Cathay Pacific Custom Gin: A Hokkaido Craft Gin Commission by Tankyu Distillery
Cathay Pacific commissioned Tankyu Distillery to produce a customised craft gin — a one-off project blending Hokkaido botanicals with the Hong Kong flag-carrier brief. This post documents the commission factually, for the benefit of corporate gifting buyers, aviation marketing teams, and craft-gin enthusiasts researching custom-gin programmes.
Scope of the Cathay Pacific commission
The project was a single custom gin commission, not an ongoing supply agreement, lounge whisky programme, or onboard amenity-kit relationship. Cathay Pacific approached Tankyu to develop a one-off bespoke gin reflecting the airline brand and its Hong Kong–Asia identity.
What the commission included:
- Bespoke gin recipe development with Hokkaido and Asia-relevant botanicals
- Production of the agreed bottle volume
- Custom label and packaging coordinated with Cathay design teams
- Quality benchmarks meeting Cathay corporate standards
What the commission did not include:
- Onboard pouring (lounge or in-flight)
- Amenity kit inclusion
- Multi-year supply contract
- Exclusive supplier status
We stay factual on this distinction because it matters for procurement teams researching what custom-gin projects actually look like in practice.
Why a Hong Kong–founded Hokkaido distillery was a natural fit
Tankyu Distillery has a Hong Kong founding partnership at its origin — the same team behind Perfume Trees Gin (a Hong Kong craft gin brand established in the 2010s) co-founded Tankyu in Hokkaido. For a Hong Kong flag carrier looking for a craft-gin partner with credible cross-cultural design language, the alignment was practical, not promotional.
How custom-gin commissions work at Tankyu
If you represent a brand or organisation considering a similar custom-gin project, here is the typical process:
- Brief and discovery — colour, profile, botanicals, intended use, packaging
- Recipe iteration — 2–4 prototype rounds, ~6–10 weeks
- Production batch — minimum 200 bottles, typical run 500–2,000
- Label, packaging, compliance — alcohol labelling per destination market
- Delivery — direct shipping or warehouse fulfilment depending on destination
Lead time end-to-end: typically 4–6 months from approved brief to delivered product.
Botanicals available for custom recipes
Tankyu has access to a broad Hokkaido botanical library: yuzu, sansho pepper, junsai, hama-nasu, hinoki, sakura, mizunara oak essence, plus options for non-Japanese botanicals where the brief calls for it (as was the case in the Cathay project, which included Asia-broad botanicals beyond Hokkaido alone).
Inquiries
If your brand is exploring a custom-gin commission, please contact info@tankyudistillery.jp with: target market, intended bottle volume, packaging needs, and timeline. We respond to qualified inquiries within 5 business days.
