Nikka's founder Masataka Taketsuru is considered the father of Japanese whisky. After completing studies in chemistry, he was recruited by the Settsu Shuzo company, who sent him to Scotland in 1918 to complete his apprenticeship. There he developed a passion for whisky and decided to dedicate his life to it. In 1934, he built Yoichi, his first distillery, on the island of Hokkaido. Its growing success enabled him to establish a second distillery in 1969, near Sendai, named Miyagikyo. It is from the single malts of these two distilleries that the Nikka Whisky group produces its entire range of Japanese whiskies.

Nikka Coffey Grain is a corn whisky with a small quantity of malt included for fermentation, distilled in a 1960s Coffey still at the Miyagikyo distillery. This type of still is generally used to produce grain whiskies for blends. It is rare for a producer to include a single grain in its permanent range as Nikka has done with this Coffey Grain.