Mars Tsunuki Malt Duo TSUNUKI × AKKESHI

Mars Tsunuki Malt Duo TSUNUKI x AKKESHI is a blended malt that brings together two contrasting Japanese craft distilleries under the Hombo Shuzo umbrella. Akkeshi, founded in 2016 on Hokkaido's cold and foggy eastern coast, supplies its hallmark peated spirit, while Tsunuki, Hombo's Kagoshima distillery opened the same year in southern Kyushu, contributes a warmer, more richly matured malt. The pairing is an explicit creative collaboration, bottled at six years old and cask strength 51%, released to the global market in 2024.

Both components were matured in Ex-Bourbon casks, the coopered wood lending vanilla and light caramel to underpin the contrast between Akkeshi's colder, maritime peat and Tsunuki's faster, humidity-driven softness. On the nose and palate, citrus and honey sit alongside a coal-gas smokiness and nutty depth, the warmth of Kyushu and the sea-fog of eastern Hokkaido in quiet dialogue. Bottled at cask strength without chill-filtration, the texture is direct and layered.