Sampling the Sublime Libations of Japanese Cocktail Maestros
When it comes to restaurants, Japan is known for specialization and obsessive honing of skills . As I found out, this extends to cocktails as well.
Kyoto
Google maps offered a number of craft cocktail bars in Kyoto, but the unabashed praise of the drinks in the reviews of Apotheca caught my eye. Hidden away on the fourth floor of a commercial building, there is no sign even outside the fourth floor entrance, so one must take a leap of faith and walk through the door opposite the elevator.
Renown for its quality among the Tokyo cognoscenti (according to fellow imbibers), it doesn’t specialize in particular ingredients, but (apparently) in stemware, which is superb.
Of course, stemware is no substitute for cocktail quality, but Apotheca has this in spades, as well as a true speakeasy atmosphere.
There is no menu, which in my experience doesn’t bode well (it may not be because the staff are too lazy to develop and refresh a menu — or it might be). But Apotheca does have signature drinks that the bartender can select from based on your tastes.
On a Sunday evening there was only four other people, a great ratio for the two bartenders working there. One of them spoke some English, but not enough for a real conversation. The two signature drinks that he suggested — a tequila hibiscus drink with cola syrup and bitters, and a gin based one with green tea and muddled grapes were awesome
On the other hand, when I foolishly asked for a drink “off-menu, ” despite the ingredients looking really cool, the result was rather mediocre, once again reaffirming that asking for creations on the spot, even in best bars, is a dicey proposition.
This place draws an elite cocktail crowd. While everyone I talked to (over the course of a couple hours) had been American, they were all well-traveled and well-versed in craft cocktail establishments across the world. And they all agreed Apotheca is one of the best bars they’ve ever visited.
If you are reading this sitting in the US, it's gonna be tough to replicate these Japanese creations . In the mean time, check out Shaker and Spoon
I had their subscription for a year and was impressed with all the recipes and supplies they provide. It’s a great way to get familiar with a range of spirits and different types of cocktails. Every month is devoted to a different spirit and the kit comes with supplies for three different cocktails for 4. The supplies include tons of craft bitters and tonics — sometimes even Japanese ingredients like toasted sesame tincture — to open up your horizons. Sadly, spirits are sold separately.
Tokyo
The fellow patrons I chatted up in Apotheca had all previously visited Tokyo and guided me to the best spots there (given the myriad options Tokyo offers, with my limited time, I’d otherwise be shooting in the dark).
The penchant for specialization was even more evident here than Apotheca (to be fair, the two places below have the same owner, so it’s hard to say if it is generally true for craft cocktail places in Japan):
Memento mori — all things cacao
Now you might not think that it would be possible to create a stunning 10 page menu of drinks containing cacao beans from whole cloth, but you would be wrong.
Like Apotheca, this place is also hard to find, but not in a hidden speakeasy way. Instead, it turned out to be on the third floor of a office high-rise, so that google maps was utterly useless, nor was there a directory. I had to — gasp — ask for directions.
Decked out in a haute cuisine style with baroque decor, you might at first think you arrived at some sort of Indonesian shop of curiosities
Like a Michelin star restaurant, Memento Mori (and Folklore below!) offers tasting menus of varying lengths. A rarity, it’s only possible because the drinks are generally lighter than in US. Opting for the shortest course of three, I tried
- Cacao fizz — light but beautifully complex, with fresh cacao bean flavor, mustard seed, coconut milk, and passion fruit in a glorious medley. The pod it is served in gives continuous cacao aroma; spectacular!
- a light and smooth cocktail, fruity, but rather simple after the first one
- a sampling of inhouse cacao infusions. Interestingly, these are made with the leaves of the cacao tree — not the beans themselves, imparting a strong flavor of cacao and yielding an unexpectedly dry, lightly bitter drink
Folklore -- Sake and Soju
Folklore is owned by the same company as Memento Mori (which, in fact, operates at least six bars in Tokyo). But whereas the former had an exotic, colonial? vibe, Folklore is aggressively Japanese, starting with its focus on sake and soju cocktails. The bartender opined that it is indeed very rare even in Japan to make sake and soju cocktails. Unusually, both bartenders women!
The 1st cocktail here knocked it out of the park — sake with a bit of white port, a coffee ice cube (!), vanilla, and a hint of jasmine, yielding an exquisite, subtle flavor. Light and small — it leaves you wanting more
The second drink — “Moss” — was excellent, light and herbaceous, with flavors of parsley and eucalyptus!
As I sat at Memento Mori wistfully browsing their drink menu and the rows of bottled infusions on the shelf, I was filled with melancholy that this doesn’t exist in California, and I will never try these other glorious creations. Perhaps the hardest thing about fast travel is that even if you find a great place, you rarely get a second chance to do it right.
