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Stories from behind the bar: cocktails, ramen, Japanese culture, and life on the Lower East Side.
CommunityOct 2, 2025October at Juraku: Community, Cocktails, Comfort Food, and BombsA thank-you for Showdown Chinatown, the return of the Hojicha Old Fashioned with Laphroaig, fall comfort dishes, and a note on delivery fees.CocktailsOct 2, 2025Calpico: Named in Sanskrit, Born on Tanabata, Renamed for EnglishA Japanese teacher fell ill in Inner Mongolia, was handed a bowl of sour milk, and came home and built a drink around it. Every part of the bottle means something.WhiskySep 30, 2025Hinomaru 1st Edition, Port Cask and Sakura Cask: Three From KiuchiThe brewery behind Hitachino Nest has been making sake since 1823 and whisky since 2016. These three show what it does with wood.ShochuSep 26, 2025Lento: The Kokuto Shochu That Gets Played Classical MusicAmami Oshima Kaiun Shuzo matures this brown sugar shochu inside tanks fitted with transducers, playing Mozart and Beethoven into the liquid. The name is a tempo marking.ShochuSep 23, 2025Nikaido Shochu: The Oita Distillery That Made Barley Koji WorkNikaido spent twenty-two years getting koji to grow on barley. What came out in 1973 was the first shochu in Japan with barley on both sides of the ferment, and it started a boom.WhiskySep 23, 2025The Hojicha Old Fashioned: Roasted Tea and a Mist of LaphroaigAn Old Fashioned built on Japanese single grain and roasted tea, finished with a spray of Islay Scotch that never touches the drink as an ingredient.ShochuSep 19, 2025Aka Kirishima: The Mash Turns Red, the Shochu Comes Out ClearA purple sweet potato, white koji, and a reaction that turns the fermenting mash bright red. The name comes from a color you never see in the glass.WhiskySep 16, 2025Akashi Ume: Green Plums Steeped in Whisky Barrels Since 1679Eigashima has been distilling in Akashi since 1679. This one macerates fresh ume in barrels of matured Akashi whisky with rock sugar: umeshu logic, whisky base.EventsSep 12, 2025Shirakawago Sasanigori: The Nigori That Started as Festival DoburokuA lightly cloudy Junmai Ginjo from Miwa Shuzo in Gifu, born from a request by the mayor of a UNESCO World Heritage village to make sake for its doburoku festival.BeerSep 5, 2025Far Yeast Brewing: Hinoki Lager and Mori to Mori Rice AleTwo Japanese craft beers from a brewery in the mountains of Yamanashi: one brewed with Japanese cypress, one with sake rice and sake yeast.CocktailsSep 2, 2025Kissui: A Rice Vodka Distilled Twelve Times and Filtered Through BambooMade by Takara Shuzo in Fushimi, Kyoto, from 100% Japanese rice and famously soft local water. The name means absolutely pure.
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