Jasmine is perfumed without being sweet, so it gives barley shochu an aromatic top without touching its dryness
Cucumber on a clean bottle is the most refreshing thing on this list. Ribbons or muddled slices. Cucumber is what turns a serious glass into something you drink outside without thinking about it.
One part shochu to three or four parts of the long mixer, over plenty of ice, then the accent on top. If it tastes thin, go two to three next time.
What it tastes like
Mugi shochu from Sanwa Shurui in Oita. Published tasting notes: umami, savory, clean, sweet. The profile below is built from the tasting notes published for it.
barley
umami
savory
clean
sweet
Sweet
3/5
Body
1/5
Aroma
2/5
Fruit
1/5
Floral
not described
Grain
3/5
Earth
1/5
Umami
3/5
Read from the words above rather than measured. Where it says not described, none of the sources behind this page mention it, which is not the same as it not being there.
ABV
20%
What to mix with it
Tap a family to narrow it down. Every suggestion carries its reasoning, so if the reasoning does not convince you, ignore the suggestion.
A longer wedge is a family we'd reach for sooner with this bottle, worked out from its flavours rather than tasted. It isn't a score, or a comparison with other bottles.
One salted plum, crushed with a spoon in the glass. Salty, sour, savory.
One umeboshi in a glass of barley shochu and hot water is the oldest shochu drink there is
Salt and sour pull umami forward
Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts. It makes a savoury bottle taste more like itself. The pairing reads as strange and drinks as obvious.
Dashi-wari and an umeboshi in hot barley shochu are real izakaya orders, but they belong to a winter counter rather than a summer glass.
Oita's citrus, softer than sudachi. Bartenders in Oita mix it with the local barley shochu and soda.
A clean mugi does under citrus what a neutral shochu does, with a little more grain left behind it.
Kabosu and barley shochu are both Oita's, and kabosu gets squeezed into drinks there; the gentler acid suits a mugi wherever it was distilled
Milder than sudachi, so it does not fight a delicate bottle
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.
A small green citrus from Tokushima, sharper and more herbal than lime. Sold frozen or as juice in Japanese markets.
A clean mugi does under citrus what a neutral shochu does, with a little more grain left behind it.
Sudachi's green sharpness shows best on a clean bottle
Sharper and greener than the lemon a barley sour usually gets, which is what makes it worth the trip from Tokushima
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.
Soft water, cold, over ice or not. One to one is normal. Mix a day ahead (maewari) and the edges round off.
Mizuwari shows a clean bottle as it is, just lighter
Six parts shochu to four parts water, the classic
Barley has less to open up than sweet potato, so water shows you exactly what is there. That is a fair test and not always a flattering one: a thin mugi has nowhere to hide in 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.
The barley highball is one of the most common ways shochu gets drunk in Japan. Clean spirit, cold soda, nothing in the way.
It was built around neutral shochu, and that is still where it fits best
Juice and peel are two different tools. Fresh juice, never bottled, is the whole basis of the lemon sour and the quickest way to put acid into a distilled base. The peel expressed over the top gives the oil and no acid at all, which is what a sweet or roasted bottle usually wants instead.
The lemon sour is an izakaya staple. Bars usually build it on a neutral shochu, and a clean mugi does the same job with a little more grain behind it.
The lemon sour is the drink most izakaya sell more of than anything else on the list
Roasted buckwheat, in any Japanese grocery, hot or cold. In a soba restaurant the same serve is made with soba-yu, the starchy water the noodles were boiled in, which is thicker and cannot be bought.
Roasted buckwheat and roasted barley are one idea arrived at from two grains
Roasted buckwheat, in any Japanese grocery, hot or cold. In a soba restaurant the same serve is made with soba-yu, the starchy water the noodles were boiled in, which is thicker and cannot be bought.
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
Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts. It makes a savoury bottle taste more like itself. The pairing reads as strange and drinks as obvious.
A small piece steeped in the bottle overnight. Savory depth without salt.
White miso whisked into a syrup, a small spoon per drink. Salty, sweet and savory at once.
Umami on umami
Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts. It makes a savoury bottle taste more like itself. The pairing reads as strange and drinks as obvious.
White miso whisked into a syrup, a small spoon per drink. Salty, sweet and savory at once.
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
Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts. It makes a savoury bottle taste more like itself. The pairing reads as strange and drinks as obvious.
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.
Eden Foods sells it as Ume Plum Vinegar in most US supermarkets, and it is one of the cheapest things on this list. A bar spoon, and unlike a crushed umeboshi it can go into a shaken drink.
Salt and acid arrive together, which is what a salted rim does for a margarita
Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts. It makes a savoury bottle taste more like itself. The pairing reads as strange and drinks as obvious.
Eden Foods sells it as Ume Plum Vinegar in most US supermarkets, and it is one of the cheapest things on this list. A bar spoon, and unlike a crushed umeboshi it can go into a shaken drink.
A Miyazaki citrus eaten with the white pith left on, which is sweet rather than bitter. Gentler and more floral than lemon, so it flavours a drink without taking it over.
