Who are the bartenders to watch in 2025?
Introducing the U30s of Doripura's editorial expectations.
- - Part 2 -

We introduce Yuto Hamura from "BRAND NEW NIGHT" (Tokyo), Kanae Wada from "Bar Sakuma" (Hokkaido), Ayane Yamada from "Mixology Heritage" (Tokyo), and Mahito Hazama from "watoto" (Kyoto)!

writer：Ryoko Kuraishi

A presentation at A SPECTACULAR DISCOVERY.

Ayane Yamada / Mixology Heritage (Hibiya, Tokyo)

Corona inspired him to quit college and become a bartender.

In the second part, we introduce Ayane Yamada of "Mixology Heritage" in Hibiya, Tokyo, who was born in 2000 and dropped out of college to start his career as a bartender after the Corona disaster.

The French restaurant where he was working part-time at the time closed due to the Corona disaster.A regular customer there introduced me to a bar specializing in whiskey.

At the time, I had not yet turned 20, so I was doing menial tasks such as preparing ice, but even from the side, serving customers at the counter seemed like fun.

In the fall of 2021, I had an interview at Spirits & Sharing."

In college, Yamada studied marketing at the School of Business Administration,enthusiastically appealed, "I'm willing to do anything, even accounting work and office work!But at first, he was not taken seriously at all, saying, "You don't even know what sake tastes like, do you? However, the lack of manpower for a new business or perhaps his enthusiasm was rewarded the following year.

However, perhaps because of a shortage of staff for a new opening, or perhaps because of Yamada's enthusiasm, he was hired as a staff member of Memento mori at the beginning of the following year.


Last year, his third year as a bartender at Spirits & Sharing, was a turning point.

I won second place in the Japan finals of "A SPECTACULAR DISCOVERY," a cocktail competition organized by Woodford Reserve.

I wanted to change myself and broaden my horizons, so I tried a cocktail competition for the first time, and I was able to achieve unexpected results.

I used to think that competitions were just about the results, but I realized that the connections that are created between the bartenders who participate in the competitions are the food for thought.It changed my view of the competition!

写真左：ウッドフォードリザーブを使った「Osme Fashioned」は、トップノートからミドル、ラストにかけて、まるで香水のように変化するアロマを実現したカクテル。「身に纏うだけではなく、上質な香りを飲むという愉しみをカクテルで提案しようと思った」と制作意図を語ってくれた。ウッドフォードリザーブの骨太なボディと心地よいウッディな余韻に、自家製金木犀シロップの繊細な香り、ベルガモットの軽やかな苦味が調和している。写真右：カクテルレシピを作成する際のメモ。上はスピリッツの中にある要素を書き出したもの、下は香水のフレーバーノートを参考にしたもの。

Second place in his first competition!A SPECTACULAR DISCOVERY" was a big step up.

For this competition, Yamada created a cocktail with perfume-like flavor notes using Woodford Reserve and homemade Kinmokusei Syrup.

He says that he usually creates cocktail recipes by charting the flavor notes of a perfume.He composes his recipes by considering the compatibility of flavors in the top, middle, and last notes.

It may seem analog and inefficient, but I remember what I was told to visualize in my marketing class in college, and I make a flavor notebook every time I go to a restaurant.
By writing it down, I can see what flavors are needed and what to add."

Thanks to his good performance in "A SPECTACULAR DISCOVERY," he was able to do a guest shift in Thailand in August.This was Yamada's first time abroad.

In Bangkok, where a new bar or two opens every week, he was greatly inspired by the dynamic Asian movement he witnessed.

I found Opm.bkk to be very interesting, especially the way the menu was prepared.I found the way the menu was created especially helpful.It's a book-style menu, with regional ingredients and food culture mapped out on a map.
As I was in charge of creating the menu for Mixology Heritage, I found the structure to be helpful in introducing the story of each region in an easy-to-understand way and providing drinkers with the pleasure of choosing.

Yamada's goals for 2025 are to "improve technology and shift guests overseas!Yamada's goals for 2025 are "to improve my skills and guest shift overseas!He said.

I am currently relearning classic cocktails under the tutelage of Manabu Ito.

I think the reason I was recognized in A SPECTACULAR DISCOVERY is because I was able to apply what I learned in Mixology Heritage, where classic cocktails are very important.
Mixology is only possible with a classical foundation.I would like to make this a year to strengthen my technical skills."

