00:02 John Daub: Welcome everybody to the United Nations University in Shibuya. This event is called the Tokyo Cocktail 7 Days. And I'm now holding a passport to some amazing Japanese-based cocktails and international standard cocktails. This event is held at the United Nations University. It's near Shibuya and Omotesando.

00:30 John Daub: And helping me out with this report is this man. PBG, do you have your passport? You do? Show us your passport. Well, you have yours. I do have mine right here. Mine's in my backpack. Okay. And what this event is, it's taking place for the next two days here in the United Nations University. And for the next ten days, with this passport, you have access to 60 top cocktail bars around Tokyo. So you can go bar hopping with discount prices.

01:02 Peter von Gomm: Did you get the prices?

01:02 John Daub: So it's for, if you have the passport, it costs 4,500 yen for the passport. So from the 20th to the 29th of April, you can go around 60 different bars in Tokyo and get specialty cocktails for 1,000 yen each. Plus tax. But each bar is different. Each bar has a specialty cocktail. And some of these bars are winners of the top 50 bars in the world.

01:30 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, I saw that. Japan does everything right.

01:32 John Daub: I know. It's pretty intense. If you're looking for original and great cocktails here in Tokyo, you're probably going to find the best. Yep. This one place, now a lot of these are distilleries here that are making the cocktails at this event. After this, we're going to take you to a cocktail bar. And they're going to make us some very, very distinctive Japanese cocktails. They're not in there. They have awesome cocktails. Oh, you have? Only in Japan cocktails. I'm really excited about this. I'm not a really big cocktail drinker. That's why I brought this guy along.

02:03 Peter von Gomm: I'm not a big cocktail drinker.

02:04 John Daub: He knows I love it more. He's more of a professional. So if I stumble along the way, PVG might be able to help. But we do have professionals.

02:11 Peter von Gomm: I'm not carrying you. I ain't carrying you, bro.

02:13 John Daub: Oh, not that kind of stumbling. I mean stumbling by talking. This might even turn into a pull-ups contest for those who watched the livestream before. But once again, this is a cocktail sponsored by Tokyo Cocktail 7 Days. There's a hashtag in the description if you want to follow this. And Hendrick's Gin. This is Mito Seiya Distillery based in Chiba here in Japan. And what they make here is very interesting. This is a botanical brandy. I've never heard of this before. But the booth smells amazing. And you can see over here, this is the brandy right down here. Over there on the other side, you can see some of the herbs and spices and everything. And this is the stuff that they use to distill the gin. It's all made organically. And some of these are double distilled, but they're also infused with some of these herbs.

03:07 Peter von Gomm: For example, this one here, wormwood. Does anybody know what spirit is used... what spirit uses wormwood?

03:16 John Daub: Who knows the answer? Let's see it in the chats. Just wormwood. Give you ten seconds. Somebody's gonna know. Someone's gonna know. I'll give you a hint. It is green.

03:29 Peter von Gomm: And it makes you crazy when you drink it.

03:32 John Daub: Oh, spinach? Oh!

03:36 Peter von Gomm: Yes, yes, yes, you got it. Absinthe.

03:39 John Daub: Absinthe. That's right, absinthe. So what does it make you crazy?

03:41 Peter von Gomm: Well, there's something in the leaf that has some sort of...

03:48 John Daub: Oh.

03:48 Peter von Gomm: I'm not sure exactly, but it's known to make you crazy.

03:52 John Daub: It's crazy. It's called Van Gogh.

03:54 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. Supposedly, it was a big absinthe drinker. And he kept it in the hilt of his cane, a little flask.

04:01 John Daub: Is that illegal in the United States? Isn't it?

04:04 Peter von Gomm: I think so.

