Beam Suntory Asia’s Roku Gin receives FMCG Award for Customer Experience Initiative

Roku Gin brings the experience of Japan’s Cherry Blossom festival in Singapore through successful partnerships with bars and restaurants. 

Before the pandemic, Japan was a top travel destination for Singaporeans especially during springtime for Hanami. They flocked to the land of the rising sun to appreciate Sakuras and enjoy the country’s seasonal spring dishes and drinks. However, with travel restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, everything came to a halt where residents are not permitted to travel overseas for a vacation.

In celebration with this year’s spring season, leading Japanese craft gin brand Roku Gin has led partnerships with top bars and restaurants across Singapore to recreate Japan’s spring through its exclusive offerings, such as limited-time seasonal cocktails, special dishes meant for pairing, and even cocktail making and distillate tasting master classes for consumers to taste the true purest essence of the botanicals, especially Sakura. 

With these successful collaborations, Beam Suntory Asia won the Customer Experience Initiative Award in the very first FMCG Asia Awards 2021. In its inaugural year, the awards aim to recognise the region's best fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies that have shown exemplary performance and their most outstanding products and initiatives.

Known for its delicate floral aroma and complex flavour, the renowned Roku Gin from the House of Suntory brings together six uniquely Japanese botanicals. The individual characteristics of Sakura flower, Sakura leaf, Sencha tea, Gyokuro tea, Sansho pepper and Yuzu come together in perfect harmony in an intricate process to give a floral scent and multi-layered taste combined with a smooth and silky texture.

With an aim to create original Japanese spirits the whole world can enjoy, Roku Gin has partnered with key premium outlets in the country such as Crossroads at Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel with a selection of Sakura-inspired cocktails; Taki Izakaya Bar with a food and cocktail pairing menu; Michelin Plate-recognized rooftop restaurant VUE with six limited-time seasonal cocktails that showcases the brand’s unique use of varied Japanese botanicals. 

Roku Gin also collaborated with Japanese steakhouse Fat Cow to unveil its seasonal Japanese Omakase menus that are accompanied by sakura-themed Roku cocktails. The Bao Makers also offered a special Hanami Bao set and Beef Tataki that can go with two seasonal Roku gin-based cocktails. Roku Gin also held tasting masterclasses at Wooloomooloo Steakhouse and Taki Izakaya Bar – giving consumers a chance to nose and taste the pure Sakura distillate, one of the key components in its recipe. 

As Mother’s Day coincides with the spring season, Roku Gin also co-developed a Sakura Bloom Cake with LUNA premium patisserie to evoke a walkthrough of a Japanese springtime Sakura boulevard.

The Roku Spring Experience 2021 was widely covered across mainstream and top-tier media driving massive awareness and reach about enjoying Spring in Singapore with Roku.