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When it comes to the world of booze, Japanese whisky is still a bit of a mystery to many whiskey drinkers. The lesser known of the whiskey elites, Japanese whisky is made in a style reminiscent of Scotch whisky. This is thanks to the similar climate and techniques, though, in general, Japanese whiskies are less peated and more delicate than Scotch whiskies.
“There are also 120 distilleries in Scotland as opposed to eight in Japan,” adds Wesley MacDonald, owner of Caña Bar and Kitchen in Curaçao. “Both make grain whiskies and malt whiskies, however in Japan one distillery makes a variety of styles of malt whiskies and in Scotland the style is connected to the distillery and location.”
Perhaps the main difference between Japanese whisky and Scotch whisky in 2020 is the fear of the unknown. If you’re the type of person who finds something they enjoy and sticks with it, it’s difficult to branch out and try something new. This is the case with many whiskey (or whisky) drinkers. They already enjoy their favorite bourbons, ryes, or Scotches. Why would they buy a bottle of potentially expensive Japanese whisky and risk ending up unhappy with the purchase?
Lucky for these folks, we have experts on call who are more than eager to help us figure out which Japanese whiskies to try. We asked some of our favorite bartenders tell us the Japanese whiskies they wish more people knew about. Check out their picks below.
Hakushu 18
Hayden Miller, head bartender at Bodega Taqueria y Tequila in Miami
Hakushu 18 from Suntory is one of my ultimate pours of Japanese single malt. The lovely earthy flavors coming from the terroir surrounding the distillery are so distinct while you sip it. I prefer it neat or with a large whisky cube.
Hibiki Harmony
Matt Shields, bartender at The Bay Restaurant in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida
Hibiki Harmony. Of course, it’s owned by Jim Beam (Beam Suntory), so I’m not sure if I can call it “lesser-known.” But I didn’t find that out until I tasted it and it stood out to me. I loved the light color and almost smoky after taste. I had to look it up and what do you know? It’s a Beam product (sort of). Go figure.
Kaiyo
Blake Jones, bartender and director of beverage at The Kennedy in Pensacola, Florida
If I was picking a lesser known Japanese whisky, I’d say Kaiyo. They do some great stuff with barrel finishing and I’m a sucker for that. It’s a super smooth product that wouldn’t break the bank.
Ichiro’s Malt
Danielle Becker, bartender at the Aspen Meadows Resort in Aspen, Colorado
First off, let me start by saying that anything made by Ichiro Akuto is my favorite. He is a genius when it comes to creating something new in whisky (a hard thing to accomplish). He ages whisky in beer casks, works in limited release, and innovated the entire industry in Japan. He has an intuition regarding the spirit, he’s an artist!
I’m currently obsessed with Ichiro’s malt, malt & grain whisky. It is a blend of whiskey/whisky from Scotland, Canada, Ireland US, and Japan. They all age in their respective countries then Ichiro blends them together to age in Japan. It’s so crazy and tasty.
Hakushu 12
Freddy Concepcion Ucan Tuz, bartender at JW Marriott in Cancun, Mexico
Hakushu 12-Year-old whisky. The surroundings and how the whisky is crafted in the mountains — just two and a half hours away from Tokyo — make it stand out. Melted snow is used in the process of distilling the whisky and the casks are made of Japanese wood, which gives the whisky a smoky and sweet flavor.
It’s great to drink straight, as it’s very well crafted. Sadly, it’s not as well-known as other famous and high producing distilleries.
Suntory Toki
Wesley MacDonald, owner of Caña Bar and Kitchen in Curaçao
Due to less aged stock among others, Japanese whisky tends to be more expensive, especially single malt, making it more difficult to name a favorite, as trying the best will cost you the most. Start with more economical blended whiskies and move up to single malts. Single grain whiskies are well made and tasty, though very light and more suited for highballs.
One of the best whiskies for a highball is Toki. This very smooth, blended whisky is perfect to drink on its own as well.
Nikka
Juyoung Kang, lead bartender at The Dorsey in Las Vegas
Nikka, they make a great line of whiskies with different styles and techniques, but everyone still goes hunting for Yamazaki 12 Year or Hibiki. Almost everything Suntory makes seems to be an instant success and as a result of that success, sometimes hard to find, but Nikka is a great alternative.
Suntory has been in the Japanese whisky game as long as Suntory but Nikka just really knows how to make whisky.
Writer’s Picks:
Ohishi
Ohishi is made in the style of Scotch whisky, but its made with malted and un-malted rice instead of the usual barley. The result is a much sweeter whisky, with hints of cinnamon and cloves. They up the ante by aging some of the varieties in sherry and brandy casks.
