Guide to Shochu: Explore the Versatile Japanese Distilled Spirit

Shochu is a Japanese alcoholic beverage. The distillation technique for shōchū arrived in Japan by way of Persia sometime in the sixteenth century, traveling through Okinawa (where the spirit is known as awamori) before appearing in the Kagoshima Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, where it was used to create the traditional style still produced today.

Like the soju made in Korea, shōchū is a clear, distilled spirit made from a vast selection of different ingredients, from rice to sweet potato and aromatic, nutty grains like barley. Legally, the spirit must have an alcohol content of 45 percent or less, though most types of shōchū on the market fall well under this numeric requirement.

The flavor of shōchū ultimately depends on its base ingredient and how many times it has been distilled, but its taste is sometimes described as a cross between vodka and whiskey. Shōchū made from rice will taste quite different from barley or sweet potato shōchū. Single-distilled bottles will taste most like the ingredient they’re made from—ranging from nutty to earthy or warm and spicy.

Milder shōchū is ideal for mixing into cocktails like chuhai, which pairs shōchū with fruit juices and soda water. Brown sugar-based kokuto shōchū combined with shiso leaves is a popular spin on a Mojito. You can also dilute shochu with a splash or two of cold water (mizuwari) or hot water (oyuwari).

Shochu is classified in three ways:

1. 1. Otsuri shōchū: Also known as honkaku shōchū, this spirit is a high quality, single-distilled shōchū best enjoyed neat or on the rocks.
2. 2. Korui shōchū: Korui shōchū is distilled multiple times, resulting in a milder flavor profile. This method of distilling did not arrive until the Meiji period (1868-1912), when the required machinery was first imported from Great Britain, making mass-production possible.
3. 3. Konwa shōchū: Producers combined otsuri and korui shōchū to create konwa shōchū: A budget-friendly shōchū with a more refined flavor.

Shōchū and sake are both beloved in the world of Japanese beverages, though there are a few distinctions between the two spirits:

• Base ingredients: Sake is a Japanese alcoholic beverage brewed from fermented rice grains. In Japan, the term “sake” can also refer to alcoholic beverages in general; nihonshu is a Japanese term that refers explicitly to the beverage known as sake elsewhere in the world. While shōchū may also be made from rice (kome), it is also frequently distilled from various other ingredients, like sweet potato (satsuma-imo), sugar cane (satōkibi), brown sugar (kokutō), buckwheat (soba), or barley grains (mugi).
• Koji: Producers use different strains of koji, a bacteria mold, to produce sake and shōchū. Sake’s fruity character is often thanks to yellow koji, while shōchū relies on milder white koji. Black koji is used to make Okinawan awamori.
  
• Alcoholic content: On average, shōchū contains anywhere from 25–45 percent alcohol by volume (ABV), while sake hovers around 15–20 percent.
• The production: Sake is made using a three-step fermentation process called sandan shikomi, which begins with applying a yeast mixture to a mix of steamed rice, water, and koji mold (Aspergillus oryzae, the bacteria used to make soy sauce). Producers combine the two mixtures to form moromi, or main mash. Additional batches of the rice-water-koji mixture are added to this moromi two more times, allowing the yeast activity to flourish in between additions. To make shōchū, a koji mixture of inoculated rice or barley is combined with water and yeast and allowed to ferment for a week. This moromi is then mixed with water and the base ingredient and transferred to distillation tanks.

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