Suntory’s Forgotten First Foray into Vodka: Mild Vodka
The Japanese corporate giant has tried it all since they started selling alcoholic beverages in 1899.
Before Suntory launched its new “craft” vodka brand, Haku Vodka, in 2018, Suntory sold Mild Vodka in the early 1980s.
Suntory is most widely known for its award-winning Hibiki and Yamazaki whisky lines, but the beverage giant sells everything from canned beer to bottled green tea, and it has tried to make in-roads in various liquor categories throughout the decades. In the late 1960s, it sold green tea liquor and plum liquor domestically. It sold sweet red wine, Suntory Dry Gin, and “VSOP” Brandy in the 1970s. Its biggest hit might be Midori Melon Liqueur, which it launched in 1978 and is still used in cocktails throughout the world. Mild Vodka did perform as well. Distributed in Japan as Mild Vodka, and overseas as both Mild and Bonzai, few people seem to remember Haku’s forgotten predecessor.
Most recent posts about Haku Vodka say things like “Beam Suntory Looks Beyond Whisky With A Japanese Craft Vodka” or says that Suntory is trying something new, which is regurgitated PR copy. Look deeper and you’ll see that Haku wasn’t…
