KI NO TEA Kyoto Dry Gin 700ml

KI NO TEA Kyoto Dry Gin comes from The Kyoto Distillery, founded in 2014 by Noriko Kakuda Croll, David Croll, and Marcin Miller as Japan's first dedicated craft gin distillery. Based in Kameoka in Kyoto Prefecture, the distillery runs on renewable electricity from wind, water, solar, and geothermal sources. KI NO TEA, released in 2017, is a tea-focused expression built from the same house style as the distillery's flagship KI NO BI gin, created in collaboration with Hori-Shichimeien, a tea grower and blender founded in 1879 during the Meiji era and based in Uji, the celebrated tea-growing region south of Kyoto.

The gin starts from a base of rice spirit and draws its heart from premium Uji teas, specifically tencha and gyokuro, harvested from Hori-Shichimeien's Okunoyama tea garden, a plot with origins tracing back to the 1300s. These teas are blended with a secret botanical recipe developed specifically for this expression, likely drawing on the same local ingredients that define the distillery's other gins, such as yuzu and Japanese peppercorn. Each botanical is macerated and distilled separately before the resulting distillates are blended and rested, and the finished spirit is proofed down using water from the Fushimi region, long prized in Japan for its purity and delicacy in brewing.

The nose is sweet and delicate, with a hint of white chocolate meeting classic juniper. On the palate, that juniper gives way to the refreshing, faintly bitter character of green tea, layered with subtle sweetness and a touch of spice from the surrounding botanicals. The finish is smooth and lingers, closing with the distinct flavor of roasted green tea rather than the citrus or floral notes typical of most gins.