Hatagashira

The gentle ginger. For bottles that a ginger beer would bully.

• Carbonation carries aroma up out of the glass, so a highball shows an aromatic bottle off rather than diluting the point of it.

A spicy one, not a sweet one. The mule format works for every dark shochu, and it is the most forgiving way to serve one.

• Carbonation carries aroma up out of the glass, so a highball shows an aromatic bottle off rather than diluting the point of it.

Hoppy Beverage Co. has made it in Tokyo since 1948; at 0.8 percent it is legally a soft drink, and it is hard to find outside Japan. Chill the bottle, the shochu and the mug and no ice is needed.

• Carbonation carries aroma up out of the glass, so a highball shows an aromatic bottle off rather than diluting the point of it.

A plain or ginger kombucha. Acid, bubbles and a little funk, all three in one pour.

• Carbonation carries aroma up out of the glass, so a highball shows an aromatic bottle off rather than diluting the point of it.

The shortcut to a sour when there is no fresh lemon. Less sweet is better.

• Carbonation carries aroma up out of the glass, so a highball shows an aromatic bottle off rather than diluting the point of it.

Cold, and fizzy enough to matter. One part shochu to three or four parts soda; if it tastes thin, go one to two next time.

• Carbonation carries aroma up out of the glass, so a highball shows an aromatic bottle off rather than diluting the point of it.

Dry cava or crémant. Acid and bubbles in one pour.

• Carbonation carries aroma up out of the glass, so a highball shows an aromatic bottle off rather than diluting the point of it.

A dry tonic (Fever-Tree, Q). One part spirit, three parts tonic, a citrus wedge.

• Carbonation carries aroma up out of the glass, so a highball shows an aromatic bottle off rather than diluting the point of it.

Lustau or González Byass. Fino is salt and living flor; this is what is left after the flor dies, and at 18 percent an ounce lengthens the glass rather than strengthening it.

• Flor leaves a savoury edge behind it, and koji leaves the same one

Linie, around thirty-five dollars, rested in oloroso casks at sea so it brings a little wood as well. A quarter ounce as a split base.

• It reads as seasoning rather than as perfume, which is what a savoury bottle wants

A few grinds over the top. Aroma more than heat.

• Pepper wakes up savory bottles

Cynar, 16.5 percent, which is weaker than most shochu, so equal parts with a 25 percent bottle lands near 20 and the drink stays long. Soda or a grapefruit soda over the top is the producer's own serve.

• With a 25 percent bottle under it the bitterness reads as celery and walnut skin instead of being scorched off

Juiced, or a stalk as the stirrer. Savory, salty and cold.

• Celery's salt and green note pull umami forward

Scrappy's leads with the seed, Fee Brothers has garlic and ginger behind it, The Bitter Truth reads more astringent than bitter. Two dashes.

• Celery seed and salt make a savoury note louder, and a bottle described as having umami has one to work on

Cold-brewed chamomile as a lengthener, or steeped in the spirit.

• Chamomile is faint enough to be lost, and a smooth bottle leaves it the room it needs

The cordial, sweet and alcohol-free, poured like a syrup. Muscat, lychee and honey in one flower. The liqueur has its own entry below: a different product rather than a stronger or weaker version of this one, and it brings alcohol along with the flower.

• Nothing here is sharp enough to cut the elderflower down, so it survives at the strength it was poured

Fino or manzanilla. Savory, salty, bone dry.

• Fino's salt and yeast meet the savour koji leaves behind

Cold-brewed sencha, unsweetened. Ocha-wari is one of the everyday ways shochu is drunk in Japan, alongside the oolong version.

• Green tea has umami of its own; it meets the bottle's

Mikawa Mirin from Sumiya Bunjiro Shoten, made from glutinous rice, koji and shochu since 1911 with no added sugar. Not the sweetened seasoning sold as mirin-fu chomiryo, which is a different product.

• It adds body and savour where a sugar syrup would only add sugar

The Japanese Bitters, five 100ml expressions, sold at Astor Wines in New York. Angostura at nearly 45 percent is a small spike in a 25 percent drink in a way these are not.

• The Umami expression is kelp, shiitake and bonito, aimed at the savoury side the bottle is described with

A small piece steeped in the bottle overnight. Savory depth without salt.

• Kombu pushes the glass further toward the savoury side a bottle with umami is already on

The dairy-free milk that tastes of cereal, which is why it likes grain spirits.

• Oat milk and roasted tea is a café drink

A bar spoon, no more. Salt, and the savory note that comes with it.

• Salt brings umami forward

Loose or bagged, brewed weak: at full strength it takes the glass over. Takara's own guide to tea-wari lists it alongside mugicha and sobacha.

• One of the few mixers that can go under a heavy bottle hot without the drink turning bitter

Salt-pickled blossoms (rinsed) or sakura syrup. Floral, faintly almond, a touch of salt.

• Cherry blossom is the first thing a rough bottle destroys, and this one has no rough edge to do it with

A pinch in the glass or a half rim. Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts; it makes it taste more like itself.

• Salt is the fastest way to make umami louder

A dried shiitake steeped in the spirit for a day. Savory and strange in the best way.

• Dried shiitake is the umami bomb of the Japanese pantry

Good tomato juice, or a ripe tomato muddled and strained. Savoury and acidic at once.

• Tomato is savoury, and so is a bottle described as having umami, so the two meet rather than compete

Umeboshi (salt-pickled), ume syrup, or the fruit's own liqueur. Sour, salty and savory at once.

• Ume's salt and sourness pull umami forward

One salted plum, crushed with a spoon in the glass. Salty, sour, savory.

• Salt and sour pull umami forward

Sakamoto's, fermented outdoors in earthenware jars in Fukuyama and aged at least a year; Toiro and Japanese Taste ship it in the US. A teaspoon in a mizuwari is the whole intervention, and a second one is usually a mistake.

• A vinegar with savour under it rather than only sharpness, so beside a savoury bottle it reads as family instead of contrast
• Harder to find outside Japan than most of this list. Worth ordering or a trip to a Japanese grocery, and where something easier works as well, that comes first.

The Kyushu condiment, in a tube in any Japanese grocer: fermented yuzu peel, green chili and salt. A quarter teaspoon stirred into an oyuwari, which is the serve Asahi publishes.

• The salt in it raises the perceived sweetness of koji
• Harder to find outside Japan than most of this list. Worth ordering or a trip to a Japanese grocery, and where something easier works as well, that comes first.