04:05 John Daub: I think I remember in my university days, people said this was illegal, and yet it's not here. Let's try this. Okay. So they got this one's just wormwood. Thank you, Jason. Thank you, Vaughn. This is grappa. Grappa meets ume (plum) blossoms. Ume blossoms! Whoa! You getting this? Lemon koi. So it's probably got a lemon flavor. Chalk and mint. Wow. And mikan (mandarin orange). Ooh! So let's start with the wormwood. Wow. All right, let's try this. We have some lovely helpers here. Can we try a taste of the just wormwood? Wormwood. One gaishimasu (one, please). All right. And now it begins. Vaughn is waiting for a flight. Arigato. Watching along. So you can see it has a slight green color to it. So after they infuse it with the wormwood, it gives it this green tint.

05:01 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, I can see the tint.

05:03 John Daub: So Mito Seiya Distillery is not yet on the market. They're coming out on the market very soon. So this is their kind of a launch. Here, let me get a close look at this. All right, very good. All right, show us how it's done.

05:17 Peter von Gomm: My mouth's gonna creep. I tasted it. What do you think? It smells good. Smell that.

05:22 John Daub: Oh, wow. That's what I just said. Wow. But with a different tone. Holy moly. Interesting. Really, really interesting flavor. Describe the taste for us.

05:44 Peter von Gomm: Well, it has an earthy, really earthy kind of flavor to it. It has... because of the organic... Oh, it does. Yeah. It has a bite. It's got a real bite to it. It's got an earthiness to it. Pleasant.

06:05 John Daub: Yeah. I think I would like it on ice. It's quite strong. You can smell... It's certainly... You can smell the infused wormwood. In there. Definitely. Strong.

06:22 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. It's strong. You could power a car with this stuff. But it's very tasty.

06:29 John Daub: Now, can you make cocktails out of this? How do you... Can you mix it?

06:33 Peter von Gomm: Well, they've got... They have sparkling water, so it's soda. Oh, okay. You can add soda to it.

06:38 John Daub: Let's try that here. I'm gonna try something... Sonic... I'm gonna try this meat... They've got some fresh... Ume blossoms. Fresh cut orange back there. So you can probably mix it. I wouldn't recommend making a cocktail there unless you're adding something very light to it. Oh. Because it has its own flavors. Let's try this one because it has ume blossoms. You just go? Put it on the... Put it on the grappa. There's more. So we're gonna try this. I'm really curious because ume blossoms, they're plum blossoms and they're...

07:05 Peter von Gomm: Oh, you're gonna do two of them, Peter?

07:09 John Daub: Are you driving?

07:10 Peter von Gomm: I didn't ride my bike today, so...

07:11 John Daub: Oh, okay. Yeah, I took the train as well. Are you driving the train?

07:15 Peter von Gomm: I'm driving the train. Howdy-yup. All right. Okay. Cheers.

07:18 John Daub: Let's see. Can we see... Oh, cheers. Cheers to you guys out there in La La Land. Wish you were here. All right. It looks clear. I can already smell it. I guess it's the infused part of it. This one's a lot lighter. And this actually has a sake...

07:38 Peter von Gomm: Can you taste sake in it?

07:42 John Daub: It definitely has a sake flavor. Oh, who are you?

07:47 Peter von Gomm: Who? Who? Who?

07:57 John Daub: Wow. That's good. I do like... You know, it has alcohol in it. I know what alcohol tastes like, alcohol. But it's the infused part of it that really adds a new dimension to it. I have no idea much about alcohol. That's why the professional's here. What else do you have to say about this?

08:12 Peter von Gomm: I like... It's very subtle. The wormwood one is a little too over... I wouldn't drink that in mass quantity. I hope not. Because it was just a bit too organic. This has a nice... Nice... It's easy on the palate. It goes down nicely.

08:44 John Daub: It goes down nicely. It's a little bit of a... It's got a nice note.

08:49 Peter von Gomm: So do you, John.

