Osaka Expo 2025 welcomes KI NO BI
This June, KI NO BI will be attending the prestigious Osaka Expo 2025, having been selected by the Kyoto Prefecture to represent the region at the six-month event. Set on Yumeshima (Dream Island) in Osaka Bay, the Expo is a huge celebration of culture and craftsmanship. A staggering 28 million people are expected to have visited by the time the event ends in mid-October.
We spoke with Adrien Timpano, Head of Global Marketing, KI NO BI, to find out what visitors to its booth can expect in what promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime event for Japan and the Kansai region.
What is the Osaka World Expo event?
It’s a huge celebration of culture and craftsmanship. We have been selected by Kyoto prefecture to represent the region because we are a local producer taking care of the local community. From our beginning, we have looked to source high-quality ingredients from the neighbourhood, working with small artisan farmers to supply us with botanicals, which are then distilled separately. We are thrilled that our focus on perfection and craftsmanship has been recognised by the prefecture.
What will the KI NO BI booth look like?
The Expo has strict guidelines on how brands can showcase themselves. Our booth will be in the Expo’s Kansai Pavilion and it will be very minimalist. We are not allowed to commercially promote or sell our product or even have a simple QR code on an iPad. So, any branding will be very subtle, very elegant – very Kyoto! We are also not allowed to print flyers, so the use of paper must be kept to a bare minimum (we have small, recycled paper cups for tasting our gin). But being at the Expo is a great platform for us to be among an audience that loves elevated culture and craftsmanship – after all, it’s what KI NO BI is all about.
What is on offer for visitors to your booth?
Visitors will learn about the exquisite craftsmanship that goes into making our small-batch, artisanal gin – and get to taste are three core gins (KI NO BI DRY, KI NO TEA, KI NO BI SEI). We will also have some specially made sprays on hand – so visitors can experience the wonderful aromas of the locally sourced botanicals that go into our ultra-premium gin.
We are obsessed with detail and our production process is very precise. All of our botanicals are handpicked and hand-peeled – and we don’t throw all the ingredients into one still and press the button. Instead, the botanicals we use are divided into six element groups and distilled separately. It’s time and resource consuming but this is the perfectionism our passionate team strive for, and which epitomises the art of craft of Kyoto. And so, for the Osaka Expo, we have created a set of aroma sprays that represent the six elements, so visitors can enjoy a sensorial experience of KI NO BI.
Is there an Expo-inspired limited-edition bottle?
Yes, a limited-edition bottle will be on display in our booth. At first glance, the packaging design presents a single, striking five-story pagoda, with each level symbolising the five classic elements. But this design is formed by two distinct pagodas, each illustrated on a separate panel of the packaging and visually merging at the corner – representing the cultural link between Kyoto and Osaka. Although the bottles won’t be on sale at the Expo itself, visitors landing at Osaka airport can purchase them in the duty-free shops and they are also available at our brand home, the House of KI NO BI, in Kyoto.
You mentioned The House of KI NO BI, how will it be marking the World Expo?
Coincidentally, the House of KI NO BI will become five years old during the Expo. This is really something to celebrate, given that we opened just as the pandemic and social lockdowns began. Today, it has more than 3,500 members and is becoming a tourist attraction. And so, in June, we have an event, with one of our top accounts, The Bvlgari Bar Tokyo’s Head of Mixology and Beverage Manager, Andrea Minarelli, doing a guest shift. We have a lot of tourists in Kyoto and we want them to come and visit us for an elevated yet different experience. This is why it will be an open event, although I’m sure many of our members will come along too.
