Gin with a “heart of sake”
This must be spirits marketers’ Newspeak. Or how can a liquid have a heart? With exactly those words Diageo on 27 May 2013 announced the winner of their bartender competition Show Your Spirit 2013 launched earlier this year. It’s a “Japanese” gin called Jinzu – pronounced, I guess “ginzu”. Geddit?
Dee Davies from the Hyde & Co bar in Bristol, UK, is the lucky winner out of several hundred entrants. Her original idea was to distil the gin from Sake, a Japanese rice wine.
But once she was at Diageo’s Global Technical Innovation Centre for the final round of the competition, where she was teamed up with one of Diageo’s own New Product Development people, it was decided that the spirit would work better if made from distilled gin to which some distilled sake has been added. Hence the “heart of sake”.
UK reports said that some Japanese inspired botanicals such as cherry blossom and Yuzu lemon were also thrown in together with more traditional gin botanicals.
While at Diageo’s centre, the contestants received some help in creating a name, bottle design and story board for their spirit.
Jinzu will officially be launched at Diageo’s World Class Global Final in early July and will join Diageo’s Reserve portfolio of brands, which includes brands like Tanqueray No. TEN gin and Johnnie Walker Blue Label whisky.
Having won the competition, Ms Davies’ creation will be marketed worldwide by Diageo. In return, she will receive 5 percent of the net sales over the first five years with a further 5 percent going to a bartender initiatives fund.
