Craft Bitters Mikan by Mizuho Shuzo

Mizuho Shuzo calls this a Japanese-style orange bitters. Unshu mikan and Okinawan tankan are steeped in the distillery's own awamori, brewed with sakura yeast and taken above 50 percent alcohol, then sweetened with Okinawan black sugar and bittered with cinchona. Hihatsumodoki, the Okinawan island pepper, goes in as an accent alongside juniper and coriander-seed spirits the distillery makes itself. The producer reports bronze medals for it in the liqueur class of the IWSC in 2020 and 2021.

Sweet mikan orange on the nose, deepening on the palate into the molasses-dark sweetness of Okinawan black sugar. Cinchona gives the close a firm bitterness, with island pepper, juniper and coriander layered behind it.