Keiyu Shibata, Master of Science in Food Innovation
Keiyu retrained to follow his distillery dreams.
Keiyu Shibata spent more than 10 years marketing drinks before he decided to make them. The international student dreams of owning a distillery in his hometown of Aomori, a small city on the tip of Honshu, Japan’s main and largest island.
The former Coca-Cola brand manager left his job in Tokyo and came to Lincoln to make it happen.
As a Master of Science in Food Innovation student, Keiyu has been refining the rare and artisanal single-botanical distilling method to find out what types of gin people like best.
He enjoyed working in marketing, but began to feel there was more he wanted to achieve. He’s planning to use that valuable marketing background and combine it with his academic Food Innovation studies to achieve his dream.
“My career in Japan was incredibly fortunate, and as a marketer, I was given some truly amazing experiences that couldn’t have been better. But I found myself strongly wanting to contribute to my hometown with my own products.”
Keiyu doesn’t just plan to bring his knowledge home. He wants to introduce single-botanical distilled gin to New Zealand, bringing a new level of care and artistry to our gin market.
“This new process will give another option to the New Zealand consumer.”