FUK: A Whisky Named After an Airport Code, From the Sesame Shochu People

The name is an airport code. FUK is Fukuoka International Airport, and the whisky is a souvenir bottle in the most literal sense, made for people arriving in or leaving the region.

It also comes from a distillery we already talk about a lot.

Beniotome, Again

Beniotome Shuzo, in Kurume, Fukuoka. The same house that produced the world's first sesame shochu in 1978 and built an entire distillery around it.

FUK is what happens when they turn that equipment toward whisky.

Kurume has two things going for it: access to the Chikugo River, one of the better water sources in Japan, and good barley growing in the surrounding fields. Both of those already served the shochu; both serve the whisky.

What It Is

A three-year single grain, distilled from barley.

Single grain is the least glamorous category in whisky and one of the most misunderstood. It doesn't mean one grain. It means whisky from a single distillery that isn't all malted barley, usually made in a column still. Grain whisky is normally blended away into something else and rarely bottled on its own.

Three years is the legal minimum in most whisky-making countries. Bottling right at that mark is a statement of intent: this is meant to be drunk young, fresh and bright, not put away.

What It Tastes Like

Light grain, subtle fruit, and the clean character of a young spirit that hasn't been buried under wood.

It's approachable in the way an entry-level whisky should be, without tasting like it's been engineered to offend nobody.

Why We Pour It

Because it completes a set. We already carry Beniotome's sesame shochu, the thing they're famous for, and this is the same building, the same water, the same barley, doing something else entirely.

Ordering both is a small tour of one distillery's range.

How to Drink It

A highball. Young grain whisky is what the Japanese highball was built on, and this is very good in one.

Neat or on the rocks is fine. Don't overthink it.

Pair It With

Fried food and skewers. Karaage, tebasaki, yakitori, takoyaki.

Try It at Juraku

FUK is on the whisky list at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side, and available by the bottle.