08:50 John Daub: Thank you. Thank you. All right. I like this place. I like the fact that they use organic materials and it does look very, very, very, very nice. This is a botanical brandy, once again. Botanical brandy. Before we rush it off, let me just do one last one. So what do you guys want to try? The lemon koi or the all mikan? Mikan is like a mandarin orange. Why don't you go for the mikan? Yeah. Mikan's a very popular flavor here in Japan, and I'd like to see how they infuse that into the brandy to make this a taste. And this will give some diversity to the other ones we've had. So far, the wormwood had a little bit more taste to it, but this one, which was the ume blossom infusion, that also, it was a little bit lighter than the wormwood, but I'm going to say that maybe, Peter's made a friend, I'm going to say that perhaps that this one has more of a citrus taste to it.

09:49 Peter von Gomm: Of course. But I like this though. This event, this event is held annually. This is the third one. They started in 2017, and the reason why is because they had a cocktail event in London, and the organizers loved it so much that they wanted to bring it here, the people who went to that event. And they've sort of done that. They've been able to bring a collection of all these different gin companies. Hendrix is one of the sponsors here, but we have Bee Theater, we have Diplomatico, and... Glenn Moranger, and Camp Pari. I really don't know my booze. And Hennessy. I knew a girl named Hennessy in high school. That was her last name. I think it's a cognac. But all these make really good cocktails.

10:41 John Daub: Okay, okay, all right. Thank you. So, here's yours. I'll give you the little baby one. It's only got like one, one liter. Oh, is that because you drank half of it? Yeah. Cheers to everybody. I told them to make a baby drink. Oh, okay. I don't mind. This is the mikan. Oh, I didn't even drink any of it yet, but I could bathe in this. It's so good. I do. It's a sweet citrus taste, smell to it. Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! Whoa! I'm going to the bar. Oh, the other bar? Yeah. Oh, okay. I want to go to the bar a little more. A little more. Uh, no, it's a live right now. It's okay. I haven't tried all of them yet. We're going to go to the other bar in a minute. Um, so we're going to go over to... The Hendrix. Okay. And then we'll go after that. I will wait at the bar. Ah, okay. Okay. Peter knows this place. Taxi. We're going to go by taxi. VIP service. All right, let's go get one more because I want to try this. I really like that. That was really good. Again, this event's held every year, annually. And... And, um... Once you buy this passport, they let you in and it's all you can drink. And, um... Very, very dangerous. Peter's been here a little bit longer than me. You had a drink before we started this live stream, too. All right, let's go get a Hendrix.

12:22 Peter von Gomm: I love this booth. It's made out of copper. It looks like... It looks like the booth is... He's inside of... It's kind of like a summer meeting. Yeah. Yeah. He's going to play that game if he wants to. Yeah. That's a lot of people. It's like a... It's a cocktail. Hendrix Gin Tonic? I don't know. I don't order gin tonics very often. I'm kind of a beer dude.

12:48 John Daub: Beer guy. Fuck everybody. Welcome back, everybody. This is my Hendrix Gin Tonic. Looks beautiful. Especially with this close-up iPhone XS. Oh, it's a cucumber in there. Oh, wow. Can I... I wouldn't like this. She doesn't like cucumber or alcohol. So it's healthy, isn't it? You can have these for breakfast. So there's vitamins in it. So it's healthy, isn't it? So it is, isn't it? You can have this for breakfast. So Jim Hendrix. Not to be confused with Jimmy Hendrix. Oh, Hendrix Gin, not Jim Hendrix. The guitarist. Were you at that Woodstock in 69?

13:32 Peter von Gomm: I was, yes, I was. I was in a bassinet.

