A “First Step” to Bring Luck in the New Year: New Year’s Day with Scotland’s “First Footing”
2026.10.05
In short: a New Year 2026 greeting from Bar Little Happiness in Hiroshima, inspired by Scotland’s “First Footing” — the first visitor of the year bringing whisky for good luck. Our “first bottle” of the year: Single Malt Sakurao Sherry Cask from Hiroshima, with its official tasting notes.
Happy New Year.
How are you spending the start of 2026?
On New Year’s Day in Japan, it is traditional to drink otoso (spiced sake) and pray for a year of good health — but look around the world, and Scotland, the home of whisky, has a lovely New Year custom too.
It is called “First Footing.”
According to this tradition, your fortune for the year depends on who is the first to step over your threshold after the New Year begins — the “First Foot.”
In particular, if a tall, dark-haired man appears carrying “a certain something,” the household is said to be blessed with a wonderful year.
The best-known “something” is a bottle of whisky.
For the people of Scotland, whisky is not just a drink — it is “the water of life” and a symbol of shared joy.
Someone who turns up on New Year’s Day with whisky is warmly welcomed in any home as a “messenger of good luck.”
Besides whisky, the traditional style is to bring “coal to warm the house” and “black bun so the family never goes hungry.”
Each carries the wish: “May this home stay warm and prosperous all year round.”
As for me…
sadly, I have no plans to visit anyone’s home as a “messenger” handing out luck (laughs),
but in the spirit of this custom, I chose a “first bottle” to wish you all good fortune.
It is “Single Malt Sakurao SHERRY CASK” from Sakurao Distillery, here in Hiroshima.
This bottle has grown more complex and more refined with every batch since the first!
If you once tried it and thought, “Maybe it’s not for me,” I especially hope you will taste today’s Sakurao again. A bottle where you can feel that evolution.
Official tasting comments
- Colour: deep amber with a rich reddish tinge
- Nose: raisin and cacao aromas rising gently
- Palate: fruity flavours reminiscent of dark cherry and orange, in harmony with a faint peat aroma
- Finish: a deep finish of bitter sweetness and woody aromas
May the new year be as deep and wonderful for all of you as a well-matured whisky or rum.
And in 2026, Little Happiness finally enters its 20th-anniversary year!
To mark the milestone, we are planning to release our own private-bottled rum and whisky.
We are preparing them as bottles that carry good luck to you, so when they are released, please do pick one up.
This year too, I wish you plenty of “good fortune” and “encounters with the rum and whisky that suit you.”
Every encounter is meant to be. Welcome to the world of Rum&Whisky.
[About the author]
Mika Tanimoto
CEO, Little.m Inc. / Owner-bartender
Since 2006, I have run Bar Little Happiness, a whisky and rum bar in Nagarekawa, Hiroshima. I visit distilleries in Japan and around the world and write about the people who make the spirits. Recipient of the Hiroshima City Excellent Skilled Worker Award.
“Whisky and rum taste even better when you know the hearts of the people who make them.”
[Visit the bar] 📍 Bar Little Happiness
Rolling Nagarekawa 1F, 5-14 Nagarekawa-cho, Naka-ku, Hiroshima
Mon–Sat 7:00 pm – 12:30 am / Sun 7:00 pm – 12:00 am (closed when I travel to visit distilleries)
No cover charge, no reservation needed
