Nashi pear is the botanical that sets this bottling apart from the rest of the Japanese shelf. Matsui Shuzo distils it at the Kurayoshi Distillery in Tottori Prefecture as part of a thirteen-botanical recipe that also carries cherry blossom, yuzu, gyokuro tea, sansho pepper and orange peel, then proofs the result with groundwater from Mount Daisen. At 47% ABV it has the strength to keep all of that legible rather than letting the softer ingredients disappear.

Citrus and blossom lead the aroma, yuzu bright and slightly bitter, cherry blossom pale and delicate behind it. The pear is what follows, and it is unmistakable: sweet, watery and clean, closer to fresh fruit than to anything cooked or candied. Gyokuro lays a green tannic floor beneath the fruit, black pepper and sansho supply two different kinds of heat - one direct, one tingling and numbing - and coriander seed ties the citrus to the spice. The palate moves from bright to sweet to spiced without any of the three cancelling the others out, and the Daisen water shows in a texture that stays soft even at this strength.

That balance makes it genuinely comfortable both neat and mixed. Sipped at room temperature the pear and tea come forward; over ice, the pepper sharpens. With tonic, keep it neutral and pour generously, because 47% wants dilution and the fruit holds up well to it. Yuzu peel is the obvious garnish and a thin slice of pear the more interesting one, though it needs to be ripe to register at all. Thirteen botanicals is a lot to keep in order, and that the pear survives all of them intact is the best argument for the recipe. It closes long and layered, sansho prickling under the fruit after the citrus has faded.