Bartender Interview: Kendra Hada

Shochu, Japan’s national craft spirit, needs superstar bartenders to shine a light on its deserving spot on the bar top. Kendra Hada, 4th-generation Japanese-American and winner of the JSS 2023 Shochu Cocktail Contest, is certainly that and more. She honed her skills working alongside some of the industry’s most revered leaders, including Dave Arnold (author of Liquid Intelligence), Don Lee (creator of the bacon-washed Old Fashioned), and Lynnete Marrero (co-founder of Speed Rack). And now she is one of the shochu industry’s brightest talents.

After meeting her at a shochu promotional event in New York, Kendra collaborated with Nankai Shochu for a pop-up during the 2024 San Francisco AAPI Cocktail Week. Her incredible sensibilities and craftsmanship for cocktails using our barrel-aged kokuto shochu wowed everyone at the event, and it directly led to Nankai recommending her to Nikaido Shochu as their first brand ambassador.

We caught up with Kendra earlier this year to talk about her beginnings and her thoughts on all things shochu and cocktails.

Nankai Paul
Let’s start with your journey towards shochu. Let’s talk about how you got into cocktails in the first place.

Kendra Hada
I feel like my journey is a little opposite from the average bartender. I got hired as a server at a restaurant called Sunday in Brooklyn. One day I noticed that our executive pastry chef, Mallory, seemed really stressed. I asked her if she needed any help. And she was like, “Do you know how to do admin work?” It wasn’t what I meant, but I started doing the invoices for all the kitchen and helping with inventory. But it made me a better server because I got to know our purveyors and our ingredients.

And since I was always doing admin for the kitchen, the owner, Adam Lansman, asked me to do inventory for the bar. And then eventually they asked me to bartend. But it was crazy because there was no one to train me at all. We had no one. No head bartender, no beverage director. No bar backs. Just bartenders.

So I had to figure out how to bar back, how to do prep and how to bartend all on my own and got like thrown to the wolves, which is the best way to learn.

Nankai Paul
Were there times when a customer would come in and request af cocktail that you hadn’t heard of yet?

Kendra Hada
Absolutely. There was a huge binder, like 20 pages of just drinks. And I would flip through it and figure it out. We would get 600 covers during brunch alone, so I really learned to be efficient.

Nankai Paul
And you were hooked on cocktails from then. Where did your career go from there?

Kendra Hada
After that job, I was hired to open Existing Conditions, which was owned by Don Lee and Dave Arnold. And I feel like that was where I learned how to bartend. But it was molecular gastronomy. You know, we had refractometers, centrifuges to clarify things, carbonation systems, and things like that. I feel like that’s not where most bartenders start. So I still didn’t really have a grasp on my classics, but I got to learn flavor. And I learned how to approach cocktail making in terms of like, how do I make this flavor? You know, the most whatever version of a flavor it can possibly be.

I also helped open Llama San. And that was cool because the beverage director there is Lynnette Marrero. And she’s a wonderful, wonderful person, and so knowledgeable. It was a Japanese Peruvian restaurant. The executive chef was Japanese Peruvian. So that was kind of cool for me to, like, get closer to my heritage. And when the pandemic happened, I moved to San Francisco and started working at where I am now, ABV. And ABV is such an old school bar, very classics-oriented. And so now, all of my cocktails have a classical base to them. So that was my journey. It was very backwards. I feel like I’m like back at the beginning, but it’s been fun.

Nankai Paul
How did you meet Don Lee and Dave Arnold? Or Lynette Marrero? And at the time, did you know that they were, you know, famous in the industry?

Kendra Hada
No, I didn’t know at all. I just knew that I like what I do and I wanted to be good at it. I was like, oh, I’m working for like really nice people. You know, I knew Don Lee and Dave Arnold because of my sister. Don reached out to me and joked, “I want to see if it runs in the family.”

Nankai Paul
He was referring to your sister, AK Hada?

Kendra Hada
Everybody knows my sister in New York. She was the head bartender at PDT and the North American brand ambassador for Bacardi Spirits. She’s wonderful. We’re really close, but we don’t talk too much about work. I think there’s always been like this nice respect from her being my older sister where she lets me do things without her input, which helps me feel anything I’ve done has really been my own personal accomplishment. I’ve always kind of found my own way.

Nankai Paul
So tell me, when did you know you loved working with cocktails?

Kendra
Actually, kind of early on. So I was working at Existing Conditions and discovering like I really, really like this. You know, it’s more than just a job or a means to pay my bills. Like it was such a cool way to express creativity.

Nankai Paul
And when did you start having an interest in working with shochu?

