Japanese Cocktails in NYC
A highball is not a weak drink, it is a different one. Carbonation carries aroma to the nose faster than a neat pour does, which is why a whisky that reads as flat at room temperature can open up over ice and soda. Most of what we build here works on that principle, using shochu, sake, umeshu and Japanese whisky rather than treating them as substitutes for gin.
45 posts
- Aug 18, 2026Oka Kura Bermutto: Japan's First Vermouth, and It Isn't Made From WineJunmai sake fortified with rice shochu, infused with yomogi, yuzu, kabosu and sansho. From the same 141-year-old Kumamoto distillery behind Oka gin and vodka. We use the sweet one in Yoshi's Saketini.
- Aug 16, 2026Scarlet Peach Amaro: Proofed Down With Peach Juice Instead of WaterIseya Distillery presses three varieties of Yamanashi peach and uses the juice where water would normally go. Over 27 botanicals, 19% ABV, and a hundred volunteers at harvest.
- Aug 12, 2026The Japanese Bitters: Bonito, Cherry Blossom, and a Mizunara Old FashionedYuki Yamazaki's bitters are built from dried bonito, kelp, salt-pickled sakura leaves and Tokushima yuzu. We carry the full range, and we use the Mizunara liqueur in an old fashioned with Akashi Ume.
- Aug 9, 2026The Three Wines at an Izakaya: Vinho Verde, Spumante, and a Mendoza PinotAn izakaya does not need a wine list. We keep three, chosen for acidity and bubbles rather than for prestige.
- Aug 7, 2026Giffard: A Pharmacist in Angers, and Three Liqueurs on Our ShelfEmile Giffard turned his pharmacy into a distillery in 1885. We keep the Lichi-Li, the Triple Sec and the Wild Elderflower.
- Aug 6, 2026Cognac Park VS Carte Blanche: Two Crus, Two Kinds of OakUgni Blanc from Fins Bois and Petite Champagne in equal parts, six months in new French oak, then three to six years in used casks.
- Aug 4, 2026Fernet-Branca: 27 Botanicals From Four Continents, Since 1845A Milanese amaro built on grape spirit, rested a year in Slovenian oak, whose recipe reportedly lives in one safe and one head.
- Aug 3, 2026Kweichow Moutai: China's National Spirit, and What Sauce Aroma MeansSorghum and wheat qu from Maotai Town in Guizhou, made by a method refined over two centuries, with more than three hundred identified aromas.
- Jul 28, 2026Midori: Suntory's Melon Liqueur, and Why It Is That GreenLaunched in Japan in 1964 under a different name, renamed for its 1978 US debut, and made with Yubari King and muskmelon.
- Jul 27, 2026Hennessy Paradis: A Blend Maurice Fillioux Compared to a Symphony OrchestraCreated in 1979 from rare aged eaux-de-vie, and named for the cellar where a cognac house keeps the ones it will not sell.
- Jul 21, 2026Seifuku Coffee Liqueur: Coffee Built on an Ishigaki BaseThe Ishigaki house behind our undiluted awamori also makes a coffee liqueur, and the base spirit is the reason to try it.
- Jul 14, 2026Oka Yuzu Liqueur: The Third Yuzu Bottle From TsutsumiOKA already makes a yuzu vodka. This is the liqueur version, and the difference between the two is worth understanding.
- Jul 13, 2026Garappa #01: A Gin Made With Shochu Technique, Not Gin TechniqueYamamoto Shuzo builds this on honkaku shochu and distils each of its five botanicals separately, using the methods they already use for shochu.
- Jul 7, 2026Hinomaru Umeshu Whisky Cask: Plum Liqueur Finished in Kiuchi's Own BarrelsThe brewery behind Hitachino Nest and Hinomaru whisky puts ume liqueur into whisky casks, and the wood does something sugar cannot.
- Jun 30, 2026Choya Umeshu and Shiso: What Honkaku Umeshu Actually RequiresThree ingredients and nothing else. Choya's authentic umeshu is Nanko ume, sugar and spirit, and the shiso version adds one leaf.
- Jun 19, 2026Yuzugin: Three Rare Citrus, Vacuum Distilled Onto Imo ShochuKyoya Shuzo in Miyazaki has been distilling since 1834. This gin uses yuzu, hyuganatsu and hebesu on a sweet potato shochu base, at 47%.
- May 1, 2026Matsui The Hakuto: A Tottori Gin Named After a Skinned RabbitHakuto means white rabbit, after one of Japan's oldest myths. The gin leads on nashi pear, a Tottori specialty, and is proofed with water off Mount Daisen.
- Apr 17, 2026Oka Gin: Six Distillations, a 150-Year-Old Shochu House, and Two JunipersMade at Tsutsumi Distillery in Kumamoto, one of only 28 certified Kuma Shochu producers, on a 100% rice base, with Macedonian and Himalayan juniper.
- Mar 27, 2026Satsuma Gin: Made With Mandarins Grown on an Active VolcanoKomasa Jyozo builds this Kagoshima gin on rice shochu and Sakurajima komikan, Japan's smallest mandarin, grown in volcanic soil under falling ash.
- Feb 17, 2026Masahiro Okinawa Gin: A Gin Distilled on an Awamori BaseBitter melon, guava leaf, hibiscus and shikuwasa, distilled onto awamori rather than neutral spirit. Okinawa's climate in a bottle, at 47%.
- Nov 4, 2025Hounds Black Vodka: The One Bottle on This Shelf That Isn't JapaneseA jet-black vodka from Niagara, Ontario, coloured by fulvic minerals and humic acid. It's on our list because of what it does in a glass, not where it's from.
