MAWSIM GIN: Tropical fresh spice and herbal tailoring! A craft gin where you can enjoy the differences from batch to batch.
- Part 2 -

MAWSIM GIN is packed with the taste and aroma of spices, herbs and citrus fruits from Cambodia's rainforests. We asked about future developments, including the refillable bottles scheduled for release this summer.

writer：Ryoko Kuraishi

The high-tech distillation machine is made by iStill, a Dutch company. The balance between recycling, reuse and high technology is very current.

Distill spices and herbs unique to tropical Asia in their fresh state to make craft gin.

This is a profitable business and continues to challenge the original goal of utilising unused biomass ethanol for energy.

MAWSIM GIN is overwhelmed by the grand story of ....... It is cool that it is not the story of its creation that is being evaluated, but the taste and aroma!

'In March 2020, I set up a company in Cambodia and started the 'MAWSIM GIN' project.

Immediately after launch, we went into lockdown due to the Corona disaster, which gave us more than enough time to develop the recipe for two years.

This was because during this time, we distilled more than 200 botanicals available in Cambodia, fine-tuned the quantities and made prototypes.

The botanicals were hand-rubbed by local staff using a mortar and pestle to enhance the aroma, and it was a period of united effort in the production process.

On the left is a gin and tonic with homemade tonic syrup and on the right is a 'Smoky Negroni'. Both are served at the concept bar. Make a reservation when you visit Phnom Penh!

What is the recommended way to drink?

There are a variety of recommended ways to drink gin and tonic: straight, on the rocks, with a lime, or up with soda (......). A popular way to drink gin and tonic at the concept bar attached to the distillery is to add a homemade tonic syrup made from the same botanicals as the gin. Gin and tonic with a homemade tonic syrup made from the same botanicals as the gin.

Another popular signature cocktail is the Smoky Negroni, created by bartender Fumitake Oba at the event.

It is said to be a regular white Negroni with smoked wild cardamom (Cambodian cardamom) pods to give it a fresh flavour.

Ms Hara's personal favourites are the MAWSIM GIN SPICES & HERBS gin Alexander and Last Word, made by Tomokazu Kai, a bartender at Heuga BAR in Gifu.

According to Mr Kai, you can add a dash of MAWSIM GIN to a London Dry Gin Tonic. This alone will completely change the depth and flavour.

Designed on the basis of an antique bottle.

Bottles developed for reuse.

The bottle design is just as important as the gin recipe.

The bottle for MAWSIM GIN is a Kerdel bottle, an update of an antique gin bottle.

They are semi-manufactured in the downtown area of Tokyo, and have been designed to retain their individual characteristics, such as fluctuations and bubbles.

The bottle design also won a bronze award at the World Gin Awards 2023.

'We control the quality of our gin bottles so that they can be reused as carafes, vases and so on.

In the Edo period (1603-1867), sailors on a Dutch ship in Japan dumped empty gin bottles into the sea, but they were recovered and prized as vases to decorate tea rooms.

Kjeldel bottles are Dutch for 'case bottles', and as the name suggests, they can be packed tightly in a case with no gaps, so they can be transported without cushioning materials.

It also improves transport efficiency and reduces environmental impact."

MAWSIM GIN TROPICAL CITRUS is made from tropical citrus and fruits, including Battambang oranges (oranges native to Battambang Province, Cambodia), lime, kobudu mandarins, kumquat, pineapple, passion fruit and mango.

One of the problems that bars have is the problem of having too many bottles to dispose of, and to help solve this problem, a refill bottle for MAWSIM GIN is currently being developed.

There is Thai soda available in glass bottles in South East Asia, and we are planning to reuse these bottles, fill them with MAWSIM GIN and sell them as refillable bottles.

The bottles will be available in the summer and will be reasonably priced, which is a welcome experiment.

'Furthermore, the refill bottles will allow us to make house blends for each bar.

Even though we fine-tune each batch, 'MAWSIM GIN' is made with fresh botanicals, so it is difficult to control the recipe completely.

That's why we want people to enjoy the differences between batches, and if you have refills, you can blend them a little bit to create a unique blend for that shop.

I think it's interesting that even though it's the same brand, each shop has its own character."

The water hyacinth in question. At the moment, 40 kg of dried hollyhock can be consumed per distillation. Incidentally, the dry weight of the water hyacinth per square metre is approximately 1 kg.

'The future goal for MAWSIM GIN is to further increase brand awareness and get more people drinking it.

Beyond that, we are thinking about manufacturing at other locations. We want to stick to 'craft', such as preparing botanicals by hand, so we may eventually exceed the capacity of our production base in Cambodia.

When that happens, it would be interesting to expand into other Asian countries such as Bangladesh and Laos, which are as rich in spices and herbs as Cambodia and face the same social issues.

It would be fun to have a 'MAWSIM GIN' with the same recipe but with different flavours and aromas at each production site, such as a Dhaka version and a Vientiane version.

The goal of the project is to realise the use of energy from inedible plant-derived bioethanol while preparing MAWSIM GIN with bioethanol derived from the water hyacinth.

'We want to pursue our philosophy of shining a light on things that have been under-utilised or thought to be worthless, and transforming them into something of value.'

MAWSIM creates employment and manufacturing opportunities in Asian countries, contributes to solving environmental issues and gives back to the region.

The products, which are all-win for the global environment, consumers and producers, seem to embody the sustainable manufacturing necessary for the society of the future.