Hello, I am Sugikawa, a YASO distiller.
Winter is in full swing here in Joetsu, with the intention of snowing deep into the ground.

This time about the February 2022 Limited.
This month, the release date is February 9, unlike usual. Please be careful.
...and those with good intuition may have noticed when I tell you this.

The February Limited is a gin of cacao, the ingredient of chocolate.

Yes, February 14 is Valentine's Day.
The Limited 02 Cacao, which was released a little earlier this time, just in time for Valentine's Day, is
This gin makes the perfect gift for a loved one, dinner, or an evening drink.

Although it is not well known, chocolate is actually a fermented food.
The harmony of wildflowers and fermented cacao makes this a gin like no other.

However, this limited cacao is actually a gin that was a bit more difficult to prototype.

Deciding to make a cacao gin for Valentine's Day in February, we first experimented to see how we could express the aroma of cacao in a gin.

Several varieties of cacao are obtained in the fruit state, soaked in the bean state, crushed and distilled, soaked, peeled and crushed...
After much trial and error, we found that to distill in YASO's base, it is easier to release the aroma when the peels are peeled and crushed to the point of becoming a paste, so we adopted coin-shaped cacao mass.

The next step is to select the cacao variety.

In fact, there are many different varieties of cacao, each with its own aroma, taste, and production volume.
YASO SPRITS, the base of YASO GIN, is a spirit scented with wildflowers.
If the fermented smell of cacao is too much for this base, the balance is not right.
Therefore, we sought cacao with high aroma and less fermentation smell that comes out after distillation,
The distillation manager, Mr. Umeda, obtained a delicious chocolate variety from Patisserie Olalanti in Takada, Joetsu City, which was the "Arriba" variety used in this project.

The Arriba (Nacional) variety, a rare endemic variety grown in Ecuador, an equatorial country, is characterized by its powerful aroma and gorgeous aftertaste.
The aroma of mellow cacao that fills the mouth even before you put it in, and the powerful aroma that spreads after you put it in your mouth, with a good balance of bitterness and sourness,
The breed was unanimously agreed upon: "We want to make this chocolate into a gin."

For distillation, only the cacao is distilled separately in order to extract only the good aroma of the cacao, and the head and tail are cut off while checking the taste and aroma.
The process up to this point was more difficult than expected to obtain the cacao aroma, and there were many twists and turns.

Limited 02 Cacao is delicious straight or on the rocks, but when mixed with carbonated water, the aroma opens up and the cacao flavor is even more pronounced.
The unsweetened soda is a perfect accompaniment to a meal.
For a more chocolatey taste, try mixing it with tonic water or adding a little syrup to the soda.
The result is a gently sweetened, chocolatey cocktail.

The release date is February 9.
Enjoy.