Nikka Coffey Gin has shortly put a marked imprint in the modern gin market. The incredibly tasteful gin is made on Nikka’s famous whiskey distillery, Miyagikyo. At first glance, one could be carried out to believe that the gin contains coffee, but that is not the case. The name “Coffey” comes from a special type of distillery, a coffey still, which the spirits are made. On the other hand, the gin is extraordinary citrus sequence, with both Yuzu, Amanatsu, Kabosu and Shikuwasa.
Color: Crystal clear
Fragrance: Very citrust with notes of both Yuzu, Lemon and Grapefruit. A crisp jungle note as well as a bit of pepper contributes to a good balance in one of the gin world’s most interesting “noses”!
Taste notes: intense, creamy and burst with tropical fruit, citrus oils and pepper.
Serving suggestions: Can be enjoyed clean or lifting the level in a Gin & Tonic. Try it eg 1: 2 with Erasmus Bond Classic!
Producer description
Nikka originally called Dai Nippon Kaju, meaning “The Great Japan Juice Co.”. The company was started by, among others, the famous Masataka Taketsuru, Japanese whiskeys maybe most central figure. At Dai Nippon Kaju, the ambition was to make apple juice, and it did for some years, but consumers were not happy with the fact that the juice was unclear (it was not trendy in the 1930s Japan), so large quantities were sent back. In order for this to do not go to waste, you decided to raise and distill it to Brandy. Taketsuru had experience with spirits production, both from Scotland, where he was learning at Longmorn and Hazelburn, and from Yamazaki in Japan, whom he helped start about 10 years before. There didn’t go long before you also started to do whiskey. In 1952, seven years after making apple juice, the name of Nikka Whiskey CO (a contraction of the old name) changed.
Today, Nikka owns two whiskey distilleries, Yoichi at Hokkaido, where whiskey production started in 1936, and Miyagikyo near Sendai in Miyagi, built in 1969.
Yoichi is almost like a small village with old houses of stone. When buildings are demolished in the nearby village, Otaru, Nikka races the stones in the event of renovating the historic buildings at Yoichi in the future. The whiskey produced here is relatively strong smoked and a bit heavier than the style of Miyagikyo. Yoichi is one of the last distilleries in the world, where the boilers are “direct fired” and every 8 minutes must an employed shovel coal in the oven under the boiler.
Miyagikyo, as contrast to Yoichi, has a greater focus on non-smoked whiskey, and the style is lighter and more “speyside-like”. The boilers are larger and heated with steam, and the pipes from the boilers to the condenser go upwards. Since 2017, Nikka has also made Vodka and Gin at Coffey Stills at Miyagikyo.
