Yozakura

We're getting closer to cherry blossom season both in Japan and here in the States, and I wanted to create a cocktail that enveloped the concept of cherry blossoms. This project started last year in December and ended up being quite the endeavor.

A lot of cherry blossom cocktails involve the use of cherry liqueurs or maybe a dried cherry blossom flower as a garnish to try and emulate the "feeling" of the sakura season, rather than having it taste like it. However, the taste never ends up being anywhere close to what cherry blossoms taste like, so I was on my own for this one. Luckily, I had specialty ingredients at my disposal that would become the foundation for this cocktail.

Mancino Sakura Vermouth is the brainchild of Giancarlo Mancino, who creates specialty and quality vermouths in Piedmont, Italy. He only makes 4,000 Sakura vermouth bottles a year and because of this, it's not only expensive for a vermouth but also quite hard to get your hands on it. I bought a couple bottles at an end-of-year sale at Umami Mart up in the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland. Made by infusing Italian white wine with 20 botanicals, first and foremost are cherry blossoms from Kyoto. This tastes magnificent on its own or in highball form, and it's an integral part of this cocktail.

Suntory Kanade Sakura is a pure cherry blossom liqueur made with 100% domestically sourced Japanese ingredients, and while not very expensive, it's currently only available in Japan. Their infusion method creates a liqueur that fully encompasses not just the cherry blossom flavor but also its color. This will be important as it's an important factor in making our cocktail not only taste like cherry blossoms but also LOOK like it too.

Finally, we have sakura bitters from The Japanese Bitters to round out the cherry blossom taste. These are thankfully available in the US (but much cheaper in Japan).

For our liquor base, I originally started with 1.5 oz of Roku gin but found the botanical taste of the gin a little too strong, as well as the alcohol content. I then moved to a triple split of gin, sakura vermouth, and Daiyame imo shochu, which felt much more appropriate and took away some of the burn while still keeping the cocktail nice and strong. Daiyame shochu is made with sweet potato and is unique among shochus: it has a lychee aroma, yet taste nothing like lychee. However, my first few iterations all felt off. The sakura taste felt too strong, so I dialed it back by reducing the amount of Kanade Sakura liqueur. I had added Cocchi Americano as I liked the taste of it on its own, but combined with Sakura vermouth, it made the wine flavor too overpowering, so I ended up removing it.

Afterwards, it became too sweet. While I added some maraschino liqueur, that and the Kanade Sakura shouldn't have been enough to make the sweetness overpowering. I couldn't cut back on the amount of Kanade Sakura used without giving up much of the pink color, and I didn't want to have to infuse hibiscus leaves in it to force pink back into it. I decided instead to balance out the sweetness with just a hint of acidity from a bit of yuzu juice, and it created the right balance I had been looking for. All told, I must've made like ten versions of this cocktail before finally settling on one I was happy with. The word yozakura (夜桜) refers to watching cherry blossoms at night, and I think this cocktail perfectly encapsulates an evening drink during the cherry blossom season. Enjoy!

• ¾ oz Roku gin

• ¾ oz Daiyame imo shochu

• ¾ oz Mancino sakura vermouth

• ½ oz Suntory Kanade sakura liqueur

• 1 bar spoon maraschino liqueur

• 1 bar spoon yuzu juice

• 5 drops sakura bitters