I went to Snowy Hokkaido Just to Try Nikka Distillery Whisky!

Do you know who the father of Japanese whiskey is? His name is Masataka Taketsuru and he is the founder of Japan's top quality whiskey, Nikka. And it's all made right here in the town of Yoichi at the Nikka Distillery. So let's head to the distillery because it's really cold outside and let's see what Nikka Whiskey is all about. Before we go, don't forget to subscribe for more Japan adventures. Let's go! Yoichi is a town located on the northernmost island of Hokkaido in Japan. The town's natural environment with cold winters and sea breezes contributes to the distinct character of the whiskies produced here at the Yoichi Distillery. Taketsuru studied the art of whiskey making in Scotland in 1918. So with the support of his Scottish wife, Rita, who he met in Scotland, they founded Nikka Whiskey in 1934. The distillery is right here, so let's go inside and learn all about the incredible Nikka Whiskey. Welcome to Nikka Whiskey Distillery! Thank you so much! Nice to meet you! Nice to meet you too! Okay, let's go check out the facilities here. Let's go! Oh my goodness! This is a really comfortable chair. I don't know if I'm worthy to be sitting in this chair, but I do feel very honored. Good to go! Let's go! Alright, let's go! We're going to see how the barrels are made. Konnichiwa! This is a 450-liter barrel, and we're going to bake the inside of it. Oh, wow! How many kilograms is this? This one is about 120 kilograms. If you come closer, you can smell a really strong aroma. Oh, wow! It smells extremely strong. I feel like I'm breathing in alcohol. It's that strong. We're going to bake it now, but we've used it three times, so it's lost a lot of its aging ability. We're going to re-bake it to activate it. Oh, so you can use it again after that? Yes, it'll be back to about 70% again. The aroma of the whisky that I smelled earlier has reduced a lot. After burning it with that enormous fire, it actually doesn't have that strong alcohol smell anymore. Can you see me? It doesn't have that strong alcohol smell anymore. It smells kind of sweet, like honey. And I guess the more it sits, the more honey-like it gets. So now that they've cleaned it out by burning the heck out of it, they're going to put the bottom of the barrel back on. So now that the barrel is back on, it's not going to leak. They use totally natural materials like they did in the old days, and it doesn't leak. It's incredible craftsmanship. Alright, so next we're going to go to the distilling room and see how the whisky is actually distilled. Oh, you can see the fire inside! Take a look! I think that's really, really a beautiful thing. And I love how Scottish whisky has blended with some Japanese values as well. And that's displayed right here. Beautiful! We are here now at Restaurant Rita's Kitchen. This is a restaurant right next to the restaurant where Rita's Kitchen is located. And as I mentioned earlier, Taketsuru was married to a Scottish lady named Rita. So that's who it's named after. They actually got married in 1920 in Scotland, and then they came back to Japan to establish a whisky industry here. And Rita's support and their relationship was considered a vital part in developing the whisky industry that we know now today in Hokkaido. So this restaurant was made in homage to Rita and her original recipes, because she also loved to cook. And apparently, you can try some of her original recipes inside. So I can't wait to try them. Let's go inside! And that must be Rita Cohen herself! The mother of Japanese whisky, I would like to call her. So at this restaurant, they have a lot of Rita's original recipes. So let's see what kind of recipes she serves here. This looks like a traditional Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner plate. It looks very home-cooked. I think I'm gonna have to get one of these to try one of her original recipes. And this one looks really awesome. It's a Hokkaido pork that's been cooked in Nikka apple cider, because this factory used to make apple cider and apple juice as well back in the day. So let's try the Nikka cider pork as well. These recipes are supposed to be enjoyed with a glass of Nikka whisky, of course. I'm gonna get the Crane's Bouquet. So it is basically a takitsuru pure malt base whisky with ginger ale and grenadine syrup. Cheers to Rita! That is super good! Even if you're not a big whisky drinker, like you find that the alcohol is too strong, I think this is probably the perfect balance of being able to get a real taste of the whisky. You get that like smoky fragrance from the whisky, but you also get this wonderful sweet fruity syrup. This is a pot still or it's made to look like a pot still, which is used to distill liquors like whisky or brandy. Let's open it up and see what's inside. Apparently it has actually been smoked in smoke that has been made with the wood chips that they use to fire the whisky. This is a cracker sandwich with