yokohama’s Bar Nemanja, which is itself named after Serbian violinist Nemanja Radulović. Seedlip set off the non-alcoholic distilled spirit trend. Worldwide more and more younger folks are turning away from […]

It’s getting tough to keep up with new releases of Japanese craft gins! This time around we have a total of five gins being released by three different distilleries, from Japan’s far north and the far south. Let’s take a look at each. Hokkaido Craft […]

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 […]

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 […]

Gin-Posium Japan 2018 was held on November 25, 2018!

There’s a new Japanese craft gin out since last Friday, dubbed “The Inland Sea Setouchi.” It brings together botanicals from across the various prefectures that surround the renowned Seto Inland Sea. The new gin appears to be some sort of collaboration that involving three separate players in […]