As the most consumed spirit in Japan, shochu has had an indomitable reign domestically over the past two decades. But as the market for alcohol shrinks in the country, distillers are getting creative, finding new drinkers elsewhere—and sparking the beginnings of a new movement in the process
If sake is the elegant belle of the ball in the world of Japanese alcohol—mellifluous of flavour and perfectly at home on the pristine hinoki countertops of omakase sushi bars the world over—then shochu is the older, slightly less admired first cousin once removed: a regular face at the local watering hole, a little rough around the edges, generally affable, with a knack for seamlessly blending into any social circle. But lately, Cousin Shochu has undergone a transformation and is finally having its moment in the limelight.
Japan’s national spirit has long been overshadowed by sake, and while talk of shochu’s long-heralded rise outside of Japan has been humming in the background for the last decade or so, it finally reached critical mass during the pandemic, bolstered by a slew of new-wave Japanese bars outside of Japan in the cocktail capitals of the world, from New York and Chicago to Hong Kong and Singapore.
“There’s long been an interest in Japanese culture, and with sake and washoku [Japanese cuisine] having become available nearly worldwide, I think people have continued to look for the next new Japanese product,” says Maya Aley, an American shochu bar owner in the city of Kagoshima and the first non-Japanese person to be certified as a Shochu Meister. “This time, it’s shochu’s time to shine.”
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The people’s spirit
For the uninitiated, shochu is a clear distilled spirit originating from Japan that has roots stretching all the way back to the 16th century—a hundred years before rum had even made its way to the Caribbean. Traditionally produced at a strength of 25 to 30 per cent ABV, shochu can be made from a plethora of base, or mash, ingredients: today, the most popular are sweet potato, barley, rice, buckwheat, and kokuto, or brown sugar, although it isn’t unheard of for producers to use the likes of shiso, chestnuts, sesame and even milk.
The mash is fermented with yeast and koji, a mould that is also used in the production of sake and soy sauce, before being distilled either multiple times for a cheap, vodka-like end product; or, alternatively, only once, often by small-scale producers, to create a spirit labelled honkaku (authentic class) that retains the nuances of its base ingredient, while the addition of jealously guarded, proprietary strains of koji imbues the liquid with depth of flavour. The former preparation is often mixed with artificial fruit flavourings, canned, then sold as shochu highballs, or chu-hai, at convenience stores across Japan for a quick and easy alcoholic fix. The latter is the driving force behind the current shochu revival, where artisanal and family-owned distilleries are demonstrating the craft quality possible with this long-neglected drink.
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