American Madness

I received a bottle of Ty Ku in the mail the other day. It sounded pretty interesting as a Sake mixed with liquor and I was looking forward to trying it out, especially after my recent trip to Japan. Then the other day I found out that the Joy of Sake festival is in New York City today, and as you might want to head there for all your fine Sake tasting, I figured this made a good tie-in for a post, so I made a point this weekend to drink some Ty Ku.

The bottle, as you can see, is pretty impressive: frosted glass with a green liquid inside. When you lift the bottle from the table it lights up, glowing green as you pour the beverage (or as the website says: “the patented bottle illuminates with a soft green glow when ever it is poured, creating yet another industry first, and setting a new standard in out-of-the-bottle thinking.”)

The materials I got with the bottle name drop like all other marketing materials do, citing Leonardo DiCaprio, Paris Hilton and other famous names as fans of Ty Ku. After trying Ty Ky for the first time all I could think was that these celebs must be lacking taste (though, in all fairness, I never thought Paris Hilton had any taste to begin with).

So, Ty Ku bills itself as a new genre of alcohol, “set to create a new category in the beverage industry,” though I am not sure what that category might be. The press materials discusses the drink’s mysterious flavors, which are probably called mysterious because it is much easier then listing out the “20 all natural ingredients.”

The various press materials list melon and pomegranate as possible flavors. Personally, I thought it tasted like a really bad apple martini. The other people drinking it with me thought the taste was more reminiscent of pears or melon. A minor list of some of the 20 different ingredients is included, and to name just a few, we’ve got: yuzu, pomegranate, prickly pear, oolong tea, green tea, plum, kiwi, ginseng, damiana and Dragon’s Eye. Oh, speaking to those last 3 ingredients, the press materials note that Ty Ku is also an aphrodisiac. I am sure it is — in the same way most alcoholic beverages are: Drink enough and you will sleep with anyone.

Ty Ku was the brain child of some Columbia students. I hypothesize that they were probably marketing majors. Everything about the Ty Ku campaign is slick and refined. You read about it and see it and it seems really attractive. It seems like the type of beverage you find in upscale bars and lounges. Its image and marketing materials and image just scream sexy. Even the recipes suggested in the Ty Ku literature look great. Even knowing that the taste of Ty Ku is pretty bad, I am still intrigued by the look of the various potential drink combos, such as the Katana (Ty Ku, light rum, lime juice, mint, grapefruit, rock candy syrup and club soda) and the Wet Pearl (Ty Ku, vanilla vodka, pineapple juice and a dash of bitters). Ty Ku is billed as the “Ultimate Mixer.” I just couldn’t imagine ruining another alcohol with it.

Unfortunately, I felt Ty Ku was a miss, though if you are feeling adventurous you should head on out and pick yourself up a bottle. You don’t need to take my word for it. Try it yourself. Oh, and one of the other people who tried Ty Ku with me thought their logo looked like an alien head. I’ll let ya’ll decide on that one.

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This entry was posted by Matt Cipriano on Thursday, September 27th, 2007 at and is filed under Food & Drink, Liquor, Sake, Ty Ku. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.