FIRST JOURNEYS - A RACE AROUND THE WORLD 2020 - PIN 12 OF 23
ETSU GIN, Hokkaido, Japan
AROUND THE WORLD, ONE BOTTLE AT A TIME.
PHILEAS FOGG WOULD SURELY APPROVE
Day 7...
I’ve headed north to the most northern distillery in Japan, Asahikawa, on the northern island of Hokkaido.
This is the least populated of Japan’s main islands and is cooler in summer than the rest of Japan. If you’re a skier, this is where you’d be heading in winter! Asahikawa is Hokkaido’s second-largest city and is set against a beautiful backdrop of volcanoes, mountains and forests. Nearby you also have beautiful lavender and flower fields and plenty of hiking trails to explore.
Asahikawa is famous for its wood crafts and traditional dyeing and weaving, disciplines which take time and patience, and when you look at the branding around Etsu Gin, you can start to understand what it’s all about.
Of course, yuzu features, and quite prominently, and the Asahikawa distillery also includes green bitter orange peel, sansho pepper and tea leaves, along with traditional botanicals. As with many gins, in order to extract the best from the botanicals, some are macerated and then distilled in a copper still before being diluted with local water.
In this case, they use precious water from the nearby Taisetsu Mountains and charcoal filtration for optimal purity.
Etsu means pleasure, and this gin is certainly a joy to drink. I’ve played heavily on the yuzu content and made a sour using not only Etsu Gin, but also yuzu liqueur.
Interestingly, yuzu isn’t only used for cooking and perfumes, but also for ritualistic baths at Toji, the winter solstice, which falls at the peak of the yuzu season. This ritual is seen as not just medicinal, but also pleasurable, as yuzu oil contains nomilin, which provides a relaxing effect and promotes circulation — just what I need to continue my journey around the world!
Just a quick mention again about the branding. It’s the most beautifully presented bottle I think I’ve seen, with a beautiful geisha peacefully sitting on a golden lotus blossom, with the mountains in the background.
She has a Shinto shrine on her head to reflect Japan’s religion, and she looks to be meditating, holding in her hands a repeating reflection of herself. This infinity image again promotes mindfulness and peace, and this brief stop, albeit virtual, has certainly given me time to reflect on life and practice a little mindfulness.
"Pleasure stop"
"Show me a bottle
and I'll tell you a story."