A clean mugi does under citrus what a neutral shochu does, with a little more grain left behind it.
Mild enough that a light bottle is still the thing you taste
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.
Okinawa's own citrus, picked green and sharp, more bitter than lime and more floral than sudachi. Squeezed over awamori and soda it is what the islands actually drink.
A clean mugi does under citrus what a neutral shochu does, with a little more grain left behind it.
Sharper and more bitter than a lime, which is what keeps it from disappearing into a light bottle
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 Japanese citrus that tastes like grapefruit, mandarin and lemon at once, with a floral peel. A little zest or juice goes a long way.
A clean mugi does under citrus what a neutral shochu does, with a little more grain left behind it.
A clean bottle gives yuzu a blank page
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.
Two slices from any Asian grocery, seeds out. It keeps getting more bitter the longer it sits, so taste as you go and pull the slices when it is where you want it.
The Okinawa brewers' association publishes a goya cocktail of its own, so this is not an idea from outside
A clean barley highball takes a garden note without losing its own grain under it.
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
Sweet and savoury at once is what mirin is for in a kitchen, and the glass is no different
Hot water in the glass first, spirit poured on top so it mixes itself. Around 40C in the glass is the sweet spot. This is not the only way, it is one way.
Mugi oyuwari in winter, with an umeboshi
Barley has less to open up than sweet potato, so water shows you exactly what is there. That is a fair test and not always a flattering one: a thin mugi has nowhere to hide in it.
A bar spoon, no more. Salt, and the savory note that comes with it.
Brine and sweetness do not agree
Salt brings umami forward
A clean bottle can take a splash of brine
Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts. It makes a savoury bottle taste more like itself. The pairing reads as strange and drinks as obvious.
Young sansho leaves, clapped between the palms and floated. Hard to find outside Japanese markets in spring, worth the hunt.
A single leaf on a clean bottle changes the whole glass
A clean barley spirit takes herbs the way vodka does, but with a cereal sweetness underneath that gives them something to sit on.
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.
Torn leaves steeped briefly. Perfumed citrus without juice.
Intense citrus perfume on a clean bottle
A clean barley spirit takes herbs the way vodka does, but with a cereal sweetness underneath that gives them something to sit on.
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
The chili leaves warmth at the back rather than heat on the tongue
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.
Bitter orange: sour and aromatic rather than sweet, the citrus that goes into ponzu. Bottled juice is sold for cooking and works straight in a glass. Use the peel too, it carries most of the smell.
A clean mugi does under citrus what a neutral shochu does, with a little more grain left behind it.
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.
Sweet, low-acid Japanese mandarin. Juice it or drop segments in a glass. It needs a squeeze of something sharper alongside.
A clean mugi does under citrus what a neutral shochu does, with a little more grain left behind it.
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.
Food-grade citric and malic powder from the canning aisle, 10 grams whisked into 100 grams of cold water; two parts citric to one malic is close to lime. Some bartenders find a drink with no juice in it thin, so it is worth trying both ways.
A clean bottle has nowhere to hide, so acid reads as brightness rather than as a correction
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
Cold-pressed juice or thin slices. Green apple is already in the aroma of a lot of rice shochu, so this amplifies what is there rather than adding something new.
Barley's light sweetness reads as orchard fruit already, so apple and pear extend the bottle rather than decorate it.
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
Both halves of the glass are savoury, which is unusual for a bitter drink
This is a light bottle and this is a heavy ingredient. It will not taste bad, it will taste like the ingredient.
A drop. Think of it as salt with depth, for the savory glass only.
Sweet and soy is teriyaki, not a drink
A drop of soy in a savoury glass is seasoning rather than flavouring
Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts. It makes a savoury bottle taste more like itself. The pairing reads as strange and drinks as obvious.
A drop. Think of it as salt with depth, for the savory glass only.
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
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.
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 Korean-style yuzu preserve sold in jars. A spoon in hot water with shochu, or shaken cold.
Yuzu tea and barley shochu in hot water is a winter izakaya drink
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.
A sesame syrup, or a rim of ground sesame and salt. Toasty and rich.
A sesame syrup, or a rim of ground sesame and salt. Toasty and rich.
Ways to serve it
Mizuwari (with water)
On the rocks
Barley is the easiest shochu to hand to someone who has never had any. It behaves like a clean grain spirit with a little cereal sweetness, so a highball with lemon needs no explaining and no apology.
Cocktails other people made
We haven't found a cocktail written for this exact bottle. These were written for other bottles, so each one says which, and what changes if you pour this instead.
Written for Nikaido Kitchomu Barley Shochu, also a barley shochu. We have this one as the more savoury of the two, which is what will move most in the glass.
·nikaido kitchomu (mugi shochu) 40ml
·fuutan (imo shochu with kuro koji) 10ml
·lillet blanc (mixed with roasted rice and yuzu peel) 10ml
If a recipe calls for something else and this is what you have. The verdict is for this bottle rather than for its style, so a bottle without the strength a stirred drink needs is not offered for one.
