A friend who's returning soon from Japan has offered to pick me up some stuff from the liquor stores there. I'll ask him to get the Hermes bitters and possibly the Hermes Creme de Violette if he can find them, but now I'm eager to know if there's anything else I should ask for, ie. anything that's available in Japan, rare elsewhere, and something that I as a cocktail aficionado should covet (even if I don't know about it yet)? I just don't want to miss out on any possible golden opportunities. For instance, what else do we know Suntory to produce under the Hermes label?I'm not so much looking for traditional Japanese hooch like sake, shochu or umeshu (which is amazingly good, by the way) as for cocktail ingredients in a western style, that just happen to be exclusive to Japan. That being said, products like green tea liqueur or sakura liqueur (which I'm only vaguely aware that it exists) could also be of interest.Incidentally, does anyone know how common the Hermes bitters and Creme de Violette are in the Japanese stores? Are they readily available, or only carried in the few most well-stocked liquor stores?
I had a hard time finding the Suntory orange bitters in Tokyo.I must admit I never called around I just went to a lot of places as I walked around over a three week period.I did find two great dutch orange bitters that I brought back. These bitters have traveled!
My favorite bar finds were the mixing glass and stir sticks used in many of the bars there, and some great spherical ice cube molds of different sizes.
Could you tell me, where the bitters that you found commonplace in liquor stores, or should one expect for them to be difficult to find? And to be clear, are we still talking about cocktail bitters (as opposed to digestif or Campari-style bitters)?
Also, do they have Angostura over there? I'm just asking because my friend isn't really familiar with bitters, and I figure Angostura could be a good reference point for asking the staff if they carry anything similar.
Hermes bitters were discontinued about a year ago. None of my contacts in Japan have been able to find them in 2009 in stores. Hopefully they will start making them again someday.
Without question, the Hermes Violet. A couple of years ago I house sat for some friends of mine who went to Tokyo, and were foolish enough to ask if I wanted them to bring anything back, and I got a bottle of the Violet and their orange bitters. The orange bitters are excellent, but hardly imperative as there are already so many good options available in the US. The violet, however, is in my opinion better than anything else currently available here.
Here's one liquor store to check out:
http://www.bento.com/rev/0622.html
Take a look at the right hand side of the picture, third shelf up. Those little brown containers with the green stripe label? That's Chartreuse Elixir de Vegetal. Not available in the US, and absolutely lovely stuff. I got one a bottle from a friend who went to France last year, and was also foolish enough to ask me if I wanted her to bring anything back. If that's all you end up getting, it's still a good score. Just forewarn your friends to be prepared to have their baggage searched. The packaging is a small bottle in a milled wood case, which looks suspiciously like a grenade when it goes through the airport X-ray.
Holy crap.
Does he want to bring back cases of Japanese whisky? Ha. Man, I do love that stuff.
Liberty Bar :: Seattle, WA :: Alcohology