In 2021 Roku Gin, a relatively new product for the Italian market, launches for the first time in Italy a 360° communication campaign that revolves around the seasons of Japan. The claim is simple, clear, direct: “Alive with the seasons of Japan”, because Roku is made “with” and “by” seasons of Japan in every drop.
It takes 1 whole year to obtain the 6 Japanese botanicals that distinguish it, which are collected in the "Shun”, i.e. the moment of maximum flowering. In spring the flowers and flowers are collected Sakura leaves. In summer is collected Sencha tea and the Gyokuro tea, in fall Sansho pepper is harvested and in winter Yuzu is harvested. The best of each season, harvested, infused and distilled. What does Roku tell us? That Nature is alive. That the gift of every season is precious. He tells us that “Shun” you can “capture”, “feel”, and that in the moment of sharing, every Roku Drinker can get closer to his own”Shun”.
Roku is the Suntory tradition projected into the modern era. This gin, in fact, contains the soul of the first Japanese gin presented on the market. It was the 1936 when a young man Shinjiro Torii, founder of Suntory, She said "One day, gin made in Japan will be loved around the world”, presenting Hermes Gin. Hermes was an uncompromising, English-style gin, based on 8 very classic botanicals for the production of a good gin.
THE master distiller of Suntory, creating Roku in 2017, wanted to give new life to Shinjiro Torii's gin, making use of the elements that Japanese nature makes available. The mission was to enhance the original recipe, without distorting it, amplifying the intrinsic characteristics, which Gin Hermes already expressed in 1936. Roku, the ideogram printed on the bottle, means 6, like the hand-picked Japanese botanicals present in the gin.
Each botanical, harvested during the shun, represents a season and the four seasons of the year represent the unbreakable bond between Roku and Japanese nature. The shun it is that specific moment of the year in which an element of nature expresses its maximum characteristics, and this specific moment is sometimes contained in a few days.
Such are the flowers and leaves of the Sakura, the famous and colorful Japanese cherry tree, which, harvested in just two weeks a year, represent the spring, giving Roku its satisfying floral aroma. These two botanicals are distilled in a steel still and under vacuum, with the cold distillation technique. This technique allows the very delicate characteristics of Sakura to be kept unaltered. Sakura was chosen to amplify the floral notes already present in the original recipe, given by the use of coriander seeds.
L'fall is represented by sansho pepper, a very particular pepper that is harvested and distilled fresh. This, unlike what you might imagine, gives a citrus and delicately pungent spiciness to Roku Gin.
L'winter it is citrus fruit season in Japan too, and to represent it, yuzu, a typical Japanese citrus fruit with an intoxicating scent, is used. This botanical is distilled in a discontinuous copper still and only the heart of the distillation is used, where the greatest concentration of aromatic oils is present. Sansho pepper and yuzu were chosen to amplify the citrus notes that Torii gave to Hermes gin by using bitter orange and lemon peels.
Finally thesummer is represented by green tea. Two types of tea are used: the Sencha tea and the Gyokuro tea, which give their best harvest during the summer, said Summer Flush. It is precisely during the summer season that the long sunny days lead to the plant of Camellia sinensis, the tea plant, the greatest supply of chlorophyll. These two teas give the herbaceous and slightly bitter note noticeable on the finish. The choice to use tea was made to give strength to the slightly bitter and spicy notes that Torii had identified using cinnamon, cardamom and angelica. The juniper obviously remains at the center of the scene, precisely to highlight the heritage of which Roku is the son.
