This is a soft, subtle, interesting and mild Osaka-produced gin from Suntory that makes a very delicate and pleasant martini.

Appearance

The branding is understated but beautiful – as would be expected from a reputable Japanese producer. The hexagonal bottle is instantly recognisable, with the six sides each representing the six main Japanese botanicals of the drink (which join the eight additional and more traditional botanicals). Roku also means ‘six’ in Japanese.

As with all martinis, it is recommended to keep your gin bottle in the freezer (as well as your glasses) for at least six hours before pouring.

It’s well worth it. I particularly like how the floral cherry blossom motifs on the bottle shine out when removed from the freezer. The light frost is very evocative.

Taste

The distillers have provided this drink with a soft, herbal profile, with hints of slightly sweet sansho pepper. The sweetness might come from the cherry blossom but I don’t have the palette to tell. It’s very intricate and pleasant either way, and nicely balanced so no flavour stands out too far.

In the nicest of ways the botanical balancing seems to follow the Japanese saying of “出る釘は打たれる” or ‘the nail that stands out gets hammered’. No single botanical dominates and they all flow together with a gentle mellowness.

The green tea blends became more evident the further down the martini I got and it provided a lovely, soft-savoury aftertaste. It was much nicer than my own home-infused green tea gin.

Food

In terms of food pairings this would go very nicely with some sort of rare meat like thinly sliced roast beef or something lightly cured.

It would also go nicely with lightly flavoured seafoods, such as oysters or boiled crustaceans.

Because it’s a subtle gin it could also be paired with things that aren’t as strongly flavoured as other more classical martini food types. Try it with onigiri for example, or cucumber and miso canapés. Pickled items are too strong and will drown out the nice botanicals.

Edamame, boiled or steam fried would also work very nicely, as would all manner of izakaya items.

You can see some earlier posts on izakaya food here, here and here. Given that Osaka is a culinary capital of the world I imagine there is no end of suitable pairings available. If anyone has any more suggestions, from kaiseki to kaki-fry please share in the comments below.

Garnish

I garnished my first martini with a slice of cucumber, but a salted cherry leaf (桜の葉の塩漬け) or salted cherry blossom (桜の花の塩漬) would also be appropriate. The above recipes are from Kitchenfoxtales, a lovely Finnish blog with Japanese influences – kiitos Tuulia!

There’s nothing wrong with lemon or olive but the cucumber works well because it’s very mild and doesn’t crowd out the subtle botanicals of the gin.

Martini Variations

Roku gin goes best in the form of a dry martini, especially a Bone Dry Martini or a even a Churchill Martini as it’s smooth and you don’t want to overpower the botanicals with the herbal notes of the vermouth.

It could potentially go with a Tsukemono Gibson but I think that any sort of pickle would mask some of the flavour.

Refreshing in summer and more than pleasant in Autumn or Winter it still tastes quite spring-like so I imagine this would be perfect for putting in a flask and taking out to enjoy under the cherry blossoms with a picnic. Perhaps that was the plan of the distillers. You can find out more about their wonderful work here.

Kanpai!