Namida® Wasabi Spirit™
The Namida® Wasabi Spirit™ Story
The first Namida® Wasabi Spirit was made by the Wasabi Maestro in New Zealand in 1996, but the World wasn’t ready for it and it was shelved.
In 2009 the Namida® Wasabi Spirit possibility was brought up again with a chance remark at a business meeting.
From there it developed into a full blown project where the Wasabi Maestro was brought out from retirement to pass the knowledge on about producing the Namida® Spirit.
Initially, New Zealand Spirit producers were approached to make the product, but there were a couple of problems;
- The spirit producers were not interested in following the production method that had been developed and found to work. They wanted to make the spirit as a flavoured vodka using Horseradish or Mustard flavouring , and not as a true Wasabi Spirit.
- The pricing they came up with was so expensive that they made the project uneconomic.
From there, a search around the world to find a good Spirit producer who would make the Namida® Wasabi Spirit using our production method at a reasonable price started.
A well known high quality Spirit Producer, Edward Snell of Cape Town, South Africa was finally found that we could work with and was able to meet our criteria. It has taken 2 years from that stage to get full production up and running.
The Namida® Wasabi Spirit is made in small batches of 6000 litres by triple distilling alcohol made from hard grain and Namida® Wasabi Rhizomes from New Zealand. Because of the nature of the process this takes a significant amount of time before it is filtered 4 times.
The product is then hand bottled and the unique long labels are applied to the Wasabia japonica leaf decorated bottle by hand. Finally the Spirit Competition medals are applied and the Namida® Wasabi Spirit is shipped to the customer.
Each bottle is individually numbered with both the batch number and the bottle number. The signature of the Wasabi Maestro (Michel Van Mellaerts) is also on the neck seal (750ml bottle only) as a measure of the products authenticity.
The Namida® Wasabi Spirit is available in 500ml and 750ml bottles.
In 2010 in their first year of main production the product won 2 medals.
This is the first medal that Namida® Wasabi Spirit won in 2010. After the award one of the Judges said that “this product was extremely difficult to judge, as there was nothing to compare it against. It is unique and will, no doubt, make a great impact with the mixologists and chefs.”
Judges Tasting Notes:
Pale, wasabi green. Powerful nose delivering a solid whack of wasabi leaving no space for anything else but tears. Great nasal clearing capacity. Ultra clean delivery in the mouth that highlights the wasabi. The alcohol adds to the volatility and pepperiness. Then, in a flash the sensation is gone and you want to do it again! Kind of addictive!
Contact Details for the Wasabi Maniacs
Namida® Wasabi Spirits Limited
USA: Phone +1 (713) 893 7772
UK: Phone +44 (20) 7617 7784
NZ: Phone: +64 (4) 889 0377
AUS: Phone: +61 (2) 8006 0477