13:35 John Daub: You were born at that time? I wasn't. I was born into a bunch of mud. This is really good. This is really good. Isn't it? Isn't that nice? It's refreshing. I think maybe it's the cucumber, but there's a really light, like, wateriness to it. But yet the gin has that slight tingle in the back, that bitter. I like it. It's dry. It's really good. Before we head out, I'm going to try the rum. There was... The rum. Yeah. We're going by taxi to the next place. Follow PBG. Go ahead, dude. Once again, I want to show you the organics here. Diplomatico. Diplomatico. These are some of the things that they package. This is made in Chiba here. And once again, I'll put a link in the description, but they usually make these things for restaurants, high, top-end restaurants in Tokyo. But I guess they just started making brandy with it. It's pretty good because they infuse their organics. Organics into the alcohol. So I'm really obsessed with this one because I just... I like it when it's a locally branded item. Where'd PBG go? Let's go. Hold on a second. Can you hold this? We have to fix the... And we're back.

15:14 John Daub: PBG has ordered at Diplomatico using his passport. Diplomatico. It's from Venezuela? This is from Venezuela? Wow. Hold on a second. Can you see it? This is the rum, Diplomatico. I like the name. Yeah. So this guy... You're this old guy?

15:39 Peter von Gomm: Oh, they're the representative. So what have you ordered? So I just got an old-fashioned one. So old-fashioned, this is Diplomatico rum. Old-fashioned has what in it? Cane sugar. Oh. Mixed with cane sugar. Hola. Que tal? Diplomatico and bitters. I tried all the bitters, you know. So that's what goes into an old-fashioned. Let's give it a shot. All right. Give it a shot. Yeah, drink it all. Oh my God. Man. This is so good. All right. Video quality might be lagging right now. We'll try to fix that. This is an old-fashioned or a cool-fashioned? Oh, this is an old-fashioned. Okay. It's a sweet pop, too. All right. Let me try to redo this. All right. We're back. And we're live. The old-fashioned was really good. We're going to go now by tax. Taxi people want to.

17:02 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, I guess so.

17:04 John Daub: I wanted to try this because it's Japanese-based. This is a little bit crazy, but I think that's the beauty of this event. I kind of wanted just to bring you here just to get a sense of what it's like. They're doing this today and tomorrow. Tomorrow's Easter, so if you have a day off, come down here. If you're in Tokyo, enjoy a cocktail. It's kind of fun. It's kind of neat to be inside of the United Nations building drinking cocktails. I don't know. It's just sort of a fun event to do. And you can try a lot of these local cocktails. And once you get in here, it's all you can drink for one fee, so that makes it really good. I did want to try this if the signal goes out. This is a Japanese-based spirit called Tsumugi. And I wanted to try this here. Tsumugi is like a mold. What kind of cocktail is this? I mean, I had this. I tried this. I had this a long time ago. About 3 or 4 months ago. It smells like cherry. It's a shochu highball. Cranberry. Cranberry. OK. Can I try a little of the cherry? Yes. So I'm going to just try this quickly before we go to give you some variety. I'm going to get a little bit. All right. This guy's probably getting impatient, but that's OK. Yeah, it's all right. Wow, I can't leave. I can't leave. Thank you, Creative Tacos. So a lot of these bars here. Show this here for a second. OK. Anil, thank you. Josh, shout out from... Hey, Josh Keller's in the house. Hello, Josh. Shout out to Josh. Wait a minute. Josh has never given me a super chat. David Kimura. Thank you, Chicken on Biscuits. Jim. And Professor Dell. OK. So... All right, guys. The quality of the last drink is actually good. I just wanted to show you this very quickly. Check it out. This drink has a sakura (cherry blossom) leaf in it. It's made from the Tsumugi spirits. And I'm going to drink it right now. Wow. Wow. Peter's got a drink. And then we're going to be moving by taxi to the next place. It's good. Wow. Right? Right? Wow. It's really good. It's really good. But what I like most about it is that it does have a sakura blossom in there. Do you see it?

19:57 Peter von Gomm: I think I just drank it.

19:59 John Daub: No, don't drink the blossom. You can see the cherry blossom right there. It's really pretty. I thought that was your chewing gum. That's not my chewing gum. It's really pretty. And... Oh. Shall we go? All right. We're off to the next place. We'll tune back in. Right. Look for another live stream in about 10, 15 minutes from now. OK. All right. See you then.