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Stories of makers, ingredients, places and the decisions behind Japan's most compelling drinks.

L’Entêté: The Word That Had to Be Made Legal Again

Stories Behind the Bottle

L’Entêté: The Word That Had to Be Made Legal Again

English ภาษาไทย 日本語 For most of the twentieth century, a distiller in France could make an absinthe and could not call it one. The liquid was permitted. The word was not. Recovering the word took two separate changes to French law. The distiller who pursued them named the resulting bottle after the effort. The Word […]

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Deciding Years Ahead, Deciding Tonight: What Jim Beam’s Distilling Pause Reveals

Perspectives

Deciding Years Ahead, Deciding Tonight: What Jim Beam’s Distilling Pause Reveals

English ภาษาไทย 日本語 For the entirety of 2026, Jim Beam’s main distillery in Clermont, Kentucky, has paused the distillation of new whiskey. Announced in December 2025, the decision was not driven by mechanical failure or financial distress. Bottling and maturation continue uninterrupted, as do operations at the visitor center. A secondary distillery remains active, and […]

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Crafted in Unison: The Collective Spirit Behind AKABU

Blog

Crafted in Unison: The Collective Spirit Behind AKABU

Englishภาษาไทย日本語 KANPAI Makers’ Choices No.13 At a brewery where almost no one possessed prior experience in sake making, who would support the master brewer? In 2013, Akabu Shuzo completed a new facility in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture—two years after its original coastal home in Otsuchi was swept away by the Great East Japan Earthquake. The structure […]

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Matching Vision to Craft: SAKE HUNDRED’s BYAKKO BESPOKE and NIKO

Blog

Matching Vision to Craft: SAKE HUNDRED’s BYAKKO BESPOKE and NIKO

Englishภาษาไทย日本語 KANPAI Makers’ Choices No.12 In traditional sake making, a label is inseparable from its brewery—a reflection of local water, regional rice, microclimate, and generations of mastery. SAKE HUNDRED reinterprets this tradition. Clear Inc., the brand’s parent company, operates without its own physical brewery. Instead, it collaborates with breweries across Japan, pairing each product concept […]

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Precision Over Uniformity: The Botanical Craft of Kanegasaki Yakusō Shuzō

Blog

Precision Over Uniformity: The Botanical Craft of Kanegasaki Yakusō Shuzō

Englishภาษาไทย日本語 KANPAI Makers’ Choices No.11 If herbal liqueurs are understood simply as drinks made by steeping botanicals en masse in alcohol, the production approach used by Kanegasaki Yakusō Shuzō in Iwate Prefecture may be overlooked. In a 2023 interview, representative Kazuma Oikawa explained that the distillery adjusts both the maceration duration and the alcohol strength […]

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Same Blend, Different Time: Understanding Bruno Paillard’s Cuvée 72

Bruno Paillard

Same Blend, Different Time: Understanding Bruno Paillard’s Cuvée 72

Englishภาษาไทย日本語 Champagne is typically understood through the prism of grape varieties, terroir, or harvest years. Yet a compelling question arises when those environmental variables are held completely constant: what happens when time alone is varied? Bruno Paillard’s “Cuvée 72” was created to answer precisely that. Its architectural foundation is identical to the house benchmark, “Première […]

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