smoked cream cheese inside and it seems to have some shiokara inside. Shiokara is basically squid innards or fish innards, which sounds unappetizing maybe, but it's a very common drinking snack in Japan and this is a whisky distillery. So I think Rita's combined a variety of Japanese recipes and classic Scottish recipes. Let's see how it tastes. That is smokiness to a level you've never experienced before. You wouldn't notice the shiokara really at all. It just adds a little bit of a almost smoked salmony kind of taste to it. Here is Rita's home recipe, her very own recipe for roast chicken. I cannot wait to dig in. So fragrant. The herbs that they use, that she uses in this chicken, really fragrant. It's so good. It's so flavorful. All right, now it's time to try the pork spare rib that has been simmered and stewed for a very long time in Nikka apple cider. Oh, whoa, that is super, super good. The meat is really juicy and because it's been stewed in the apple cider, it has this wonderful appley sweet taste. Crispy garlic is a really nice touch. It's just sweet and tender, super juicy. This is definitely a must try. We are now inside of the Nikka Whiskey Museum. It's a gorgeous museum and here they have a tasting bar where you can actually try real Nikka whiskey that has been made right here at the distillery. So it's now tasting time, but I want to know the difference between these two. All right, let's give it a try. It smells delicious. It smells really sweet. I'm just gonna take a small sip to really savor the flavor. There we go. Cheers. I am really surprised at how sweet it is. Sweet and kind of like a, like a sweet syrup. It's got a high amount of alcohol, but it's still really easy to drink. So now I want to try this really high-end whiskey that's been around for a long time, apparently. We're gonna try Tsuru. It's actually not as strong. My goodness, it's so smooth. This one is a lot less thick, probably because it's blended. So it's a little bit more liquidy, but it still has a very smooth, subtle woodsy flavor, but not overly sweet. It's so different to see the difference between a single cask and a blend, and also taste the difference. So tastings here at this bar are a lot of fun if you're a whiskey fan. I learned so much today, and this was so much fun. Thank you. This was such an amazing experience, and I felt so much history visiting the Nikka Distillery here today. It's amazing that some of the buildings are still standing since the 1930s. If you guys ever want to try some incredible whiskeys, this is the place to do it. You can learn so much. You can taste whiskeys that you cannot taste anywhere else. So definitely come check this place out. But I'm gonna go to one last place today where you can also try some really amazing Nikka whiskey. I have arrived now in Otaru City, and I'm at a popular drinking alley called Denuki Koji, and it was designed to look like colonial Hokkaido. It's home to around 20 food shops and bars, and it's a very popular place to drink. So my next stop is actually going to be a bar right inside. So let's go inside Denuki Koji. Here we are now at Nikka Bar Rita, and yes, you guessed it, this is a bar that's dedicated in homage to Rita Cohen, Taketsuru's wife, and her role in creating Japanese whiskey. And this is a very popular bar for whiskey lovers to come enjoy whiskey, and I think I'd like to go inside and enjoy a drink and maybe give a toast to Rita herself. Let's go inside! There are three types of single malt in Japan. There's the one that's aged in a different barrel, which is called woody and vanillic, and there's the peaky and salty. It's a bit unique to Japanese whiskey. If you want to enjoy the aroma, you can mix the water and whiskey in a 1-to-1 ratio and enjoy the aroma. If you like to drink it cold, you can add ice. This is our single malt, woody and vanillic. This is the peaky and salty. And this is our smoky flavor. It's made with edamame, walnuts, octopus, and scallops. Wow! But first, before we eat, let's start with the drinks. So this is the woody and vanillic single malt yoichi. Cheers to Rita! Oh, that's smooth and smoky. And I can taste the vanilla flavor. It is really as it's described, woody and vanilla-y. Now I'd like to try the peaty and salty single malt yoichi whiskey. This one is a very unique flavor, so I want to really make sure that I can savor it. So that's why I got it as a whiskey and water. So let's give it a try. I'm not an expert taster of whiskey by any means, but you do get this wonderful, smoky, woody taste. But it's just a lot more subtle and gentle. This is definitely a whole new world for whiskey lovers. The fact that you can try all of these types of whiskeys here, this is a lot of fun. But it's even more fun to be able to taste it with some snacks. I've never had a smoked scallop before, so let's give it a taste. Wow, that's really, really good. It's very meaty, and it also has a little bit of a taste like smoked cheese. Goes so