Kikori
This is the kind of Japanese whisky serious Scotch drinkers should seek out. It’s reasonably priced at around $50 per bottle and full of flavors of vanilla, coconut milk, and tropical fruits with a subtly spicy finish.
Earlier this week, Steven Victor, the manager of the late Pop Smoke, revealed in a statement that over the next year unreleased records would be shared in order to “build Pop Smoke’s legacy.” Victor also added that announcements regarding music projects and his foundation would be made in partnership with his estate. While new music from Pop Smoke has yet to arrive through his estate, fans of the late Brooklyn rapper have been granted the opportunity to hear his voice once again thanks to his placements on new albums by Nav and Lil Tjay.
Beginning with Nav, Pop Smoke returns the collaboration favor on their track, “Run It Up.” The song lands on Nav’s third album, Good Intentions and follows their “Wolves” track off the deluxe version of Pop Smoke’s Meet The Woo 2. Aside from the Pop Smoke feature, Good Intentions is an 18-track effort led by “Turks” that sports guest appearances from Young Thug, Lil Uzi Vert, Future, Don Toliver, and more.
As for Lil Tjay, Pop Smoke also returns the collaboration favor for the South Bronx rapper after the two connected on “Mannequin,” also from Meet The Woo 2. Appearing on Tjay’s State Of Emergency project, the track finds the two New York-bred artists join forces on “Zoo York” which also contains an appearance from fellow New Yorker Fivio Foreign. A shorter project compared to Nav’s album, Tjay delivers a 7-track project with help from Jay Critch, J.I. The Prince Of NY, and more. Lil Tjay also honored Pop Smoke following his death with his “Forever Pop.”
Press play on the videos above to hear Pop Smoke’s latest songs.
Good Intentions is out now via XO and Republic. Get it here.
State Of Emergency is out now via Columbia. Get it here.
Following his comeback single and its accompanying album Changes, Justin Bieber has spent 2020 sporadically sharing videos from the album. Switching things up a bit, Bieber caused quite the commotion after he said he has a “special announcement” in store for later in the week. Ariana Grande added to the announcement by teasing her own involvement in the effort. Keeping to that promise, Bieber and Grande revealed that the special announcement was a collaboration, “Stuck With U.” Since the announcement, Bieber has been sharing videos of fans enjoying the moment together with their fellow loved ones after he made the song’s instrumental available in order for his fans to be part of its promotion.
In the announcement, Bieber revealed that “proceeds from the sales and streams of #StuckwithU will fund grants and scholarships for children of first responders who have been impacted by COVID-19.” The effort comes with help from SB Projects and Universal Music Group in partnership with First Responders Children’s Foundation. Labeling the song as “the prom song for everyone who can’t go to prom now,” the new track celebrates spending time with your loved ones as it incorporates the videos they received from fans into the song’s official music video. Showcasing their own quarantine habits, Ariana gets cozy with her dog while Bieber enjoys time with his wife. The song marks the second time the two have collaborated with the first being Grande’s remix of Bieber’s “What Do You Mean.”
Watch the video above to hear “Stuck With U.”
Read our review of Bieber’s Changes here.
Kehlani’s sophomore album, It Was Good Until It Wasn’t, has been a long time coming. However, in the midst of that wait, the Oakland-born singing made sure fans did not feel the wait of her forthcoming project. From her 2019 EP While We Wait to the many singles she shared since 2017’s SweetSexySavage, which include “Valentine’s Day,” “All Me,” “Toxic,” and “Everybody’s Business,” Kehlani has continued to work on It Was Good Until It Wasn’t while keeping her fans more than satisfied in the progress. Now that the album has arrived, one of its most anticipated tracks has emerged as an early favorite.
Supplying our ears with a much-needed west coast connection, Kehlani and Jhene Aiko joined forces on “Change Your Life.” The song serves as the first collaboration between the R&B stars who both call California home. On the track, Kehlani and Jhene look to convince their love interest to allow them to be apart of their life. Citing no issues with their current lifestyles, Kehlani and Jhene aim to only improve their love interest’s days and nights.
The track and the album arrived after Kehlani was accused of colorism by fellow west coast rapper Kamaiyah after Kehlani removed her verse from her “All Me” single.
It Was Good Until It Wasn’t is out now via Atlantic Records. Get it here.
Press play on “Change Your Life” here.
Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
While Future and Young Thug have been heavyweights on the southern rap scene for years now, Moneybagg Yo has taken his position as a notable talent on the Memphis scene over the last year. His Time Served album from January is only proof of the improvement portrayed in his career. Uniting as one on their latest track, Young Thug, Future, and Moneybagg Yo connect on “Blue Jean Bandit.”
Flowing over production from TM88 and Southside, Young Thug, Future, and Moneybagg Yo each grace the track with a verse of their own, while Young Thug places an eccentric hook in between each verse. The song originally surfaced last year and on the original version, Young Thug was the lone vocal artist on the track which still featured production from TM88 and Southside.
The track arrives days after Moneybagg Yo announced a deluxe version of Time Served would arrive next week May 15. Future and Young Thug recently shared space on a song as they both appeared on Drake’s “D4L” off his Dark Lane Demo Tapes project. Future and Young Thug have also shared releases of their own with Future joining Lil Baby and RMR for “Dealer (Remix)” while Young Thug connected with Chris Brown for their Slime And B project.
Press play on the video above to hear “Blue Jean Bandit.”
After 17 seasons, Restaurant Wars is still Top Chef‘s signature challenge. This year, after covering the series for years, I had the chance to actually attend it. Okay, so “this year” is a bit of a misnomer, considering it was filmed last October, but that’s TV magic, baby! Finally, I’d gone Hollywood.
I arrived to The Row, a cluster of new restaurants, in Downtown LA, in early afternoon. Being LA in October, it was a hot, sunny day and still felt basically like summer — already I was sweating through my “upscale casual” button-up and knew I’d have to wear my jacket over it to avoid being photographed with giant pit stains. There was a line of people waiting to check-in at a tent, and eventually I was led to a table in a little cafe where I met my tablemates for the day.
Media events like these are always a little awkward because you usually get seated in a group of strangers. To make matters worse, we would be eating family-style, which I have enough trouble with when dining with actual family. Family style is a challenge for us prodigious eaters, who have to weigh the opportunity to sample more food against the constant low-level shame of worrying about eating too much and looking like a rude pig.
“Do you want the last one? Do you? Oh okay then, if no one’s going to I’ll just take it.”
Luckily there was free-flowing alcohol. My group was seated in Kann, which six months later I now understand was Chef Gregory Gourdet’s Haitian food concept. Our first “course” was a signature cocktail — soursop with guava and a rum floater. It basically had two flavors, pure rum and pure guava. That is, the second half tasted like pure guava, but that could’ve been because of all the straight rum at the top. Critique worthy from the judges, maybe, but it was exactly what you want when seated awkwardly amongst strangers — something strong. I was happy.
Our waiter turned out to none other than Shenanigans, aka Chef Brian Malarkey, who I recognized at the time, but not quite the way I would now after having watched him for half a season. My personal experience of Malarkey was… well, mostly exactly what you see on television. He’s one of those people whose personality you can tell is “a lot” from 30 or 40 feet away, whose atoms seem to swirl at a higher speed than everyone around him. He puts your fight-or-flight censors into standby mode.
Malarkey was dressed, as usual, like a flamboyant stretched out leprechaun, in clear round wrist beads, disconcertingly high high-water pants, and a straw boater hat. He makes an almost unnerving amount of contact when he talks — both eye and hand. That being said, he was so cheerful and nice that I couldn’t help but like the guy. He seems like he’d be hard to live with but fun to have a drink with. Which is to say, an ideal party host.
Things were moving slowly, but again, free booze. Eventually, the judges took their seats at a long table a few tables away from ours. Gail was seated next to a handsome man with his shirt unbuttoned dangerously far down his torso. “Must be European,” I thought. A member of the staff set a bowl of pickly, kimchi-type stuff at the table. It was sitting atop a cafeteria-style tray and no one told us what it was or what we should do with it, so we were a little unclear on whether it was a dish or garnish. It was sort of like salsa with no chips. Naturally, we tried it anyway, cautiously. It was very spicy. Sort of like… salsa with no chips. There should be a German word for getting exactly what you expected and thinking “…I don’t know what I expected.”
We found a hair in the kimchi stuff (pickliz, we know now) but we were a few drinks in by that point and didn’t especially care. Eventually, someone else returned to take the tray from underneath the pickliz. Tray rescinded! No tray for you!
After about 45 minutes, the appetizers finally appeared. Fried plantains, twice-cooked pork, salt cod patties (basically like an empanada), and a salad with a habanero dressing and lots of crispy stuff. They say hunger is the ultimate spice, but I think this all would’ve hit just as much even if I hadn’t been 45-minutes-worth-of-drinks-with-strangers hungry. The salad was full of delicious small crispy things and the toughest thing about it was knowing that it probably isn’t socially acceptable to tilt the plate up in the air and pour them down my gullet. Salt cod probably wouldn’t have been my first choice of patty filling, but it worked.
