shochu is a clear Japanese spirit most often distilled from sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas), barley, or rice. All shochu is required to use the starch-saccharifying ability of aspergillus molds in the form of koji to power a fermentation process similar to that of Okinawan awamori. See Aspergillus oryzae; awamori; and koji. Long a drink downed by the working classes in its center of production, Kyushu Island, shochu has enjoyed surging respect and demand across the country since the turn of the twenty-first century.
Somewhat confusingly, shochu can be divided into two major camps. The first is a neutral, column-distilled product (kōrui), known as “multiply distilled” shochu. It is generally used as a medium-proof (25 percent ABV) cocktail fuel or the kick in homemade macerations. The more interesting type is honkaku, or premium, shochu (also known as “singly distilled shochu”). This is an aromatic and flavorful pot-still liquor (also generally bottled at 25 percent ABV). It has recently found new generations of admirers across Japan, with World Trade Organization regional protection granted to four traditional varieties. A third category is a blend of the previous two, thus necessitating all manner of labeling regulations that clearly list ingredients, still type, region, and in some cases aging and whether the koji is handmade. Much shochu in the US market is erroneously labeled “soju” to allow sale on a beer and wine license in California, a quirk that causes misunderstandings in those markets and consternation by those aware of the immense differences between the two spirits. See soju.
History and Production
The particulars of shochu’s origins in Kyushu are buried within the overlapping reports of liquor reaching the island by boat from the Okinawa Islands, Korea, and China. Most scholars point to the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century as the likely start of shochu production (there is a 1549 reference to “arrack made of rice” from a European traveler), but 1559 is the earliest explicit reference to the drink. This was uncovered at Koriyama Hachiman Shrine in present-day Kagoshima Prefecture, where two disgruntled carpenters apparently hid some graffiti beneath the roof that read, “The chief Shinto priest of the shrine was so stingy that he never once gave us shochu to drink.” See arrack. The thirsty craftsmen were likely referring to rice shochu, as sweet potatoes had not yet been widely welcomed on Kagoshima’s volcanic shores. Much like with the awamori distilled in Okinawa, rice was the main starch used during the early decades of shochu’s spread. The proud rice shochu tradition of southern Kumamoto Prefecture exhibits a complexity that is regionally protected by the WTO as Kuma shochu. Okinawa’s rice-based awamori, which is thought to be a direct ancestor of early rice shochu varieties in Kyushu, is recognized by the WTO as Ryukyu awamori. In other parts of the country, it has become common to distill sake lees, a shochu production method that was originally employed to create alcohol-free lees that could then be used as fertilizer. Modern iterations of this genre exhibit strong floral and fruit notes.
Riemon Maeda, a Yamagawa fisherman, is popularly credited with bringing sweet potato tubers to Kyushu from Okinawa in 1705, a move that would quickly see potato crops usurp rice paddies in southern Kyushu’s unforgiving, volcanic-ash-laden soil. However, both starch sources would become integral to potato shochu, since rice is the most common koji vehicle used in the starter mash. See
The primary ferment bubbles away for around five days in large earthenware pots as the rice koji and yeast work simultaneously to chop starches into glucose and then metabolize the sugar into alcohol, carbon dioxide, and heat. This unique process, which is also central to awamori and sake brewing and can achieve mash alcohol levels around 18 percent, is termed multiple parallel fermentation. See fermentation. The secondary mash welcomes steamed potatoes, which will be allowed to ferment for one to two weeks before distillation in a pot still (often under a vacuum) and aging in pots, enamel or steel tanks, or wooden casks. The distillate generally carries an alcohol percentage in the high 30s to low 40s (maximum bottling proof is 45 percent for premium shochu, 35 percent for the multiply distilled product). Sweet potato shochu made in Kagoshima Prefecture with local ingredients can carry the WTO regional appellation satsuma shochu. Of the dozens of sweet potato varietals used to make shochu today, the most common is the white-fleshed, starch-rich koganesengan.
Alternatively, unmalted two-row barley can be added to the secondary mash, guiding aroma and flavor profiles in entirely new directions. The oldest and most famous barley shochu tradition, which emerged during the rice control policies in Nagasaki Prefecture during the 1700s, is iki shochu, a WTO-protected drink that uses a 2:1 barley-to-rice koji ratio in the mash. As recently as the 1970s, Oita Prefecture reinvented the genre with barley shochu that eschews rice koji in the starter mash and uses a pure barley koji instead. Iichiko, the omnipresent barley shochu brand from Oita, first hit the market in 1979. Oita barley shochu is sometimes bottled at 20 percent ABV rather than the standard 25 percent. According to the industry publication Shurui sangyō nenkan 2015, 41.4 percent of premium shochu shipments in 2014 were the barley product, while 44.5 percent were sweet potato.
Another popular variety is the brown-sugar shochu made in Kagoshima’s Amami Islands, which in 1953 was exempted from steep rum taxes thanks to the use of rice koji in the mash and the celebratory mood of the authorities upon reversion of the islands from US occupation. (The cane-koji combination it uses is reminiscent of the process used to make Batavia arrack.) See arrack, Batavia. Buckwheat shochu arrived on the scene in 1973 in the form of a top-selling brand from Miyazaki Prefecture, Unkai. Honkaku shochu has evolved over the years to include more than fifty approved starch ingredients—from chestnuts to carrots—and thousands of brands distilled by well over 450 distilleries nationwide. The most popular categories of premium shochu (particularly sweet potato) have hundreds of labels, most made by artisanal distilleries, encompassing an immense spectrum of aroma and flavor.
Enjoyment
Precious few are the rules governing how to drink premium shochu. Most serving decisions come down to the shochu in question and personal taste. In addition to drinking it neat, many people order their shochu on the rocks, mixed with cool or hot water, or cut with club soda. Cocktails made with multiply distilled shochu and citrus fruit or tea mixers in the chuhai style are common convenience store and pub options, but international bartenders are beginning to experiment more with the more robust, complex flavors of honkaku shochu.
Connoisseurs love to sample shochu at a 3:2 ratio with hot water, especially sweet potato shochu during the winter months, because in addition to opening up the drink’s rich aroma, umami and sweet notes will become more readily noticeable on the palate. As explained by the Sake School of America, umami is “comprised mainly of palmitic acid, ethyl, and ethyl linoleate,” and hot water aids their dissolution and expression in what is called an oyuwari mix (hot water is added to the cup first, room-temperature shochu second).
There are also few particulars about drinking vessels. In an effort to head off taxation issues, the authorities have allowed the product an 0.08 or less spectrometer color reading, which precludes lengthy aging in wood and guarantees that shochu will generally not contain hues worthy of admiration. See
“Characteristics and Production Methods of the Main Varieties of Honkaku Shōchū and Awamori.” http://www.honkakushochu-awamori.jp/english/pdf/no_4.pdf (accessed April 5, 2021).
Pellegrini, Christopher. The Shochu Handbook: an Introduction to Japan’s Indigenous Distilled Drink. Dublin, OH: Telemachus, 2014.
Sake School of America. Shochu Adviser Certificate Course. Los Angeles: Sake School of America, 2015.
Shurui Sangyō Nenkan 2015 [Alcohol industry almanac 2015]. Tokyo: Jōzō Sangyō Shinbunsha, 2015.
By: Christopher Pellegrini