In the bottle: Nebatama starts off with a bang as soon as you pen the bottle. To start, there are some nice earthy notes of wet hay and dry clay before moving into rich layers of vanilla, caramel, lavender and sweet potato. Additionally, there is an interesting confectionary sweetness at the end that reminds me of candies like smarties or Necco wafers. Overall, there is a lot to like on the nose which certainly built a lot of anticipation to get this in the glass, as I write this the bottle is almost empty, so that is a good sign.

On the rocks: The first sip is sweet with a nice bite on the back end, nothing off-putting, but just adds a nice bit balance to that first hit of sweetness. With Nebatama, every sip is an experience of full on sweet potato shochu amazingness, a perfect bottle to enjoy on the rocks. Once the ice melts a bit you can find a lot of the typical notes, vanilla, a little burnt caramel, sweet potato, and that nice black pepper on the finish which ties everything together nicely. I was a little surprised not to find the floral notes I saw on the nose, the lavender never found a spot to land it seems. From a drinkability standpoint, Nebatama is smooth and soft in the mouth, the sweetness does come on a bit strong, not heavy handed, but definitely there, luckily those black pepper notes at the end evens out the experience.

水割り Diluted with water

Ratio 4:1: A little water and opens up Nebatama a bit more, with some of the bigger impact notes becoming less intense which allows the more subtle flavors a chance to appear. Similar to on the rocks, this is mostly in the form of vanilla, burnt caramel and that slight sharpness on the finish.