Food & Wine

These Floral, Fruity Cocktails Are Fresh from Tokyo (September 2022)

"We've come a long way from the saketini. When Kenta Goto was bartending in New York City in the aughts, he decided that the formerly trendy sake-and-cucumber concoction needed an upgrade. What if, instead, drinks actually highlighted the beauty of Japanese ingredients? "I thought, 'Somebody needs to do something,'" he says. "I started feeling I should be the one." 

The Sakura Martini, an elegant, modern take on the saketini was created by Goto, owner of Manhattan's Bar Goto and Brooklyn's Bar Goto Niban. Goto uses aged genshu sake and gin in the drink, and garnishes it with a salt-pickled cherry blossom."