The water is the ingredient nobody lists, and in Fushimi it is the reason a whole industry settled there. Kyoto's sake district was built on that soft, low-mineral water, and The Kyoto Distillery cuts this limited edition with it, over a rice spirit base and botanicals gathered in and around the city.

Soft water matters because it does not interfere. Hard water carries minerals that push against delicate aromatics, whereas Fushimi water lets the lighter material through unaltered, and this recipe has a great deal of light material to protect. Yellow yuzu leads the citrus, more floral and more complex than lemon, with lemon itself alongside for a straighter sharpness. Akamatsu, Japanese red pine, adds a resinous note that runs parallel to the juniper without duplicating it. Green sansho and kinome come from the same tree, the peppercorn bringing a tingling citric heat and the young leaves a fresher green version of it. Gyokuro tea contributes shade-grown tannin and a savoury depth, bamboo leaf a dry grassiness, shiso its distinctive minty basil character, ginger a warm bite, and orris root ties the assembly together from underneath. The botanicals are sorted into six groups and distilled apart before blending.

Delicacy on this scale is easily wasted. A plain tonic with a fine bead, poured gently over plenty of ice, and no more of it than the gin can carry. Yuzu peel is the ideal garnish where you can get it and lemon peel the practical substitute; leave the sweetened mixers alone entirely. Neat and lightly chilled is where the tea and the pine separate most clearly. Limited editions from this house are variations on an established style rather than departures from it. It ends citric, green and precise.