Volcanic rock does the filtering here before any botanical is even weighed. Tenjaku draws its base water from the Mount Fuji basin, where it passes through volcanic strata, and builds on it a distilled gin of more than ten botanicals at 43% ABV. Peaches from Yamanashi Prefecture join yuzu, sansho pepper, green tea, angelica root and cassia bark. The distillery was named Japanese Distillery of the Year 2022, and the gin scored 93 points at the New York International Spirits Competition.

Fresh citrus arrives first and stays clean rather than sharp, yuzu doing most of the talking with orange peel filling in around it. The peach is the surprise, and it behaves like peach juice rather than like a sweetener: soft, round, faintly floral, settling across the centre of the tongue where it takes the hard edges off the spice. Green tea supplies a light tannic grip, cassia bark adds a thin warm line, and sansho closes with its dry prickle. Angelica keeps the base from turning simply fruity. The mouth is smooth and quite gentle, the spice mild rather than assertive. The water is more than a detail here: having passed through volcanic strata, it leaves a clean, soft-edged base that suits a recipe built on restraint rather than force.

The gentleness is the thing to protect when mixing. A neutral tonic and a moderate pour let the peach and tea stay audible; anything sweet buries them immediately. Fill the glass properly, keep it tall, and finish with a single twist of yuzu peel or lemon and nothing else competing for room. Soda suits it very well, and the gin is pleasant enough neat and well chilled to be worth trying that way before anything else. It ends soft, citric and lightly spiced, with peach lingering behind the pepper.