Hiroshima's first craft, SAKURAO GIN, is
local & eco-friendly!
<Part 1>

The Doripura editorial team headed to SAKURAO DISTILLERY in Hiroshima Prefecture.This month we feature SAKURAO GIN, a pure domestic craft gin that concentrates the nature of Hiroshima in the bottle!

writer：Ryoko Kuraishi

From left to right: 'ORIGINAL', 'LIMITED' and the limited release 'HAMAGOU'.Bartenders were interviewed and the size and shape of the bottles were tailored to be easy to use in bars.

It was born near the World Heritage Site of Miyajima.

In 2018, a craft gin distillery, SAKURAO DISTILLERY, was established in Sakurao, Hatsukaichi City, close to Miyajima, a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site.


Currently, SAKURAO GIN ORIGINAL is made from 14 ingredients, including Hiroshima citrus and cypress, ginger, shiso, green tea, foreign juniper berries and coriander seeds, and SAKURAO GIN ORIGINAL is made from 17 botanicals, with a focus on those produced in Hiroshima.SAKURAO GIN LIMITED, which is made from 17 botanicals grown in Hiroshima.


The parent company is China Brewery, which was founded here in 1918.
It was originally an enterprising company and was the first in Japan to sell sake in paper packs, in 1967.

The distillation machine is made by Arnold Holstein in Germany. When introducing the machine, the company went to Germany to inspect it, and was impressed by the beauty of the form and the honest corporate culture, in which "new recruits spend three years just tapping copper".

After a long history of producing sake and spirits for the local market, it was not until the 2000s that Chugoku Brewery turned its attention to Western-style alcohol production with an eye to the future.


Anticipating a shrinking domestic market for sake and spirits, the company decided to develop products based on Western liquors, particularly gin, which was showing signs of a boom at the time.


We had been making liqueurs and spirits, but we had never made gin before, so we started by thoroughly analysing the flavour components of various gins, including London Dry Gin," says Taihei Yamamoto, head of development.Taihei Yamamoto, Chief Development Officer.


He is a distiller who has long worked in the shochu and sake industry and has also been involved in liqueur development.

Mr Yamamoto, Head of Development.

The word 'gin' has a very different aroma.
We first had to clarify what kind of aroma to emphasise and which zoning of aroma to target, and then proceeded with recipe development.


As you know, Hiroshima is Japan's number one lemon producing region.As you know, Hiroshima is the largest producer of lemons in Japan, so we wanted to use citrus as our main botanical.
That is why we set London Dry Gin, which has a strong citrus element, as the benchmark for our development.


In order to learn about the traditional production methods of the home distillery, we actively visited distilleries abroad, particularly those in Scotland and London.


Particularly impressive was Scotland.
Mr Yamamoto felt a strong sympathy for the Distillery's approach to manufacturing, which uses hand-picked botanicals native to the area.

Here are the ingredients used in SAKURAO GIN.In the foreground are juniper berries from Hiroshima Prefecture.

Local juniper berries were found!

At the same time, they also undertook research into the botanicals that would be used as ingredients.
'As this is a gin produced by a brewery in Hiroshima Prefecture, we decided to start by looking for local botanicals, so we started looking for ingredients produced in the prefecture.'


The first ingredient we hit on was citrus.Citrus fruits are the base ingredient for SAKURAO GIN.
Fortunately, we had a pipeline to local producers as we had been making lemon and hassak liqueurs.


'Through the introductions of citrus farmers, we also found a series of producers of uniquely Japanese botanicals such as ginger, shiso, cypress and kuromoji.'


With development already underway,By chance, a researcher at the Hiroshima Prefectural Food Industry Technology Centre introduced us to juniper berries produced in the prefecture.


He said it is a very rare botanical that grows wild in a very limited number of mountainous areas in Hiroshima Prefecture.

なんと牡蠣殻も使われている。爽やかな柑橘の香りの奥に、潮のアクセントを感じられるはず。

We had been looking for local ingredients, but had given up on importing juniper berries, which form the basis of our gin.


Then I found out that juniper berries can also be found in Hiroshima, and I was excited that we might be able to make it entirely from ingredients produced in the prefecture.


The presence of Hiroshima-grown juniper berries has helped to create a craft gin that is all 'Made in Hiroshima'.With the presence of juniper berries from Hiroshima, SAKURAO DISTILLERY is trying to realise an all 'Made in Hiroshima' craft gin.
Later, they even found botanicals native to Miyajima, which is even more Hiroshima-like. ......


The back story of the birth of SAKURAO GIN continues in Part 2.