RECIPE DEVELOPER
CAN-PANY has four recipe developers specializing in drink development. You can choose the developer whose background and expertise best match the drink you envision creating from these four individuals. Let's work together from the idea stage!
JUNERAY
CAN-PANY's Chief Recipe Developer. A freelance writer and beverage developer active in a wide range of media. Also develops drink menus for restaurants and supervises events for beverage manufacturers. Holds qualifications as a full member of the Japan Sommelier Association, a certified Wine Expert by the same association, a SAKE DIPLOMA, and a certified Beer Taster and Beer Coordinator by the Craft Beer Association. Author of "The Definitive Guide to Delicious Alcoholic Beverages: A Super Introduction to Wine, Sake, and Beer" (Asahi Shimbun Publications). Specializes in creating drinks that can be enjoyed at the dinner table, alongside wine and beer. Also adept at creating "slightly unusual" drinks using vegetables and minor fruits. Collaboration projects include Meiji Co., Ltd., Ryohin Keikaku Co., Ltd., New Balance Japan, Inc., and East Japan Railway Company (JR East).
Tomomasa Nozaki
CAN-PANY's Factory Manager. Involved in fermentation and distillation at Mitosaya Botanical Distillery and has brewing experience at craft breweries. With a background working as a gardener in Kamakura, an ancient city with many temples, he develops drinks inspired by the plants around him. His individual activities include workshops using creeping pine at "Kumo-no-daira Sanso" in the deepest part of the Northern Alps, providing drinks at tea ceremonies featuring "Mushi Hicha," a completely new tea made from the feces of moths that have eaten plants, and creating cocktails that leverage the characteristics of Taiwanese tea liquor at the release event for "S.C Lab," a Taiwanese tea liquor imported by Yaso Co., Ltd. He specializes in recipe development that utilizes the bitterness and astringency of plants. Collaboration projects include SAM'S BIKE non-alcoholic beer "SAM'S BIKE," NO NEED BECAUSE non-alcoholic cocktail "NON-ALCOHOL KILLS NO ONE" using enmeisou, and Molasses Co., Ltd. tea soda "TONON."
Simon Elings
Simon is a freelance product developer, distiller, and Bar Manager at Bar Gyu+ in Niseko. Originally from the Netherlands, he discovered his passion for flavour while working in cocktail bars, which led to a deeper interest in fermentation, distillation, and beverage development. Over the past 10 years, he has worked on spirits, RTD cocktails, modern soda concepts, and non-alcoholic beverages for both local and international markets. Before moving to Japan, Simon worked as a product developer and distiller at one of the Netherlands' oldest distilleries. Drawing on his background behind the bar, he enjoys creating drinks that are approachable yet layered, using botanicals to add texture, spice, and acidity, and developing sophisticated non-alcoholic cocktails with a strong emphasis on balance and flavour. When he is not developing drinks, he loves to go snowboarding and explore listening bars around Tokyo.
Shota Abe (The Liquid)
After gaining experience at restaurants and grand maisons in Japan and abroad, he founded The Liquid, based in Chiba Prefecture. At a membership-based curation restaurant in Tokyo, he offers pairing suggestions that are not bound by genre or category, including wine, sake, spirits, and non-alcoholic beverages. He also reconstructs regional ingredients, fermentation, and extraction from the perspective of liquid, offering drink development and experience proposals linked to space and cuisine. Leveraging his restaurant experience, he excels at creating drinks that complement food. He values a taste that is complete on its own, yet allows the drinker to freely add something to transform it into their own unique cup.