Japanese gin taking off

Gin Sour Ginon grapefruit

Brand: Asahi Beverage

Price: 150 yen

Place of purchase: Belx Supermarket

Rating:

Asahi is well known for its drinks, and especially for their standard-priced beer. In 2024, Asahi takes a stab at the gin market in an effort to appeal to beer drinkers. The Gin Sour Ginon comes in grapefruit and lemon flavors. This time I tried the former. The drink is labeled as both spirits and happoshu and is 7% alcohol like many ready-to-drink shochu highballs in the shops. The domestically distilled gin appears to be flavored with grapefruit steeped in alcohol. The drink does not have added sugar.

If you're after a shochu highball with a domestic gin base, this is for you. It's priced about the same as shochu highballs, or chuhais. It has a delicate gin quality which works well with citrus. In this case, grapefruit steeped in the gin. There's a growing interest in gin and a proliferation of craft gin distilleries in Japan. At cocktail bars, you see all kinds of regional versions with characteristic Japanese flavorings and exotic ones, too. The drink is meant to appeal to beer drinkers. That would be me. This is pretty good. I wouldn't mind a lower alcohol ersion, though.