Ki No Bi Sei Kyoto Dry Gin

A powerful and exotic Japanese Dry Gin with a wonderful array of botanicals to delight your G&T.

The vast majority of distilleries in Japan are multi-purpose affair — distilling a variety of Spirits. Founded in 2015 by Marcin Miller and David Croll, The Kyoto Distillery is the first distillery in Japan dedicated to the production of Gin. David and Marcin started by importing Single malt Whisky from Scotland and exporting Japanese Spirits to the rest of the world. They were successful and built upon that experience to recreate a craft Gin experience in Japan. They now have a range of ten Gin varieties that must be tasted by all.

We got to admit that when we first saw the Ki No Bi line of Gins we immediately thought about Obiwan Kenobi from Star Wars. But this fine Spirt has nothing to do with the Force and it IS the Gin you’re looking for.

Ki No Bi Sei Kyoto Dry Gin is essentially the same, excruciatingly precise Ki No Bi Dry Gin that is their signature Spirit. That means eleven local botanicals infused in six different steps to optimize each flavor independently in time and temperature. Juniper, orris, and hinoki first. Then yuzu and lemon. Green tea gets it own singular infusion, and so does ginger. Then comes red shiso leaves and bamboo. The last infusion is sanshō pepper and kinome. But while the regular Ki No Bi Dry Gin is bottled at 45.7% ABV, Ki No Bi Sei is bottled at 54.5% ABV.

Smartass Corner:
Roughly, Ki No Bo Sei translates as “Spirit of the Sun Nature.” “Hindi” is a Japanese variety of cypress, and red shiso is an exotic variety of mint.