well with the drink. Man, smoky and smoky. It's so interesting how food pairings can change how you can enjoy your drinks. So there you have it. They have an incredibly wide array of Nikko whiskeys here. So if you're a whiskey lover, this is definitely the place for you to come. But if you thought we were done here, we're not. Because I'm actually going to fly back to Tokyo. And I'm going to check out a bar in Tokyo that serves Nikko whiskey for those of you guys who can't fly all the way out to Hokkaido. So I'll see you guys in Tokyo. All right, I am back in Tokyo. That was such a fun trip, but I'm actually not done yet. I'm in the stylish area of the city called Omotesando. And I hear that there's a really, really cool whiskey bar in this area that I need to check out. So let's go take a look and try one last drink in the city and have a bite to eat. Whoa, here it is. This is Tokyo Whiskey Library. Look at this incredible entrance. Such a great atmosphere. This is a really popular and stylish whiskey bar here in Omotesando. And apparently they have over a thousand types of whiskey. And they also do whiskey and food pairings, which I think is going to be super awesome. But I'm here to try their Nikko whiskey in particular. So let's go take a look inside. Hello, my name is Yoshihiro Onaka, and I am a bartender at Tokyo Whiskey Library. Today, I'm going to show you some carpaccio made from fresh fish. And I'm also going to show you a cocktail made from single malt from Nikko Whiskey, called Yonashi. It's an original Miyagi-Kyo Orchard Cooler cocktail. Today, I'm going to show you the main grill dish, US Prime Beef Barbeque Steak. And I'm going to show you how to pair it with Yoichi's half-rock cocktail, which is a mix of water and whiskey. Thank you for waiting. This is the Miyagi-Kyo Orchard Cooler cocktail, paired with Yonashi. There's fresh pear in here. I've never had a whiskey and pear pairing before, so I'm excited to try this. Oh my goodness, that is beautiful. The flavors are dancing in my mouth. And what I love about it is you can really taste the whiskey. There's nothing covering up the whiskey whatsoever. But the pear is so gently sweet. It really balances out the flavors. It even brings out some of the flavors of the whiskey. All right, let's give this carpaccio a try. That is so delicious. It's got this wonderful herbal aromatic flavor, floral accents, and a little bit of this subtle citrusy taste in the back. And of course, the sashimi is so light and almost a little bit juicy. It's really, really good. Let's pair it together. Oh, that's so good every time. That really hits. I think it's the slight hint of citrus and fruitiness from the pear that goes so well with the lemony oil on top. And also the floral hints, they all balance so beautifully. I'm actually blown away by how beautiful this is. It actually has little rainbow crystals in this beautiful ice and in this gorgeous glass. Very interesting. I think this is my first time having a half rock whiskey. I've only had, I think, on the rocks or with water. It is just easy enough to drink. So you can still enjoy those really beautiful notes of the whiskey while it being just smooth and cold. This looks amazing. Let's give it a try and then we'll see how it matches with the Yoichi whiskey. Oh my goodness. That is so flavorful. I think it's a very beautiful way of cooking the meat. It's just kind of medium rare enough. You can get a little bit of that truly meaty flavor. And the creamy white wine sauce in the back, it just adds this layer of creaminess. They all balance together so beautifully. They're still sitting on my tongue. So I think this is the right time to have a little sip of whiskey to go with it. That is super good. With each bite and all of the flavors in the dish, it does bring out more qualities of the whiskey. And you can really feel more of that smoky flavor in the whiskey now. It just adds extra smokiness to this thick, chewy cut of beef. This dish is absolutely amazing. But if you're a true whiskey lover, you might also want to try their Whiskey Flight. And they also change up what's available on the flight monthly. So definitely come check this place out if you guys are ever in Tokyo in Omotesando. This trip has been so much fun. I really, really had an amazing time in Yoichi and Otaru getting to check out the Yoichi Distillery where all of the whiskey magic happens. I get to see how whiskey is made. Try it right there on the spot and even check out the Rita Bar. And then of course to come back to Tokyo and discover where you can enjoy some of the best whiskeys in the city. Anyway, this is all for my trip today. And if you guys enjoyed it, please don't forget to like, comment, share, and subscribe. And let me know in the comments down below what you guys liked most about my trip and what you guys want to try. I'm going to finish off my delicious food and my drinks. And I'll see you guys in another video. Thanks so much. Bye. Cheers.