The Nessie on Our Counter: A Story Connecting Scotland and Peat

2026.10.05

In short: the Nessie-shaped bottle on the counter at Bar Little Happiness in Hiroshima came home from a 2018 visit to the Loch Ness Centre — and Loch Ness itself is dark as tea because of peat, the same peat that shapes Scotch whisky.

“Is it because it’s the Year of the Snake?”

This year, so many guests asked me that when they saw “this little one” sitting in a corner of the counter.

Only a little of 2025 remains.

It may look like a symbol of the zodiac handing over its baton, but in fact its home is far away — Loch Ness in Scotland.

A few years ago, on a trip around the holy lands of whisky, I stopped at the Loch Ness Centre.

I fell in love with it at first sight and brought it home — a precious fragment of my travel memories.

■ Where science and romance meet

When I visited in October 2018, the centre was far more “serious” about Nessie than I had imagined.

Inside, the results of large-scale sonar surveys, water-quality data and analyses of eyewitness accounts were displayed calmly and in great detail.

The passion of the Scottish people, who don’t dismiss it as “just a legend,” and their somehow earnest approach to investigating it left a strong impression on me.

And what overwhelmed me most was the shop attached to it.

Nessie soft toys were sold literally “piled high,” as if filling every shelf.

Surrounded by Nessies of every size and expression, agonising over which one to take home is a happy memory now.

■ A “pitch-black loch” coloured by peat

Seen in person, the water of Loch Ness was astonishingly “pitch-black.”

Rainwater flowing in from the surrounding mountains passes through layers of peat — the symbol of Scotland — so the loch is a deep amber, like strong black tea or a well-matured whisky.

The peat content is so high that just a few metres below the surface it is a dark world with zero visibility, where no light reaches.

“Maybe something really is lurking at the bottom of this deep peat…”

The mysterious air of Loch Ness that stirs people’s imagination like that somehow resembles whisky maturing, waiting for change in silence for decades.

■ Putting travel memories on the counter

It happens to sit there looking like a lucky charm for 2025’s zodiac animal, the “snake,” but its true identity is a legendary Scottish creature.

It is like a little guardian at the Little Happiness counter, watching over the amber liquid with our guests.

Every time I glance at it, the peat-coloured surface of the loch and the cool Scottish wind come vividly back to me.

2025 is down to its last few days.

Tonight too, thinking of the scenery of faraway Scotland, I’ll have a quiet amber hour ready and waiting for you all. 🌙

Every encounter is meant to be. Welcome to the world of Rum&Whisky.

Mika Tanimoto, Bar Little Happiness