Ever since gin distillery tours went vogue with the rise of gin and cocktail culture at the turn of the 21st century, the game of sniffing and identifying elements in little containers — in this case, gin botanicals — has become de rigueur for visitors.
At Suntory Spirits’ newly constructed Osaka Spirits & Liqueurs Craft Distillery, located within the existing Suntory Osaka Plant, this olfactory exercise is no exception. But the smells don’t just come from the usual potpourri of juniper berries and citrus peels — there are also cherry blossom leaves, sencha (steamed green tea), gyokuro (high-quality, shade-grown green tea) and sanshō pepper, all of which help create the taste profile of Roku, Suntory’s craft gin.
First launched in Japan in 2017, Roku is now sold in approximately 60 countries and remains one of Suntory’s most popular products with almost 90% of its sales coming from outside of Japan. It’s almost impossible to walk into any top bar in London, Singapore and Hong Kong today and not spot the bottle, with its white label and eponymous kanji character for “six,” sitting behind the counter.
