From this year, April 1st has been designated as "Japanese Whiskey Day".
When it comes to whiskey, Scotch, Irish, American, and Canadian are the most famous, and Japanese whiskey is added to them, making it one of the five major whiskey producing regions in the world.
Whiskey has been produced since the 12th century, so it is historically new compared to beer, which originated in ancient Mesopotamia, and sake, which was first produced in the 6th century.
It wasn't until the 20th century, less than 100 years ago, that Masataka Taketsuru, who learned to make whisky in Scotland, started making whisky in Japan.
It wasn't until I became a college student that I started drinking alcohol in earnest, and I used to drink beer and whiskey.
When I was still living in Beppu, Oita Prefecture, I worked part-time at Takasaki Mountain, famous for its Japanese monkeys, and when I came home, I would drink Suntory Kakubin with Kirin lemon.
After graduating from university and becoming an office worker, I continued to drink Kakubin at home, and I remember one day I counted the empty bottles in the closet in my room and found about 30 of them.
Most of the time I drank Suntory Old or Reserve outside, but later Jack Daniels became my favorite.
I drink it on the rocks, and I don't remember drinking it with water or soda.
It wasn't until about 20 years ago, when I was on a business trip to Miyazaki, that I had a chance to drink malt whisky at a bar I stopped by, and the master of the bar gave me a delicious single malt whisky to try.
Sake tastes best when it is fresh. That's why sake breweries hang cedar balls in front of their eaves to show that new sake is ready.
On the other hand, when whiskey is slowly laid down in barrels, the clear, colorless liquid turns amber and grows into whiskey.
That's why the material of the barrel and the place where it is laid down are important, and the environment makes a difference in the flavor and taste.
Some Scotch whisky has a tidal scent because the brewery faces the sea, which allows the scent of the sea to permeate the whisky through the barrels.
It takes a long time for a clear raw spirit to mature and become whiskey.
8 years or 12 years is written on the bottle label, which means that even the youngest whisky is blended with whisky that has been aged for 8 or 12 years.
So if there is a sudden whiskey boom, there will be a shortage of undiluted whiskey and prices will rise.
Many of you may know that Nikka stands for Dainippon Fruit Juice (Nikka), which is a remnant of the company's efforts to survive by selling apple juice and other products during the several years it took to ship the whiskey.
When I was in my 40s, I was not drinking in an elegant way, but just to get drunk. When I think about it now, I used to drink in a completely stupid way every night.
Recently, I've been watching dramas on Netflix while drinking a little watered-down whiskey at home.
The most famous alcoholic beverage in the Philippines is San Miguel beer, but the locals often drink Emperador during celebrations and other occasions.
Emperador is called a brandy, but it is made from sugar cane, not grapes.
The Filipino style is to drink in turns. Rather than taking their time to drink, they drink it while having a good time.
Unfortunately, whiskey is not produced in the Philippines, so we have to rely on imported products, but everything imported is expensive in the Philippines.
It seems that after moving to a new country, it is not possible to drink whiskey casually.
