Daichi Takahashi

My first cocktail, ‘Bridging,’ expresses a bridge between Japanese sustainable elements that have been used for hundreds of years and modern cocktails.

This is also a bridge from the first cocktail to the second. The story of the second cocktail involves not only my bar but also neighborhood bars, restaurants and local industries.

This time, I focused on the concept of “social capital”, when I thought about sustainability. Social capital is, to put it simply, human relationships and social structures based on trust or responsibility. Social capital is one of the concepts used to build sustainable communities. There is a limit to building a sustainable society with just my own bar. With this in mind, I worked with two restaurants to create the ingredients for this cocktail. It is important to utilize social capital to build a sustainable community and solve problems with the community all together. Sustainable cocktail recipes often use, for example, fair-trade products, zero-waste ingredients, locally sourced ingredients, and recycled waste. Of course paying attention to those materials is important. However, bars have to be places that can contribute towards a more sustainable society.

 
The Millennium Cordial brings 1000 years of history into the cocktail. In Japan, there is a tree called ‘Jindai Sugi’. Jindai Sugi is a cedar that was buried in the ground by landslides or volcanic eruptions over 1,000 years ago. Most of these Jindai Sugi were dug up by chance during land development or river construction. Jindai means, ‘one has been sleeping since the age of the gods.’ Today in Japan, Jindai Sugi is used for musical instruments, furniture and crafts. One of my bartender friends is an acquaintance of a Jindai cedar craftsman. With his help, I acquired the shavings that come out of making crafts. These are shavings that would have been discarded. I transformed it into aromatic distilled water. Distilled water is inferior to distilled liquor in terms of preservability, so I changed it to a cordial to preserve the quality. For the sour part, I applied the theory of super juice, which is being adopted in the field of mixology. The strength of super juice is that I can juice a whole fruit using juice, peel, citric acid and water, depending on the acidity of the fruit. The Millennium cordial complements Hennessy XO’s rich flavor profile and gives it an impressive aroma and taste.

 
The second is Spice & Fat Washed Hennessy. A Spanish restaurant run by a friend of mine serves jamon serrano. Jamon serrano has a problem of discarding the fat part that cannot be served. So we worked with him to effectively use this fat that would be thrown away. I applied a fat washing technique in which I infused the fat of jamon serrano, chili and black pepper into Hennessy Very Special. This liquid has umami, saltiness and spiciness. Spiced and Fat Washed Hennessy adds a unique accent to the cocktail and leaves a lasting impression very different from the first cocktail.

The second cocktail is a bridge from the first, so I pour the second cocktail into the Masu used for the first. Hennessy X.O has a long rich history. It connects the past, present, and future. 1000 years from now is 3023. What kind of cocktails will people drink after 1000 years? Will the various cocktails we drink now be called classics? My cocktail 3023 captures the scent of 1000 years ago and the taste that can be experienced now. I also hope that it will be sustainable into the future.