As bar manager, Akira Ohki has designed the cocktail menu at Masu expressly to incorporate Japanese ingredients with unique flavour combinations and exceptional presentations to make the experience unforgettable for customers.
Ohki starts a crafting process for new cocktails with one ingredient in mind and will start thinking of ways it will be matched. The second technique he uses is through a story idea, designing a cocktail alongside the story.
Yuzu is a popular ingredient that Ohki incorporates in a range of cocktails and mocktails on Masu's drinks menu. He imports high-quality Yuzu vinegar from Japan to ensure that Yuzu-inspired and flavoured drinks are consistently available. Also, the Yuzu fruits grown in New Zealand don't have the same pungent flavour as their Japanese-grown and juiced counterparts.
Ohki further explained that New Zealand-grown yuzu tends to resemble lemons in flavour and appearance, with Japanese-grown yuzu presenting these elements entirely differently. Traditionally, in Japan, a piece of Yuzu is placed atop a bowl of soup, distinct and recognised separately from lemon.
Citrus is generally a popular ingredient choice for cocktails as a balancing flavour. Yuzu is a very adaptable citrus fruit that can replace lemon or lime in drinks and completely alter how flavour is complemented. However, Ohki avoids switching lemon and lime in traditional cocktails with Yuzu, firmly stating that new and innovative cocktails should be designed around Yuzu, with flavours chosen carefully to match the fruit.
One of Masu's signature cocktails uses freeze-dried Yuzu powder sprinkled on top of a yuzu cocktails matched with caramel, passionfruit, and roasted green tea foam.
Yuzu is a seasonal fruit available very briefly and incredibly expensive, with its yield not big enough in New Zealand to cater to the needs of restaurants such as Masu.
We import yuzu products such as yuzu vinegar, sake-based yuzu liqueur, and yuzu umeshu. We also use freeze-dried Yuzu produced in New Zealand, which is pretty good,
"We import yuzu products such as yuzu vinegar, sake-based yuzu liqueur, and yuzu umeshu. We also use freeze-dried Yuzu produced in New Zealand, which is pretty good,” said Ohki.
The popularity of Yuzu has been present for the last nine years. Ohki said he was surprised just how prominent Japanese cuisine was when he arrived in New Zealand. Ohki noticed restaurants incorporating Japanese ingredients in dishes as the cuisine became popular, and Yuzu naturally became popular. New Zealand's range and availability of high-quality seafood is also a leading reason Ohki believes Japanese cuisine has become an integral part of New Zealander's dining and eating experiences.
However, this rapid growth and popularity of Japanese cuisine and ingredients such as Yuzu has posed the challenge of producing products at a rate where quality is sometimes lacking.
Read more about Ohki's story below starting on page 20.
