You can tell a lot about a place by its drinks. And in Japan, that’s especially true.
I’ve spent a lot of time in Japan over the years. Ducking into tiny bars tucked behind noren curtains on quiet side streets. Making reservations for high-end cocktail bars that top the world’s best lists.
No matter what kind of place it is, there’s always intention: the right glassware, the right ice, the right pour.
That intention and care runs deep in the country's history, too.
Sake reaches back to Japan’s feudal roots, when it was brewed for gods and emperors long before it was poured for friends. You can still feel that ritual in the way it’s made (slowly, seasonally, by hand) and the way it’s served (in tiny cups, poured for others before yourself).
Shochu came later, as Japan was modernizing. It became the everyday drink—what farmers, craftsmen, and salarymen poured at the end of the day. It tells the story of Japan’s geography: sweet potato shochu down south, barley further north, and dozens more in between. A drink that adapted to whatever people had, it’s a product of its locality in the way few drinks are.
Whisky, though—that’s Japan looking out at the world. Born at the start of the 20th century, when the country was industrializing fast. The first distillers studied in Scotland, came home, and quietly perfected their own version until, somehow, they found themselves on par with the masters. Japanese whisky is international, but unmistakably Japanese in its obsession with detail.
What I love about these drinks is that they don’t just taste good.
They each capture a moment in Japan’s evolution: feudal, industrial, international. And though they’re all rooted in their time, they share a single thread—craft elevated to a kind of philosophy.
This season on Between Drinks, I’m exploring those stories up close.
We'll spend four weeks traveling across the country, glass in hand, tracing how these drinks—and the people behind them—define what “craft” really means.
Because once you start paying attention, you realize: no one does it like Japan.
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