Written by Mika Tanimoto, Owner-Bartender, Bar Little Happiness — Hiroshima’s specialist whisky & rum bar with 1,000+ bottles
Every time I pour Laphroaig 10 Year Old, someone says something like: “It smells like medicine. Why does anyone drink this?” And then, after the first proper sip, they almost always say something else.
I have a particular relationship with Laphroaig that makes it difficult to be objective about. In 2009, I travelled to Islay — the island off Scotland’s southwest coast that produces some of the world’s most intensely peated whisky — and visited the distillery. And then I bought some land there.
Friends of Laphroaig
Laphroaig has operated a programme for many years called Friends of Laphroaig, under which whisky lovers can register to “own” one square foot of the distillery’s land — the boggy ground beside the distillery where the peat used in production is cut. Membership costs nothing. Your square foot of Scotland comes with a lease, a certificate, and, when you visit, a small dram of Laphroaig as payment for your “rental.”
In 2009, visiting in person was the way to properly claim your land. I went. I walked to my plot. I planted a small flag to mark my territory.
Islay’s wind took it immediately.
The flag was gone before I could take a photograph. The wind on Islay does not negotiate with small Japanese flags.
The Prohibition Story
Laphroaig has an extraordinary history that goes beyond its flavour profile. During American Prohibition in the 1920s, when virtually all spirits were banned from import, the then-owner of Laphroaig was exporting it to the United States without difficulty. The reasoning he offered customs officials was simple: “This is not liquor. It is a medicinal product.” The extraordinary, almost pharmaceutical aroma of Laphroaig — that iodine, antiseptic, seaweed quality that comes from the peat — was so convincing as a medicine that the authorities agreed. It was sold in American pharmacies.
The personality that once saved the distillery from Prohibition is still in every bottle. It is still, in some sense, a kind of medicine — for the soul, if not the body.
Laphroaig is available at Bar Little Happiness across multiple expressions. Read the full Japanese column: little-happiness.jp/columns/laphroaig-my-land-story/
Bar Little Happiness | Hiroshima, Japan
Rum & Whisky specialists | 1,000+ bottles | English menu available
Open Mon–Sat 7PM–12:30AM, Sun 7PM–midnight
No cover charge. Walk-ins welcome.
english.little-happiness.jp