Please look forward to 2025 as Mr. Yamada aims for even greater heights as a bartender.

Cocktail making, coffee roasting, distilling!The cocktail on the left is the "gimlet with the scent of Noto hinoki leaves".The cocktail on the left is a "gimlet with the scent of Noto cypress leaves".The aroma was extracted by decompression distillation of Noto hinoki cypress leaf fittings and scraps purchased from a lumber dealer in Ishikawa Prefecture for the opening of watoto, and combined with Maiwagen, an up-and-coming craft gin from Tango, Kyotango.

Mahito Ștefan / watoto (Kyoto, Japan)

He curates "special things" from his roots in Obama and Kyoto.

Mahito Hazama just opened his own bar "watoto" next to Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto, Japan.

The "watoto" is a 110 year old renovated private house, a reworking of the "cafe watoto" that his parents used to run in the mountain village of Obama in Fukui prefecture, where he was born and grew up.

During the daytime, watoto is a café where you can enjoy the "relaxed medicinal cuisine" that was served at cafe watoto, and in the evening, cocktails, mocktails, and coffee made with water from the Shimogamo Shrine well are served.

The concept of watoto is to "shed light on unknown makers and producers in Fukui Prefecture and Kyoto.The secondary ingredients used in the cocktails are carefully grown by unique producers, such as botanicals from a facility in a neighboring town of Obama City that researches medicinal herbs while engaging in environmental conservation activities, and naturally grown food by producers who lead a self-sufficient lifestyle.

In addition, the fixtures, fabrics, glasses, and vessels that decorate the store also have their own stories.watoto" is a gallery-like space that tells the stories of its makers.

Cafe watoto, the predecessor of watoto, was not just a cafe."It was started in 2012 as a place of learning, inspired by the image of a "modern terakoya", where photographers, writers, musicians, natural farmers, and other people, from adults to children, gathered without borders and built a unique community.

The woman who helped in the store since she was a child was greatly influenced by her parents and by the people who gathered here.He started roasting coffee when he was in junior high school, and later on he made his own distiller by combining kitchen utensils such as pots and kettles, and he also distilled coffee.

He says, "The people who gathered at 'cafe watoto' all had creative ideas, and I was inspired by them.This experience inspired me to pursue a career in the food and beverage industry after graduating from college, and to work on creating a place like 'cafe watoto.

The spirits and liqueurs that line the back bar, as well as the fixtures and fittings used in the interior design, and even each of the glasses, are carefully selected to tell a story.This place, where the aesthetic eye of Mr. 擢擢 shines, is likely to be the eye of the typhoon of the Kyoto bar scene in 2025.

Cocktail making that makes the most of the "water" of Shimogamo Shrine.

However, upon entering college, he was struck by the Corona disaster.Unable to find satisfaction in online classes, he dropped out of school.In order to master coffee roasting, which he had been doing since junior high school, he worked at the roasting place of a specialty coffee shop in Kyoto, where he was in charge of roasting.

At the same time he turned 20 years old, the alcohol ban was lifted, and he joined " Ikusei".When "Ikusei Kyoto Distillery" opened, he moved there and spent a year and a half distilling.

He left "Ikusei Kyoto Distillery" last year to run "watoto" with his family in Kyoto.He left "Ikusei Kyoto Distillery" last year.

I am a bartender, but I love cocktails.He loves cocktails, especially calvados and fruit-based spirits in general, and he often makes cocktails based on them.

The design and construction of watoto was done by the same person who worked on the "cafe watoto" in Obama.

The head of the architectural firm was born in Obama, and is a native of the Obama Sake Brewery, a sake brewery in Obama City.Because of this connection, there was talk of doing something together with the Kohama Sake Brewery!We're talking about doing something together with the Obama Sake Brewery.

I am thinking that it would be great if we could take advantage of our location next to Shimogamo Shrine to make a kind of sake liqueur and serve it to Shimogamo Shrine visitors.

In cocktail making, we would like to pay homage to Shimogamo Shrine, which is dedicated to the god of water.The first thing that I want to do is to make a cocktail that pays homage to the Shimogamo Shrine, which is dedicated to the god of water, and I want to use the distillation technique to convey the importance of water.

Water, producers, food culture, the story of the land.There are many things we want to convey.
I hope it will become a place that is different from bars and cafes, and will function as a community that transmits the stories of Obama and Kyoto, respectively.