University Students in Kyoto Devise Colorful Cocktails Inspiring Image of Ancient Imperial Palace in Nara Period

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:00 JST, December 24, 2023

KYOTO — Eight students at a university in Kyoto have concocted colorful sake cocktails which evoke the ruins of Heijo-kyu in Nara — an imperial palace from the Nara period (710-784).

The third-year students at the Department of Industrial Life Science of the Faculty of Life Science of Kyoto Sangyo University in Kita Ward, Kyoto, named the series of cocktails “Ayazake” (colorful sake).

The project emerged after the students attended a lecture exploring ways to promote the Heijo-kyu ruins. Their target audience is young people of their generation who are beginning to learn the tastes and joys of alcoholic beverages.

The students devised the cocktails so that young people will enjoy drinking while feeling the charm of the Heijo Palace site, which offers both history and nature.

The drinks come in six different colors, such as shinshuiro deep red and rurikon deep blue, based on their use in Nara-period clothing and the Suzakumon gate of the palace. The students made the cocktails using junmai ginjo sake, because Heijo-kyo palace had a sake brewery called Miki-no-Tsukasa in the Nara period.

The students plan a tasting event of their beverages, which also include alcohol-free versions. Yutaro Miki, 21, a member of the project, said, “We have developed a cocktail which can be enjoyed with five senses.”