The spotlight on gin in India hasn’t yet stopped shining. On Tuesday, Beam Suntory, the global spirits brand launched their parent Japanese brand House of Suntory’s premium ‘craft’ gin into the country. Called Roku, the gin was launched at the Trident in Gurugram, along with three whiskies: Beam Suntory’s Oaksmith, as well as The House of Suntory’s Yamazaki and Hibiki.
Master blender Shinji Fukuyo, who creates these whiskies and then ages them in American oak barrels, was present at the launch, as was George Kumekawa, from the House of Suntory.
Kumekawa has been overseeing the growth of Roku since its launch in 2017 in Japan and select countries in South East Asia and Europe. Roku has top notes of Yuzu, a Japanese citrus fruit and a sweet aroma courtesy cherry blossom and green tea. The complex flavours leave you with a hint of spice in the end, given the presence of the Japanese Sansho pepper.
Ahead of the India launch, he talks about why he’s excited for Indian bartenders to work with Roku, and why the brand considers this a craft gin. Edited excerpts:
You’re using six botanicals for Roku...
Yes, roku means six — we are using six Japanese botanicals, all of which are sourced from different areas in Japan, through different seasons. The Sakura tea and Sakura flower are only harvested in spring; the Sencha tea and Gyokuro tea are sourced in different places and through different seasons; and we also have the Sansho pepper and Yuzu peel that come from different areas in the country. We then distil immediately to extract the best flavours. This requires a lot of time and effort, which is why we call it a craft gin. There’s no definition of this, but it’s more about how much we care about and invest in the process, and the fact that we source everything locally.
George Kumekawa, from The House of Suntory
Outside of these six, we also use eight traditional botanicals including juniper berries. These are sourced outside of Japan. But to differentiate ourselves, we distillate the juniper berry twice. The reason is that the berry is sometimes too strong and we don’t want that — we want it to match perfectly with the six Japanese botanicals.
The world has been focusing on gin now for a while. How do you see your presence in the Indian context now, at the end of 2019?
In addition to this [gin trend], I think that the education level of the bartenders here is growing rapidly. The way they serve and create their cocktails is getting better — some Indian bartenders are getting popular outside of India too. For instance, in Hong Kong, the 8 1⁄2 Otto E Mezzo Bombana is a premium Italian place with a good bar. A bartender called Devender Kumar has been running it for a couple of years now, and he has elevated the bar. It’s been placed in the Asia’s 50 Best Bars consistently. The level of the industry [in India] is growing now too. We want to place Roku in India in the mid- to high-end category. I think it’s the right time that we started the gin here, along with the launch of the House of Suntory whiskies.
Do you plan to produce outside of Japan too, given the rapid expansion in the past few years?
Roku is produced in Osaka, in one of Suntory’s oldest production plants. We don’t have plans for sure to produce outside of this.
Available across bars and stores in Karnataka, Haryana, Maharashtra, Telangana; upwards of ₹5,500 for a 700 ml bottle
