Rarely do you get a clean, storybook beginning to a beverage.
The world's most famous drinks (from beer to coffee) are centuries old. And the nature of history is that it's blurry, debated, and lost to time.
Japanese whisky, though, is only 125 years old.
It's easy to trace back the first bottle of whisky to a US Commodore and his gunboat diplomacy, which eventually led to the first distillery, and then a second.
Now, haters will say Japanese whisky is just a carbon copy of scotch, but there's way more nuance to it than that.
For starters, Japan has preserved traditional whisky-making in a way that even Scotland hasn't.
So, if it is a carbon copy of scotch... then it's a carbon copy that was taken in the 1920s, replicated halfway across the world, and continuously improved over the last hundred years without losing the essence of the thing.
And we largely have one guy to thank for it!
🎙️ Japanese Whisky
For this episode, we're heading north. About as far north in Japan as you can get, actually, to the prefecture of Hokkaido.
This is where the "father of Japanese whisky" built the first distillery for Nikka, which is now world-famous for its whisky.
Listen to this episode to hear all about:
- Why Japanese whisky is such a big deal
- What age statements are, and whether they really matter
- How the distillery location (and local climate) plays a role in the flavor profile
- And how to navigate an intimidating category to find a whisky you'll like!
This episode is the first in a two-part series about local whisky.
Next week, we'll be headed back to Kagoshima to learn about the next generation of producers who are rethinking what "Japanese whisky" can taste like.
It feels weird to write about whisky with everything happening in the world, especially as an American living in Mexico, but I don't think the answer is to let my grief and rage consume me, so here we are.
Fuck ICE,
Caro
