Whiskeylust : Nikka Yoichi 10 Year

A friend of mine passed this bottle along to me as he was moving away from Japan. A pretty good friend, I’d say. This is the old Yoichi 10- I’ve not had the 2023 restart so I won’t be comparing the two. But I did have a bottle of the No Age Statement version for …

Whiskeylust : Suntory Kakubin 43

One post into 2024 and I’m already late. Really starting off the new year on the right foot. But even though I’m a little late, I am starting with the exact bottle I wanted so that makes this whole thing a wash. Toward the end of 2023 I found the higher proof version of Suntory’s …

Showdown : Budget Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon

I’ve got a couple solid Bottled-in-Bond bourbons open and on my bar right now, so you know what that means … SHOWDOWN! I already have separate review posts about both of these bourbons on my blog so I won’t be going into a full review nor giving tasting notes on them neat here. You can …

Whiskeylust : The Chita

The Chita was my reintroduction to Japanese whisky a couple years before I moved back to Japan. A buzzed stop at a conbini ended with a small bottle of Chita in my bag for my nightcap. I was duly impressed and had been wanting to pick this up again to properly sip on it for …

Browsing Botanicals : Brass Lion Singapore Dry

I knew my time in Singapore was short and busy so I set out immediately to find a good gin for my stay here. Instantly realized that booze delivery is easy and quick here, so I jumped online and while searching for other gins, came across a locally made dry gin, which made the decision …

Whiskeylust : Dewar’s Caribbean Smooth

I've long enjoyed Dewar's White Label over some crushed ice. It's nothing special necessarily, but it's an easy going, enjoyable blended scotch with just enough oomph to keep things interesting while I focus on whatever else is going on in my life at the time. I'm also digging the "new" reverse on aging spirits. The …

Whiskeylust : Nikka Coffey Malt Whisky

The further my tastes drift away from Scotch the closer they get to the shores of Japanese Whisky. I find that odd since Japanese Whisky was created to somewhat imitate Scotch, yet here I am. I think the Japanese really captured the essence of what I initially enjoyed about Scotch without all the other junk …

Showdown : Canned Suntory Highballs!

Highballs are great. They're refreshing, tasty without being complex, and extremely simple to make. So what's better than throwing together a quick highball? Buying a pre-made canned one, of course. My boozy memories of Japan are many, but one that has always stuck with me is just how much the Japanese people seems to love …

Whiskeylust: Nikka Yoichi

Today's bottle o' booze comes with quite a bit of background for me and I won't apologize for any nostalgia that creeps into this post. This bottle of Nikka Yoichi was one of the very first spirits I purchased for enjoyment purposes (prior, spirits were about getting college-kid-smashed). While living in Japan, I was a …

Rum’sploration : Ron Varadero Añejo Reserva

I hope everyone enjoyed last week's gin interloper, but back to rum this week with a Cuban rum I picked up on our trip to Bangkok earlier this year. I went out searching for a couple specific bottles but didn't have time to do a proper hunt and not wanting to leave empty handed, I …