A talk with Chikara Ono of The Ethical Spirits & Co.
We are talking to Chikara Ono of The Ethical Spirits & Co at Bar Convent in Berlin.
Hi Chikara, you look very young, how old are you and what did you study in school?
I'm 27, and I studied psychology.
Oh, that’s always useful. What made you change to go into this field?
I mean, lots of coincidences, lots of connections, lots of luck, I think. I was in London for university and then I stayed on a bit more.
Have you ever worked in a bar?
I was working in a bar a part time in London. There, I realized the fun and the potential of gin. I got connected with our CEO who was working on a sake retail shop in Japan, who is now CEO of The Ethical Spirits & Co.—so many things fell into place to land me in this job.
What is your position? Who are the owners of the company?
There are three of us. I am one of them. I'm co-founder and the main owner is the CEO of our company. We also have some other investors.
Tell me about why you have the name The Ethical Gin.
The reason why we call it ethical is our company started to produce the gin from something called sake kasu (sake lees). Sake kasu is a by-product of sake. When you're creating a sake, you use rice with the water, then you ferment it; next, you squeeze it and the liquid that comes out will eventually become sake. The solid, leftover remains are called sake kasu in Japanese. That material contains the exact same ingredient as sake itself but is not really appreciated in the market because it is solid. In the old days there was some demand, but now breweries are having trouble dealing with it because it is considered industrial waste, so they need to pay to throw it away. So, when we heard about this, we thought, that solid material still has alcohol in it. And we thought we could do something with it. One of the solutions we thought about was gin. So all of our gin is either based on those spirits made from sake kasu, or waste alcohol recovered during COVID-19. We also have a product, for example, a sake called “NINJA” which was overproduced during the pandemic because people didn't really go out much and alcohol consumption went down in Japan. Lots of sake and wine got abandoned. And we also bought beer from one of the breweries, which was suffering.
Do these products have an expiration date?
Not in the strictest sense. Each company decides when their deadline is, and they dispose of the product accordingly. Especially for beer, it's very important for them to provide to the customer with a fresh product. This is one of the reasons. So we started with waste sake, wine and beer. And for that reason we call it ethical.
Sake Kasu
Sake production leaves about 1/3 of raw material as sake kasu (sake lees), which is often treated as industrial waste.
Every year over 400,000 kg of sake is produced, which equates to over 200,000 kg of sake kasu being produced.
Most of sake kasu is discarded due to its decreasing demand and low value in the market.
“How could we save this by product of sake?” This was our first question. Turning it into gin was our answer.
“Starring the hidden gem” is the slogan that reflects in their logo.
“We know that things which are not appreciated “now” have infinite possibilities - we intend to find their potentials and create something you have never experienced.”
- The Ethical Spirits & Co.
I'm sure there are good and bad sakes. And so the by-product could be good or bad, true?
That's a great question. Depending on the remains based on the size of breweries, sometimes it's good and other times it’s very hard to deal with, because the characteristics of the base spirits differ radically depending on where we source our sake kasu. We are still a very small company so we can still choose the companies we want to work with.
And what is your production?
Right now, we are working on the last product of our main series and we can continually produce based on demand. So every week we can produce more than 10,000 bottles if we have a demand for them.
What makes your product different?
We create our base spirit from alcohol waste derived from sake kasu, beer and sake.
Different sake kasu from different sake breweries create a wide range of different flavoured base spirits, delivering innovative gin to our customers.
Our hidden botanicals are unconventional, like coffee grounds and cacao husks; we are constantly experimenting with new flavours sourced from by-products.
Stage bar in Tokyo.
Which was your first product?
We have two product lines: LAST made from Sake kasu and REVIVE, made from sake and other alcohol that has been discarded.
Our first product, LAST EPISODE 0 – MODEST – was created in March 2020 and was released exclusively at one of the largest department stores in Japan.
Our latest product launched in April 2021 was LAST EPISODE 0 – ELEGANT – and was recognised as one of the world’s 8 best gins, receiving the designation of GOLD OUTSTANDING at IWSC 2021.
In July 2021, we opened our first distillery, “Tokyo Riverside Distillery”, along with the official store and bar & dining room called Stage”.
What made you choose this kind of bottle?
It is from the concept of our designer Saki Kato. It is kind of like a flat whiskey flask. We are also proud of the labels that are created especially for each product.
You also have a very unusual business card shaped like a bottle.
Yes, we hope people will remember it!
I see the designs of the Revive series are quite different from the others.
They depend on the series that we have, so the Revive series is the reviving the alcohol that was wasted, about to be disposed of. The Revive line features artwork from “HERALBONY”, a company selling creations made by people with disabilities.
(I taste a gin) This really has a lot of the cacao flavour.
We use a specific part of the cacao bean, because during the chocolate production, the manufacturer only uses the inside of the cacao beans, which is cacao nib. The outer shell still has lots of aroma that can be extracted. This part of the cacao is discarded and we buy it and use it as a botanical.
And where is your product produced?
Everything is produced in Japan. Our company is very young, we are only a year and a half old. All of our production is outsourced to the different sake breweries except the cacao gin, which is the first product produced in our own distillery in Tokyo.
So is that your future? You're going to want to produce all of your products in your own factories, I assume.
That is our plan.
The Riverside Distillery.
I love the story. Congratulations on your gold medal at IWSC. What made you decide to go for this award?
When we are always focusing on sustainability and ethicalness of the product, I think that sometimes story goes beyond our products. So sometimes the product can get lost in the story. We want people to enjoy the product so we believe that entering an international competition challenges ourselves and get an objective review, so that we are not just a storyteller, but we are also a valid gin producer, which can be documented.
It's really great. So what's your next product coming up?
So, one of the next products we are thinking about, which probably is only sold in Japan, is one using coffee grounds that come from making espresso – you know, after espresso, there is lots of coffee. And those coffee grounds still have the aroma of coffee. So we use those grounds as a botanical.
Chikara, thanks for taking the time to talk to me and showing us that sustainability can really be profitable… and delicious!
Where you can find The Ethical Spirits & Co.
Website: ethicalspirits.jp
E-commerce: shop.ethicalspirits.jp
Instagram: @ethical_spirits
Stage Bar in Tokyo on Instagram: @stage_trd
Tokyo Riverside Distillery on Instagram: @store_trd