Top 5 Japanese Cocktails

Welcome back to Vladflix. Japanese cocktails at home was one of your favorite episodes of last year. Of course you asked for more and today I'm going to make incredible cocktails using only ingredients that I got at my local Japanese market. So get comfortable, a little surprise coming to you in a few minutes. You will notice though only if you hit the like button. Let's go! If you guys haven't watched the previous episode I wanted to mention that Japanese mixology is similar to Japanese tea ceremonies. It's a true art. Bartenders use the finest seasonal ingredients and the best tools to create magical cocktails. They typically prepare drinks one at a time and always focus on every detail. They place the bottles for the drink in front of the guest and serve their cocktails in a beautiful high quality glassware. It's all about precision and perfection. But your basic cocktail making skills should be more than enough to make today's cocktails. The first drink we're going to make is the Japanese Mule. Let's start with the glassware. The most popular cocktail glass in Japan is Usuhari, meaning thin glass. Remarkable minimalistic style light glass made the same way as light bulbs. Gets cold faster than regular high ball and it's supposed to enhance the taste experience. They're very expensive and deserve more attention so if you decide to buy them I'm going to post a video on my second channel where I will show to you all pros and cons so you can decide if you need them for your home bar collection. Ice is a huge part of Japanese mixology and they always use high quality clear ice. You can chip off smaller pieces from the large block or freeze medium-sized spears and cubes. The base spirit is going to be haku vodka. Made with 100% Japanese white rice the name haku means white in Japanese. An interesting fact is that this vodka is filtered through bamboo charcoal and it's very soft with the natural sweetness and complex flavor of the rice. Next we need a yuzu juice. I couldn't find this incredible Japanese fruit to show to you today but it's a super sour and tart fruit. Tastes similar to lemon mixed with mandarin orange. It's not meant to be eaten as is. Typically juice and zest are used for flavoring food and cocktails. Now wasabi ginger ale. Yep you heard it right. Mildly sweet ginger ale with wasabi adds a nice spicy flavor and Japanese touch to our drink. Real Japanese bartenders are very minimalistic when it comes to garnishing cocktails but I'm not. I'm going to use crystallized sweet ginger. Sprinkle with a little bit of matcha powder and here is your Japanese mule. Anyone who likes the traditional Moscow mule will absolutely love this version. If you prefer an even spicier version just mix half and half with the ginger beer. Now let's make a chuhai, a shochu highball. It's a basic combination of shochu, fruit juice, and soda water. Shochu is a Japanese beverage typically distilled from rice, barley, sweet potatoes, buckwheat, or brown sugar. Sometimes it can be produced from other ingredients such as chestnut, sesame seeds, potatoes, or even carrots. This particular shochu is a single distilled from barley and black cordy rice. According to history Japan witnessed high economic growth and in the 1970s the concept of the izakaya, Japan's version of our gastropub, grew in popularity. Izakaya chain restaurants started to appear featuring shochu highballs type of drinks in their menus and this is how the chuhai was born. Mix all ingredients in the tall highball glass with ice, stir it, and there are no garnish required. But since a nice Japanese lady said a minimum $10 credit card charge required, I had to buy something extra. So I chose this tasty Japanese dessert melon daifuku and turned out it's a perfect combo. One of the easiest Japanese cocktails to make at home is sake tini. There are many different ratios you can use, same like with the classic martini, but I like the one with two ounces of gin and one ounce of sake. Pour both ingredients into the chilled mixing glass, add ice, stir it for at least 30 seconds, and strain it into the chilled cocktail glass. Use a small cucumber slice for a garnish and enjoy your sake tini. I prepared this little custom bar set, basically three items, so you can make cocktails like sake tini at home. This will be this week's giveaway and if you want to be part of it, please be subscribed to this channel and leave a comment below. I will choose one random winner and announce it at the end of the next video. Okay good luck. Now let's make a shiso gin tonic. Shiso is a herb that's used in Japanese cooking. It has a strong refreshing mysterious flavor, taste that reminds of cilantro, anise, and citrus. You can get it at your local Japanese market or just go get all you can eat sushi and it will come with your nigiri. Place shiso leaves into the chilled highball glass. I would recommend putting them in between ice cubes so when you add tonic water they won't be pushed on top of the drink. Today we will be using incredible Japanese gin roku. In Japan roku translate as the number six. It consists of six special Japanese botanicals. Sakura flower, sakura leaf, yuzu peel, sencha tea, gyokuro tea, and sansho pepper. I also will be using authentic high quality Japanese tonic water that is made in Brooklyn. Fill up the glass, lightly stir it with a spoon, and as always garnish is optional but I'm going to put one shiso leaf on top. Well most likely you purchased extra leaves so let's not waste any of them and make a fresh twist on the classic mojito. You can make this version with regular cubed ice but just like the classic one I prefer crushed ice. Instead of rum I wanted to use sake as a base spirit. If you're not familiar sake made from fermented rice, water, koji mold, and yeast. Well with huge interest in Japanese cuisine sake became a trendy recognizable drink around the world. But if you like me to know how to make the right choice let me introduce you to Tipsy Sake. Their mission is to provide everyone access to a great selection of premium sake. They recently launched a new sake subscription box which comes with six mini bottles for you to try and explore the profound world of sake. This box comes with an easy to read beginner's guide to get you started. You will get a comprehensive look at the sake's rich history, brewing process, original nuances, flavors, and aromas, and even learn about serving temperatures, food pairings, to enhance your home tasting experience. They've carefully chosen 10 ounces mini bottles to represent the wide selection found across Japan, including Kanbara from the famous rice producing region of Niigata, Sujei from Kachi where they're known for dry sake, and Kudokuyozu by a brewery that excels in Ginjo grade sake. You will also sample Tozai from one of Japan's sake capitals and bottles from two of Japan's most sought-after breweries, Dasai and Nanbu Bijin. If you'd like to start tasting sake right away, please check out the link in the description. I chose Kudokuyozu Junmai Ginjo because it has a sweet aroma of green apple and the right amount of sweetness. Replace fresh lime juice with yuzu juice, I'm going to add three quarters of an ounce, half ounce of simple syrup for sweetness, let's put 8 to 10 shiso leaves, and gently press them with a muddler to release the aroma. Since this sake has only 16% of alcohol, I'm going to pour four ounces. For convenient mixing, fill half of the glass with crushed ice and stir all ingredients. Now fill up to the top with crushed ice and add a couple of ounces of soda water. Pour garnished your shiso leaves and enjoy this incredible Japanese sake mojito. This one has such a unique taste, I loved it even more than a traditional mojito. I recommend to try with different types of sake and find your favorite version, and I believe it will be your go-to Japanese cocktail. And now I wanted to say huge thanks to all my Patreon supporters, you guys keep helping this channel to grow, so if any of you would like to join, I will leave a link in the description. Also thanks to all of you who commented in a previous video unique glassware for whiskey and whiskey cocktails. Our winner is Gobi's SVK. Never be afraid to make something new, and I'll see you guys in the next video.