Delivering Hiroshima’s Summer to Bars Across Japan: A Seasonal Letter from Sakurao

2026.10.05

In short: Every summer, Sakurao Distillery in Hiroshima sends a seasonal gift to bars across Japan. In 2025 it was a Japanese-style lemon cake made with Hiroshima confectioner Takagi and Sakurao White Herbs Gin. I reflect on how Sakurao carries Hiroshima’s culture outward to counters nationwide.

Every year around this time, the people of Sakurao Distillery send sweets
to “the bars across Japan that always support us,”
as a seasonal greeting.

But it is different from an ordinary summer gift.

It is a summer letter with real meaning,
filled with the “feelings” cherished by the land of Hiroshima and the Sakurao brand.

This Year: “Takagi × Sakurao White Herbs”

This year’s collaboration was between “Takagi,” a long-established Japanese confectioner representing Hiroshima,
and Sakurao’s “White Herbs Gin.”

It was a Japanese-style lemon cake, with White Herbs kneaded into the dough and almond paste, and baked with Hiroshima lemon peel.

With a soft, chewy texture a bit like a Pon de Ring doughnut,
the bright aroma of White Herbs gently spreads,
followed by the refreshing tartness of lemon.

It wasn’t too sweet, and made for a sweet that felt just like summer in Hiroshima.

Ingredients, aroma, technique.
Every element felt full of Hiroshima.

Not “Local Production for Local Consumption,” but “Local Production, Shared Outward”

In gifts like this, I sometimes see another form of Hiroshima’s future.

“Make things locally and consume them locally.”
That is of course an important idea, but what Sakurao is doing goes beyond that.

Carrying value born in Hiroshima beyond Hiroshima.

And not just selling it, but delivering it together with the feelings and culture behind it.

Products filled with Hiroshima’s climate and sense of beauty
reach bar counters in Tokyo and Kyoto, Hokkaido and Okinawa,
and touch the five senses of the people there.

Rather than “local production for local consumption,” this is an effort you might call local production, consumed elsewhere, or local production, shared outward.

Rooted in Hiroshima, yet loosely connected with all of Japan and the world:
I am always deeply moved that this kind of flow
is born from such understated gifts.

A Network Connected to Bars

What Sakurao delivers is not only flavour.

They take the trouble to address each bar by name,
and deliver something different every year.
Running a bar myself, I understand very well how much feeling and persistence that takes.

Through exchanges like this,
I think we bars are also building a relationship that is more than “just a business partner.”

Drinkers learn about it through social media, bartenders tell its story,
and it becomes a chance for people to think, “I’d like to try Sakurao.”

Not flashy, but it gets through.

Rooted locally, while spreading outward.

I deeply share this attitude of Hiroshima’s distilling culture.

From Hiroshima to Counters Across Japan

This year too, through Sakurao’s gift, we become messengers of our region’s climate and culture,

and the scent and spirit of Hiroshima quietly spread to counters across Japan.

Being able to play a small part in that feels like being allowed to walk alongside the land of Hiroshima.

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

Mika Tanimoto, Bar Little Happiness