The four spirits that hold up the cocktail. Between bourbons, this world too.
It began in 1660, when a professor of medicine at Leiden University in Holland distilled juniper berries into a remedy. By 1689 it had crossed to England and taken the name gin. Column distillation brought the clean, clear London style to the fore. Juniper, coriander, angelica and the rest, in their own proportions, give each brand its face. No spirit is poured into more cocktails.
The name is a diminutive of voda, Russian for water. Grain is distilled to over 85% ABV, cut with water, then filtered through birch or coconut-shell charcoal. The charcoal takes the roughness out and leaves it colourless and crystal clear — a gentle spirit that keeps only a trace of what it was made from.
Said to have begun in the West Indies in the 17th century. Usually the pressed juice is boiled down to molasses, then fermented and distilled. By colour it is white, gold or dark; by flavour, light, medium or heavy. Heavy comes from pot stills and cask ageing, rich and deep; light from column stills, soft and dry.
Only spirit made in designated regions from Agave azul tequilana, grown to 70–80cm across, may be called tequila. Unaged blanco is sharp; reposado, rested two months or more in wood, takes on a pale gold and a note of oak; añejo, a year or more, comes close to brandy. Without "100% agave" on the label it is a mixto, made with added sugars.
Some 900 bottles, bourbon at the centre. Best tried in the glass.
Call +81-72-682-15562-1-5 Akutagawacho, Takatsuki, Osaka / 1 min from JR Takatsuki, West Exit
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