The rise of Japanese whisky: three Hong Kong bartenders’ favourite drops and the secrets to its growing cachet

No longer lumped with an exotic outsider image, Japanese whisky is giving Scotland some stiff competition.

This year, Japanese whiskies won three honours in the World Whiskies Awards: world’s best single cask single malt, world’s best blended, and world's best grain, to add to the many other prizes the country’s whisky has snagged since 2001.

Masahiko Endo, the bartender-owner of Mizunara: The Library, in Hong Kong’s Wan Chai entertainment district, says his guests have various reasons for specifying Japanese whisky, even in cocktails.

Hong Kong’s Japanese bartenders talk about ice and the hard shake

“I feel some of them are chasing a trend or trying to understand what Japanese whisky is. But the others have an obvious preference and idea about the taste and character of Japanese whisky,” he says.

While the spirit is processed in the Scottish style in pot stills, regional climatic dynamics shape its taste.

“Japan has four seasons and big diversity of temperature,” Endo says. “That means casks used for whisky are breathing, meaning expanding and shrinking, a lot more than Scotland. Therefore, maturation is going faster – maybe that’s one of the reasons Japanese whisky is so smooth and mild.”

Generally, Japanese whisky has a rounder taste than Scotch, he says. This, he explains, stems from a passion for quality. Its distinctive character originates from the blending and experimentation it undergoes.