Last week I was able to visit the cocktail bar Nokishita711 in Kyoto. A bar that I had been meaning to visit for a while but just didn’t have time to do so. Luckily my first semester at Doshisha University finished in early February so recently I had some free time to spare to visit different places that I’ve had on my “to-go” list for a while. The main reason why I wanted to visit this bar was because of the unique ingredients and methods used to make cocktails.

Concept of Nokishita711

 “We are making cocktails by extracting liquid from all ingredients including meat, fish, insects and plants.
We are making cocktails with seasonal ingredients including meat, fish, vegetable, fruits and botanicals.It is our challenge how we make cocktails that bring out the full flavour of the ingredients Gin, vodka, rum, tequila. Various alcohol is not the main part. The main parts are various seasonal and local ingredients. Alcohol is like  “oil” in cooking. Alcohol helps to extract the flavor from ingredients to liquid” (from the bar’s website)

The concept of Nokishita711 is extractology not mixology. This is something important to understand because based on some reviews I saw it seems many people think this is a mixology bar. Extractology refers to extracting flavours from foods and mixing them into a cocktail.  The core focus of this bar isn’t the alcohol (all drinks have low alcohol and you can actually ask for non-alcoholic cocktails too) it’s the extracted flavour from the seasonal and regional food chosen by Tomoiki SEKINE – the bartender. As per the website’s information, the extracted flavour comes from any food, including meat, fish, insects and plants.
You can see examples of previous menus on the website where they list some flavours such as chicken liver, gardenia flower, sea eel broth, fragrant ash and so on. If these flavours don’t rock your boat then you might want to reconsider visiting, or you can challenge yourself to a new approach to cuisine – something to think about.

Fortunately for me, weird or unusual is right up my alley and I do like to seek out creative or fashion cuisine experiences. So it wasn’t a difficult decision for me to make.

Currently, the bar is reservation only and you get served omakase-style of 5 cocktails for 7700 yen. When you book you can detail any allergy or dietary preferences you have, including vegetarian and dairy concerns
Each drink is also served with a small snack that uses the same ingredients or rather the leftover ingredients from the cocktail. Sekine-san truly makes the most use of each ingredient he chooses. After the 5 cocktails Sekine-san provides a small tea ceremony as a way to finish up your session.

Sekine-san is also a fluent communicator in English, so you shouldn’t worry if you cannot understand or speak Japanese.

My Experience

I booked the bar for a 5 pm session (each session lasts about 2 hours) on a Friday night. When you book you can choose whether you want to share a table or be at the counter (standing only). I chose the table and was seated with 2 other visitors for the night. The bar is dimly lit, when you enter the bar you can see a lot of antiques around. Sekine-san collects antiques he finds from various places, particularly from monthly flea markets around Kyoto. He uses some of these antiques in his presentation of cocktails, such as cups used for the drink, and plates for the snacks and drinks.

First Sekine-san introduces the concept of this bar, he explains what extractology is and how he makes the drinks. He then introduces the menu for the night.

The menu we received for our session was:

1. Cocktail: White miso, kelp, vegetable skin, wasabi, cedar needle, reduced white wine and gin.
   Small snack: Monaka – grilled gluten cake with sake lees
2. Cocktail: Incense ash, Jerusalem artichoke, potato, chrysanthemum flower, mugi shochu,gin.
   Small snack: vegan pancake with root vegetable
3. Cocktail: Osmanthus flower, potato,seaweed, lacto-fermented sake, whisky.
   Small snack: croquette with potato and seaweed.
4. Cocktail: Deer meat, burdock, roasted green tea, strawberry,black koji, reduced red wine, gin.
   Small snack: taco of deer meat and burdock
5. Cocktail: Geranium, mackerel,pineapple,celery,spice.mugi shochu and vodka.
   Small snack: nougat glace with mackerel and spice

The Cocktails

The first drink was a hot cocktail served in a small cup, fitting due to the cold. Sekine-san explained all the ingredients and described the drink as “alcoholic miso soup”.
He was right, as soon as I tasted it I really thought it tasted like miso soup. There was a slightly sweet wine aftertaste that went along with it but it wasn’t overpowering. The snack that went along with it was also fitting, Monaka is a traditional Japanese sweet but it didn’t quite feel like a dessert in this instance.

The second cocktail was served in a standard wine glass. Taking in the scent of the cocktail I could smell the incense, drinking it felt as if I was inhaling it – almost as if I was at a temple or shrine. It was a mind-bending experience trying this cocktail and despite the incense smell and taste being overpowering, it was a nice cocktail that made use of smoky flavours.  The snack that went with it was a small pancake which was nice also.

The third cocktail was served in a small tea-looking cup. The cocktail tasted something like a mix of hot chips and croquette with a layer of sweetness. This aptly suited the snack which was a croquette. Below the croquette was tea leaves which were salted – they didn’t really taste like tea leaves at all but it saltines overall complemented both the drink and the croquette.

The fourth cocktail was served in a standard wine glass. The drink definitely has a strong game meat taste to it, exactly as if you were currently eating deer meat. There was a slightly sweet aftertaste to it too.  The small snack was tasty and didn’t overpower the gamey taste from the cocktail.

The fifth cocktail was served in a small glass. It is hard to summarise this drink in terms of flavour but it was nice. It smelt slightly sweet and nutty. The pineapple flavour definitely stood out and you could also taste the slight mackerel component. The spices that were used were cinnamon and cumin which surprisingly complimented the pineapple. The snack was like dessert, ice cream-y and paired nicely with the cocktail.

For me, the stand-out cocktails were #2 and #4 as the flavours were very strong and tickled my brain a bit. Overall I enjoyed all the cocktails and snacks that came with them.

After the cocktails, Sekine-san proceeded with the Chinese tea ceremony. He said that he commonly gets tea leaves from China or Taiwan. The tea leaves he was using in our ceremony were from China. He said that these leaves were wild oolong tea leaves from a mountain. Before using the tea leaves he allows participants to smell them. He then pours the boiled tea into small tea cups and allows you to drink the tea around about 3 times/cups (I think it largely depends on how many people there are at a reservation).

In the end, if there’s time you can ask for another cocktail for an additional price of 1500. However, because Sekine-san has a reservation right after the current session he couldn’t make one (a member of my session asked).

Overall I enjoyed this experience and hope to visit again to try other seasonal cocktails. This bar isn’t for everybody, so if you’re taking some friends make sure to check if they are chill with unusual ingredients being used in cocktails.
If you prefer vegetarian or non-alcoholic, or other dietary concerns type cocktails make sure to note that when you make a reservation.

Bar Details

Nokishita711 in Kyoto
Address : 〒600-8019 Kyoto, Shimogyo Ward, Sendocho, ２３５
Website: https://en.nokishita.net/nokishita711
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/nokishita711/?
Opening times: Depends on the reservation – reservation times 2:30pm~, 5pm~, 7:30pm~, 10pm.
Cost : 5 cocktails tasting course + tea ceremony = 7700 yen
Reservation : Required (done through website or Instagram)
Languages spoken : Japanese and English