Five different citrus fruits share this bottle, which is unusual even by Japanese standards. SAKURAO Brewery and Distillery works in Hiroshima with mikan, the Japanese mandarin, alongside yuzu, lemon, daidai bitter orange and sweet summer orange, then sets them against juniper, hinoki cypress, green tea, red perilla and ginger. Production combines steeping and vapour distillation, two methods that suit different botanicals, and the gin is bottled at 47% ABV.

The citrus does not read as one note. Mikan leads, sweet and round in the way a mandarin is, while daidai supplies a firm bitterness underneath and yuzu adds its perfumed, slightly sharp edge above. Lemon and summer orange fill the gaps between them, and the effect is a citrus spectrum with genuine range instead of a single fruit repeated. Hinoki is the counterweight, a clean resinous woodiness that keeps the fruit anchored, while red perilla adds a savoury, slightly camphorous edge that is rare in any gin and rarer still beside this much citrus. Green tea works underneath as a soft astringency rather than a flavour, and ginger warms the last third. At 47% every layer projects clearly, and none of the five fruits gets lost behind the others.

The strength invites dilution, so build it long. A plain tonic over a well-iced glass lets the individual citrus fruits stay separable, which is the whole interest of the recipe; a sweet or flavoured mixer collapses them into one. Mandarin or orange peel is the garnish that follows the mikan most directly, and a shiso leaf pushes the savoury side forward if that is the direction you want. Soda works well too. It ends citric, lightly woody and warm, the ginger and hinoki lasting after the fruit.