- Oct 25, 2025The Scarlet Spectrum of BittersThe full Scarlet range from Iseya Distillery in Kanagawa (bitter, amaro, peach, coffee and cask-aged), and how we use it in our signature Scarlet Negroni with mezcal and umeshu.
- Oct 16, 2025Oka Vodka and Oka Yuzu Vodka: Rice Spirits From a Kuma Shochu HouseBoth come out of Tsutsumi Distillery in Kumamoto on a 100% rice base. The yuzu one is macerated twice, once before distillation and once after.
- Oct 9, 2025Suntory Roku: Six Japanese Botanicals, One Per SeasonRoku means six. Sakura flower, sakura leaf, yuzu peel, sencha, gyokuro and sansho, each harvested at its own peak, then built onto a classic gin base.
- Oct 2, 2025Calpico: Japan's Beloved Milky Soft DrinkThe century-old, tangy-sweet lactic acid drink from Japan: how it's traditionally enjoyed, and how we use it at Juraku.
- Sep 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.
- Aug 29, 2025Ki No Tea: A Kyoto Gin Built With a 19th-Century Uji Tea HouseThe Kyoto Distillery made Japan's first dedicated craft gin. This one is a collaboration with a tea blender founded in 1879, using tencha and gyokuro from Uji.
- Aug 26, 2025Hendrick's: Two Stills, Eleven Botanicals, and Infusions Added After DistillationA Scottish gin made by blending spirit from an 1860 Bennett still and a 1948 Carter-Head, then infusing rose and cucumber afterward.
- Aug 19, 2025Roots of Ruin: A Kentucky Gin Built on a Rye Whiskey MashCastle & Key distills its gin from the same 63% rye mash bill it uses for whiskey, with eight botanicals, bottled at 53%.
- Aug 12, 2025Belvedere Organic and Makarov: The Two European Vodkas on Our ShelfOne is single-estate organic Polish rye from a distillery running since 1910. The other is a Ukrainian vodka in a 100ml bottle shaped like a pistol.
- Jul 25, 2025Worthy Park 109: A Jamaican Estate That Has Been at This Since 1670A single-estate pot still rum at 54.5% ABV, blending three-year-old light ester rum with a small amount of unaged high ester rum.
- Jul 18, 2025Cor Cor Red and Green: Japan's Rum From an Island 220 Miles Out to SeaGrace Rum makes two rums on Minamidaito Island, one from molasses and one from fresh cane juice, both additive-free and both bottled by hand.
- Jul 11, 2025Nankai Acou Rum: A Kagoshima Rum Made From Kokuto, Not MolassesA shochu house founded in 1875 distills rum from kokuto high-test molasses. It takes 5,000 litres of mash to make 500 litres of rum.
- Jul 4, 2025Casa Malka: An OU Kosher, Additive-Free Tequila With a Female FounderA Jalisco blanco and a reposado rested six months in ex-Jack Daniel's barrels, both additive-free and both certified OU Kosher.
- Jun 20, 2025What Additive-Free Tequila Actually Means: El Velo, Los Dos and AngeliscoTequila law permits up to 1% additives with no disclosure. Three blancos on our shelf skip them, and each one comes from a different part of Jalisco.
- Jun 6, 2025Santanera: The Tequila That Prints the Fermentation Season on the LabelAn organic, additive-free Jalisco distillery that ferments in concrete with wild yeast, mills with volcanic stone, and tells you which season each batch was made in.
- May 16, 2025Agave de Cortés: Six Generations in Santiago Matatlán, and What Capón MeansAn Espadín mezcal from a Zapotec family that has distilled in Oaxaca since the 1840s, cooked over oak in an earthen pit and milled by stone tahona.
- May 2, 2025Mala Santa Ensamble and Tepeztate: Two Wild Agaves, Fifteen to Thirty Years EachSalmiana grows twenty feet tall and takes up to twenty years. Tepeztate clings to rocky cliffs and takes up to thirty. Neither can be rushed.
- Apr 18, 2025400 Conejos: The Mezcal Named After 400 Rabbit GodsAn Espadín joven from Oaxaca, roasted in a cone-shaped wood oven and milled by a horse-drawn tahona, named for the Nahuatl gods of intoxication.
- Apr 16, 2025Ramune: Japan's Fizzy Icon of Summer NostalgiaThe story behind Ramune, Japan's marble-sealed soda invented in Yokohama in 1876, and how we serve it at Juraku.
- Mar 11, 2025Pa'Lante Rum: Elevating Rum Cocktails at Izakaya JurakuPa'Lante is a New York-based craft rum brand blending Caribbean heritage with a modern approach. We pour their Blanco and Reposado, including as an add-on to our Yuzu Slushy.
- Mar 9, 2025Ohoro Gin: A Unique Hokkaido Craft Gin at Izakaya JurakuDistilled by Benizakura Distillery with haskap berries, Ezo spruce, and Japanese peppermint, Ohoro Gin captures Hokkaido's wilderness. We use it in our Ohoro Gin & Tonic.
- Mar 3, 2025Setouchi Japanese Craft Gin: A Citrus-Forward Expression at Izakaya JurakuInspired by the Seto Inland Sea's citrus groves, Setouchi Gin is the base of our House Sansho & Japanese Citrus Gin & Tonic, built with a homemade citrus tonic and sansho pepper.
- Mar 3, 2025Barrow's Intense: 200 Pounds of Fresh Ginger a Batch, and the Backbone of Our 212A Brooklyn ginger liqueur made from four ingredients and no extracts, left deliberately unfiltered. It is the heat in our 212, a cocktail whose build is 2:1:2, which happens to be our area code too.
- Feb 13, 2025Izakaya Juraku Homemade TonicIzakaya Juraku's house-made Japanese Citrus & Sansho Tonic, created with Kankitsu Labo, blends five rare Japanese citrus varieties with tingly sansho pepper.