Masahiro

Okinawa Japanese Gin

This Okinawan gin is from the Masahiro distillery, on the small island at the tropical southern end of Japan. Since 1883 the distillery's expertise lay in the production of Awamori, Okinawa’s traditional spirit, a type of distilled sake. This Okinawa craft gin uses Awamori as it's base.Perfectly capturing the tropical climate of the southern Japanese island, Masahiro Okinawa Gin Recipe No 1 (as this product is officially titled), has a botanical list featuring a variety of local ingredients. Shequasar, guava leaves, and Balinese long pepper. The recipe also includes goya, the green lumpy-shaped bitter melon from Okinawa, plus a type of hibiscus called roselle.This gin delivers floral flavours, tropical fruit, and green notes from the bitter melon - a balance of botanicals like the Japanese are so good at creating.We asked the distillery if there were more recipes to come and they laughed ...this one was difficult enough - no more for now... For a sake and awamori maker, gin was a new challenge, and it is the only gin made on Okinawa.