Kendra Hada
The first educational seminar that I had ever attended was for shochu. It was hosted by JSS at the Japanese embassy. Ten different master distillers were flown in, and we got a sample of their shochus. And It was it was so fun, just a really cool experience. Yeah, I just kind of fell in love with it, getting to taste all of the different shochus and see how different they were. It was just such an experience for me.

So then, years later, when JSS was having the Shochu Cocktail Competition,I remember I still had such a visceral taste memory of tasting some of them, like the Toji Junpei which I used in my cocktail.

Nankai Paul
That’s awesome. When you use shochu in a cocktail, what are some of the things that you’re thinking about, whether to bring out the best in the cocktail or the best in the shochu?

Kendra Hada
Honestly, proportion is what I think about most. You know, a lot of cocktails, when your base spirit is full proof, you know, it stands up to modifiers better. So you can do classic ratios. Shochu is so different. Like it’s it’s already low ABV. And I think, with the exception of black koji shochus or more like atmospheric distilled imo shochus, they are quite delicate. You can use more. I’ll usually do like two and a quarter or maybe two and a half ounces of the shochu as the base spirit. And then it acts so well amplifying the flavors around it that you’re modifying ingredients. You will only ever need a quarter to a half ounce and it just still shines through.

And I think with flavors there are different approaches. Some people will have a star flavor and then choose something that’ll contrast with it to make an interesting cocktail. With Shochu, I actually really like amplifying of flavors. A lot of times I’ll taste the shochu on its own and then ask myself, what flavors do I get and what nuances are already present in the shochu and how can I accentuate that?

Nankai Paul
That’s awesome. You know, we talk about the umami component of shochu quite a bit, and, as you know, umami can also act as a as a strong flavor enhancer. Do you find that’s a helpful aspect of shochu or does it just add more flavor?

Kendra Hada
I definitely find it on the helpful side. It’s so interesting trying to describe what shochu tastes like. It’s one of those spirits where you can say, “Oh, it has banana or cereal grain or more flora notes.” But tasting it is such a different thing. How do you describe umami? It’s bitter and sweet and savory and all the things at the same time. And it pairs well with so many other flavors.

Nankai Paul
Totally. You definitely showcased the power of shochu at our AAPI Cocktail Week pop up, which, for the record completely sold out. I think it was a big success. It was so nice of you to approach us to be your partner when we’re such a small company.

Kendra Hada
Oh, I just you were so nice when I met you and Mai. I like working with brands that have people that I like. And so you’re just kind of the first thing that popped in my brain. And also, I really love your shochu. It’s just really delicious. And I think there is a part of me that love challenges. That’s just my personality. I’ve had conversations with people in the past who have said vacuum-distilled kokuto shochu is hard to work with in a cocktail. And I just wanted to show them that it’s not. You just need to have intention and care and really think about your proportion and ratios. I loved everything I did for the pop-up, and it was a nice proud moment for me.

Nankai Paul
You killed it. So many favorites that day. I honestly couldn’t choose, but I especially loved the Aww Shucks oyster cocktail because it was just so unexpected and delicious.

Kendra Hada
I love that one so much. It was good. Yeah.

Nankai Paul
What are what are some of your thoughts about introducing shochu to bartenders? What are the biggest challenges?

Kendra Hada
It’s going to be getting bartenders to break the mold of American cocktails being built on high proof. and the idea of a stiff drink and trying to get people to step away from that. And I do think that now is the best time because there’s such a trend for low and no ABV.

And so it really is the perfect time for shochu, but we need bartenders to taste it. And, I understand some of it’s delicate, but lthat should be exciting. I think that’s why you’ll typically see more stirred shochu cocktails or carbonated cocktails, like shochu high balls. I hope more bartenders understand how shochu does pair so beautifully with other spirits. Like when you drink it on its own, that’s why you have it with food pairings. Because it just makes everything else taste better. And if we can get people to understand that, then that’ll help bartenders be like, “Oh, this is a great spirit I can use in cocktails,” whether it’s a base ingredient or as a modifier. Sometimes I think of it like absinthe or Chartreuse in cocktails. Those ingredients you only ever use like a dash or a quarter ounce, but that’s the thing that transforms the drink.

Nankai
That’s amazing. I love that. To close things off, what are you looking forward to this year?

Kendra Hada
I’m obviously looking forward to a new chapter in my life and learning how to be a brand ambassador. I’m really excited to be working with Nikaido and Nankai. It’s going to be so fun.

For a cocktail recipe from Kendra, click here: Day Break Shochu Cocktail