Our Spirit of Japan Gift Set contains a 50ml bottle of each of our unique award-winning spirits: Wasabi Vodka, Yuzucello, Sansho Spiced Rum and Shiso Gin. All of these craft spirits, inspired by the flavours of Japan, are Great Taste Award winners, with our Sansho Spiced Rum winning the coveted 3 stars.

Something different to other alcohol gift sets...

We initially created the Spirit of Japan assortment set to give people the opportunity to sample the full range, before they decide on their favourite tipple. However, this gift pack has quickly become the perfect choice for those looking for alcohol gifts - whether for a birthday, Christmas or other special occasion.

Do you know someone who loves Japanese flavours? Does the gin lover in your life enjoy trying new flavours? The Spirit of Japan gift box makes the perfect gift for adventurous drinkers and lovers of craft spirits.

Read on to find out more about these unique spirits, crafted by The Wasabi Company:

Wasabi Vodka - 5cl

This small-batch vodka captures the rare and vibrant flavour of fresh English wasabi.

It opens with a smooth, buttery richness before revealing gentle brassica notes of sweet mustard and radish. These give way to bright hints of star anise and pepper, finishing with a complex, lingering warmth.

Crafted with freshly grated wasabi paste from our Dorset and Hampshire farms, this spirit delivers the unmistakable heat and character of real wasabi at its freshest. Using an innovative vacuum distillation process, we draw out the pure, delicate flavour of the wasabi into our organic wheat-based spirit, preserving its true essence like never before.

Distilled under vacuum at –5°C, the wasabi is never exposed to excessive heat. This careful technique prevents the breakdown of allyl isothiocyanate, the compound responsible for wasabi’s signature pungency, ensuring its bright, aromatic character and subtle brassica notes remain intact. Traditional distillation methods would destroy these nuances.

Our base spirit, made from organic wheat, is distilled multiple times to achieve exceptional purity, a true blank canvas that lets the wasabi shine. The wheat lends a touch of natural sweetness, rounding out a spirit that is as refined as it is distinctive.

For true wasabi lovers, we recommend enjoying this vodka neat or over ice - however, the flavour profile is perfectly suited to a Bloody Mary. It can also be enjoyed in a classic vodka martini recipe for a fiery adaptation, over ice, with soda water or your choice of mixer.

Ingredients: Our own English wasabi

Shiso Gin - 5cl

Made with our own Dorset-grown purple shiso, this is a delicate yet flavoursome London dry gin. A balance of traditional Japanese flavours of shiso, yuzu and sudachi with English botanicals of juniper, coriander and bay.

The subtle shiso flavours of basil, mint and caraway are enhanced by the sublime citrus and herbaceous notes for a gin that is smooth, refreshing and perfectly balanced - the delicate flavours of the 6 botanicals, perfectly preserved by an expertly crafted distillation method, leaving an incredibly satisfying texture.

Shiso is a member of the mint family with a savoury herb-like quality that is likened to basil or caraway with a hint of citrus. We grow the purple Shiso leaves on the farm in Dorset. Yuzu is a cross between a wild citrus and a sour mandarin, with complex notes of lemon, grapefruit and mandarin while Sudachi is a citrus with a lime flavour and peppery, herbal undertones. The other botanicals, Juniper, Coriander and Bay, are a simple, more traditional collection of gin botanicals to balance with the Asian-inspired flavours.

Paired with a good quality tonic water, this craft gin creates a divine G&T, make a Japanese Tom Collins with yuzu juice in place of lemon for a herbaceous, citrusy long drink.

Ingredients: Dorset-grown Shiso, Fresh Yuzu and Sudachi, Juniper, Coriander and Bay

Sansho Spiced Rum - 5cl

A combination of unique Japanese flavours presented like never before on the base of a superb quality, refined English rum made with 100% sugar cane molasses. Sansho is delicious in its own right, but also enhances the accompanying flavours of ume plum, soy and black sugar. The smoky soy and sesame provide light oak & tobacco flavours typically found in an aged rum, whilst the sansho berries offer a mouth-watering peppery citrus which is complemented by the rich Christmas cake sweetness from the base rum and Okinawan sugar. The rum is rich with treacly layers of sour citrus, rich umami and tingling spice which linger on the palate for a sublime finish.

Distilled from scratch in England, this is a rarity among English rums and a sure sign of quality. English Spirit were the first to make rum in Britain, back in 2012 - they are undoubtedly the leaders in the field in Britain

Sansho Berries have been used in Japan to season food for thousands of years. They have a citrus flavour with a warm pepper finish and an incredible tongue-tingling sensation. A natural flavour enhancer, they stimulate the taste receptors in the brain, increasing the flavour and aromas of foods in general. Okinawan Sugar has intense, complex flavours of molasses, smoke and spice with a bitterness that balances the sweetness. Togarashi Shichimi is a traditional blend of seven Japanese spices, noted for its depth of flavour and warm, slow-burning heat. Umeboshi are pickled Japanese apricots (often referred to as plums) with an overall sour flavour that increases as they ripen. Our Smoked Soy Sauce is infused with the smoke of cherry wood, it has a powerful smoky umami flavour. White Sesame paste adds rich roasted nutty notes.

Sip over ice for an indulgent nightcap. The deep flavours are delicious when paired with a sweet ginger beer or quality cola. It will work in any spiced rum cocktail, adding bold complex flavour.

Ingredients: Sansho Berries, Okinawan Sugar, Togarashi Shichimi, Umeboshi, Smoked Soy Sauce (soybeans, wheat), White Sesame

For allergens, see ingredients in bold.

Yuzucello - 5cl

This yuzu liqueur brings a zesty explosion of fresh mandarin, grapefruit, lemon and lime, with a citrus zing that is balanced with light sugar sweetness. Mouth-watering citrus juice on the nose, with gentle citrus acidity and tingling charisma, followed by a final hit of sweetness and lasting zestiness. This is an innovative approach to citrus. Far more refined than a limoncello, it is zesty and juicy but with all the subtlety of the yuzu fruit preserved. Every part of the yuzu is used to capture as wide a range of the complex flavour as possible.

Known as the 'Queen of Citrus’ in Japan, yuzu is a cross between a wild citrus and a sour mandarin. It originated, and grows wild, in central China and Tibet. Yuzu delivers a famously aromatic and complex blend of citrus with notes of mandarin, grapefruit and lemon; every part of the fruit is used to capture as wide a range of complex yuzu flavours as possible.

The liqueur starts life as a typically smooth, copper pot distilled potato vodka. This base spirit is distilled separately, and then expertly combined with whole yuzu puree. The yuzu is supplemented with fresh lemons to ensure a balanced range of citrus flavour and acidity. Sugar is added, as is customary with liqueurs: this boosts the natural sweetness and highlights the fresh fruit flavours.

Yuzucello is distinct from limoncello, traditionally limoncello is made exclusively with lemon zest (no juice or pith), macerated in high-strength alcohol for 4-5 days, then filtered, diluted and sugar added. By contrast, our aim here is to preserve the complex flavour of the whole yuzu fruit, while still producing a highly flavourful product that speaks for itself. It has the two typical hallmarks of a liqueur: it has more sugar and less alcohol than the spirit it started as.

Perfect as an aperitif or digestif, particularly on a balmy summer evening. For a longer drink, simply add soda water and ice; for a sophisticated spritz, it can be combined with prosecco, champagne or any other fizzy white wine.

Ingredients: Fresh Yuzu, Fresh Lemon

To dive deeper into the Spirit of Japan range, download our SPIRIT OF JAPAN BROCHURE

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