Smells like green spirit

Cambodia's distillers use invasive plants, green tech for top-shelf gin and rum

- Claire Turrell

Mr Ryuji Nukata pours the clear liquid slowly into the tumbler, his gaze never leaving the glass.

Until three years ago, he was working in the textile industry in Japan. Now, in this unassuming walk-up in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, he is creating Tropical Citrus, which was crowned the best flavoured gin at the 2023 World Gin Awards.

The global gin market is expected to reach US$22 billion (S$28.2 billion) by 2030, according to data by Maximize Market Research. Fans are clamouring for craft gins, unique flavours and brands like Mr Nukata's Mawsim (mawsim.shop).

He did not set out to be a distiller. When he moved to Cambodia, his aim was to launch a paper and clothing recycling company. But as the research and development on his paper recycling company progressed, he learnt that one of the upshots of the paper recycling process was that it would create ethanol, the basis of gin.

He began to think about how he could make gin greener.

He considered water hyacinths, which are often in the news for clogging Southeast Asia's waterways. Locals dry the invasive plants and weave the leaves into household products such as baskets.

Once the plants were dry, Mr Nukata realised, he could burn them to create ethanol in the same way he burned the paper. "It was trial and error many times," he says.

Spirits enthusiasts can now sample the gin made with water hyacinths and steeped with botanicals such as Battambang oranges, makrut limes and kumquats at his distillery filled with copper stills.

He sells his tropical-flavoured gin, as well as a version made with Kampot peppercorns and cardamom, in recycled teal-green bottles that visitors can turn into carafes or vases. He even makes his own quinine from bark of the Fever Tree.