Afterward, Malarkey came over to apologize for the wait, putting a hand on my back and telling us it was because we got stuck behind the judges. But the entrees are coming and anyway, we’re on island time! Again, he talks more loudly and directly and touchily than most of us are probably used to, but it kind of works. He puts you just a little off-guard, forcing you to lower your defenses and chill out.
It was another decently long wait for the entrees, but worth it when they arrived. We got a whole snapper in a broth with veg on top, and a braised chicken thigh, with some rice and a bean sauce. Once again no one really told us how to eat this stuff, but the beans and rice being sides seemed like a safe bet. Chicken thighs are one of my favorite foods in the world while whole fried fish at restaurants — no matter how cool it looks when it comes out — is always dry. This meal flipped the script. I went for seconds on the snapper (is snapper the best fish? discuss). As for the chicken I jotted down “not bad, but honestly, I do better chicken thighs than this.”
Seeing the menu I can now surmise that the fish being so good probably had something to do with it being roasted rather than fried (one of the few situations I don’t prefer the fried thing). As for the chicken, the judges on the show loved it. Maybe it was over braised by the time it got to us? Or just overshadowed by the fish? It was fine, just not a showstopper.
We got to the dessert, a pineapple upside-down cake with a fruit salad, ice cream, and caramel sauce on top. Tom will say it “eats a little sweet” on the show, but as I’d always suspected, this is an insane criticism for a dessert. It was perfect. I’m not a really a cake person, but it turns out if you remove all the sickly-sweet frosting and add butter crisp, they’re wonderful. I jotted down “Why aren’t all cakes upside down? New rule: no more right-side-up cakes.”
We luxuriated in the meal for a few minutes, by this point pretty chummy all around. I don’t want to wax overly philosophical about food (and booze) but a good meal always seems to have this effect. You were strangers before the food came and you’ll probably be strangers again tomorrow, but for now, in the glow of a full stomach, you’re just like old friends. Remember that snapper? Yeah, that was great.
A small camera crew stopped just after the dessert. They guided us a bit, basically having us recreate the conversation we’d just had about the dessert. Eventually, I’ll make my Bravo debut as the slightly unkempt-looking guy who says “I could eat like five of these.”
Are you proud of me now, Papa?
As they shot us discussing our extravagant meal, out of the corner of my eye I noticed the boom guy loudly munching on some Pringles. Quite an image. I can’t imagine having to shoot so many loving close-ups of gourmet food without being able to eat any of it, though I had sort of the same problem as a waiter. At least there I could occasional sneak unfinished food off plates on the way back to the kitchen.
After dessert, the publicist took us behind the scenes where some of the rest of the crew (152 in total, I’m told, presumably good union jobs) were humming about, doing various other things. We got to stroll through the “food porn” room, a giant lightbox for shooting the food closeups.
By the time it was all over we’d been there about three hours. Under normal circumstances, I’d say that’s about twice as long as I’d ever want to devote to lunch. But we had good food, good drinks, and a flamboyant whimsical elf man assuring us that we were on “Island Time.” Believe it or not, this actually worked. It really did feel like the kind of chilled out long lunch you’d have on a tropical vacation — somewhere you just sit and listen to the waves crash, not worried about your sightseeing schedule.
Aside from the valuable experience seeing the show I’d been covering for years from close up, I came away impressed. The food was great, almost without exception, the concept communicated clearly and casually, and the experience was relaxed and enjoyable. Overall it was a restaurant I’d almost certainly come back to (assuming it wasn’t hot and trendy and there wasn’t a huge wait — my personal opinion is that no one should wait more than an hour or so for anything). Even without eating anything from or seeing the other restaurant, I would’ve bet my whole paycheck that Kann had won Restaurant Wars.
Did I gain any special insight? Other than that the food was mostly about as good as it looked, not really. I’ve seen how the reality show sausage is made thanks to past jobs and internships (that I probably signed an NDA for) and I’ve been a video editor, so I know the kind of manipulation that’s possible. Nothing here struck me as especially manipulated.
And maybe that’s why Top Chef has lasted 17 seasons. Food content is about as evergreen as it gets and the producers seem to play it pretty straight (I stopped watching Kitchen Nightmares as soon as I realized the “resolution” always took exactly five minutes after the final commercial break). If there’s no room for spontaneity, that’s when a show is truly dead, reality, cooking, or otherwise.
All in all, it was a pleasant dining experience six months ago. Enjoyable but nothing to hold onto, other than a brush with mid-level television fame. Thinking back on it from my desk six weeks into quarantine, it’s much more precious. A small slice of the kind of life I desperately hope we can get back to.
Vince Mancini is on Twitter. Read more of his cooking commentary and mom jokes in UPROXX’s Cooking Battles. For past Top Chef Power Rankings, go here.