Awarded Finnish Napue gin at Hong Kong festival

During 18-20 October, Finnish Kyrö Distillery Company & Runway Bar in Central, Hong Kong are teaming up to celebrate Gin Jubilee 2017. Over the course of three days the bar will be serving Kyrö’s award-winning Napue rye gin. Guests will also have early access to Runway bartender Tomi Ho’s signature Napue & Tonic beverage. Admission is free of charge.

East Imperial Gin Jubilee is the Hong Kong edition of Asia’s premier gin festival. This annual celebration of all things gin brings together some of the world’s finest gins, the region’s best bars and bartenders, and thousands of gin novices and aficionados. The culmination of the East Imperial Gin Jubilee is the crowning of one bar and bartender with the Silver Tankard for each city’s ‘Best Gin & Tonic’.

And for the first time ever, East Imperial Gin Jubilee 2017 will spread gin culture beyond Asia and into the Pacific, with individual jubilees planned in Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Phnom Penh, Bangkok, Singapore and now Auckland. More than 120 of the region’s best bars will compete for a trip to the grand jubilee finale in Singapore and the ultimate crown.

A Finnish event within East Imperial Gin Jubilee is the Rye Runway Masterclass on 18 October with Kyrö Distillery Company brand ambassador Steven Beerens.

The Kyrö Distillery Company & Runway Bar team up to bring this year’s Gin Jubilee to new heights. Focusing on Kyrö’s Napue gin, the world’s best gin and tonic in 2015’s IWSC and this year’s gold medallist attendants will be welcome to experience rye gin thoroughly in a comfortable setting. Guests are invited to explore the different ways of enjoying this flavourful Finnish rye gin. Promotional Gin & Tonic signatures are served at incredibly low prices. Location: Runway Bar [Shop B G/F Carfield Commercial Building, 75-77 Wyndham St, Central]

Members of FinnCham Hong Kong are entitled to a free first Kyrö HO cocktail provided they bring their membership and participate in the Mosaic wall through Instagram. The Mosaic will allow the user to print a picture of choice by sharing through Instagram using two specific hashtags, the picture will also feature on our final completed mosaic!

In 2015, Napue won “Best Gin for Gin and Tonic” at the prestigious International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC), an award considered among the highest recognitions you can get in the global wine and spirits industry. Kyrö is an all-rye distillery producing finest rye gin in an old dairy in Isokyrö, Finland.

In November 2016 Kyrö came to Hong Kong to introduce the Napue gin to the market. With all of the spirits it makes, the Finnish distillery works with one, special ingredient: rye.

We are the world’s only all rye distillery,” claimed Miika Lipiäinen, CEO and founder of rural Kyrö Distillery when visiting Hong Kong. “And it makes sense. An average Finn consumes 16 times more rye than the world’s average. Everything we make is out of Finnish wholegrain rye.”

The idea for the distillery was conceived in a sauna in 2012. Within two years, everything was ready for the production to start. The first year the distillery sold 4,700 bottles, all delivered from the trunk of the CEO’s car. The next year, 2015, everything changed.

Miika, the CEO of the company got a phone call from London saying “I know nothing about your distillery, but you should start preparing. Your gin has been chosen as The Best for Gin & Tonic.”

“Our gin, Napue, ran out everywhere after that,” says Mr. Lipiäinen, “and we ended up selling 100,000 bottles that year.” A year later, the distillery already expanded its export to 21 countries and grew in phenomenal speed.

So what’s the secret behind the gin? “It’s a combination of northern wholegrain rye, foraged fresh botanicals and of course crystal-clear water,” says Mr. Lipiäinen. “We tried to capture the aroma of a Finnish summer day. And I think we did a pretty good job.”

Two of the company’s five founders have lived in China and saw the potential in the market: the gin trend that has been going on for some time in Europe has now landed in Hong Kong. So has Kyrö Distillery

Sources: Consulate General of Finland in Hong Kong and Macau, Kyrö Distillery Company

About Joakim Persson

Freelance business and lifestyle photojournalist

View all posts by Joakim Persson

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *