The distilleries themselves now sell imo shochu as a highball. Soda lifts the aroma off the glass instead of burying it.
One part shochu to three or four parts mixer, over plenty of ice. If it tastes thin, go two to three next time.
What it tastes like
Imo shochu from Kodama Jozo in Miyazaki. Importer's tasting notes: rice, coffee, earthy, pepper. Nobody here has tasted this one, so the profile below is estimated from what its importer publishes rather than from the glass.
sweet potato
rice
coffee
earthy
pepper
creamy texture
light-bodied
sweet
bright
koji
Sweet
4/5
Body
3/5
Aroma
5/5
Fruit
2/5
Floral
1/5
Grain
1/5
Earth
3/5
Umami
2/5
Base
84% Murasaki-masari sweet potato, 16% rice koji
Koji
white koji (rice)
Distillation
atmospheric distillation
ABV
24%
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 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.
Citrus acid is what cuts sweet potato's weight, which is why Kagoshima bars pour imo shochu with grapefruit and yuzu before anything else.
An earthy, heavy spirit flattens out without acid. This is the ingredient doing structural work, not decoration.
There is real sugar in this bottle already, and acid is what keeps it from reading as syrup.
A Miyazaki citrus and a Miyazaki spirit, which is usually all the reason a pairing needs
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.
An earthy, heavy spirit flattens out without acid. This is the ingredient doing structural work, not decoration.
There is real sugar in this bottle already, and acid is what keeps it from reading as syrup.
Umeboshi in hot shochu is a Kagoshima winter, and salt is the fastest way to make an earthy bottle taste like more of itself.
Black vinegar is rice fermented with koji and then soured, so it is the same mould arriving a second time
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.
Citrus acid is what cuts sweet potato's weight, which is why Kagoshima bars pour imo shochu with grapefruit and yuzu before anything else.
An earthy, heavy spirit flattens out without acid. This is the ingredient doing structural work, not decoration.
There is real sugar in this bottle already, and acid is what keeps it from reading as syrup.
Daidai is the citrus in ponzu, and ponzu is already on the table next to imo shochu
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.
An earthy, heavy spirit flattens out without acid. This is the ingredient doing structural work, not decoration.
There is real sugar in this bottle already, and acid is what keeps it from reading as syrup.
Umeboshi in hot shochu is a Kagoshima winter, and salt is the fastest way to make an earthy bottle taste like more of itself.
Salt and lactic acid land on the sweetness koji leaves behind
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 distilleries themselves now sell imo shochu as a highball. Soda lifts the aroma off the glass instead of burying it.
Carbonation carries aroma up out of the glass, so a highball shows an aromatic bottle off rather than diluting the point of it.
One part shochu to five parts Hoppy lands near 4 percent and drinks like a pint with none of beer's body
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.
Hot water is the Kagoshima serve and it earns its reputation: heat pulls the earth and the sweetness up out of the glass. Cold water does the opposite and lengthens it without changing its shape.
Oyuwari: hot water first, then shochu, six to four. Imo shochu opens up in warmth
Heat pulls the earth and the sweetness out of a bottle
Soft water, cold, over ice or not. One to one is normal. Mix a day ahead (maewari) and the edges round off.
Hot water is the Kagoshima serve and it earns its reputation: heat pulls the earth and the sweetness up out of the glass. Cold water does the opposite and lengthens it without changing its shape.
Rice shochu mizuwari is a dinner drink in Kumamoto
Maewari: mix imo shochu and water a day ahead and it rounds out
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.
Citrus acid is what cuts sweet potato's weight, which is why Kagoshima bars pour imo shochu with grapefruit and yuzu before anything else.
A heavy earthy bottle swallows it, and the fruit is too good to waste that way
An earthy, heavy spirit flattens out without acid. This is the ingredient doing structural work, not decoration.
There is real sugar in this bottle already, and acid is what keeps it from reading as syrup.
Cynar, 16.5 percent, which is weaker than the shochu itself, so equal parts lands near 20 percent and the drink stays long. Soda or a grapefruit soda over the top is the producer's own serve.
Amaro and gentian answer the earth with more earth, which is why a split-base imo drink reads as intentional rather than odd.
Vegetal bitterness against earth, which is a closer match than a caramel amaro makes
Braulio, made in Bormio from gentian, juniper, peppermint and yarrow, around forty-five dollars. A summer drink on shochu and a winter one on whisky, which is one bottle behaving two ways.
Amaro and gentian answer the earth with more earth, which is why a split-base imo drink reads as intentional rather than odd.
Two slices from any Asian grocery, seeds out. The bitterness is water soluble, so at 25 percent it steeps in minutes and stops there, where a 40 percent spirit pulls it medicinal within the hour.
Bitterness that answers earth without adding any sweetness to it
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.
Amaro and gentian answer the earth with more earth, which is why a split-base imo drink reads as intentional rather than odd.
Hana Makgeolli is brewed in Greenpoint, Brooklyn; Makku sells a canned one. Strength varies widely across the category, from around 6 percent in a can to the mid teens for an unfiltered takju, so read the label before deciding how much to pour.
The yeasty haze gives back the body distillation took out
Cocchi Americano: moscato steeped with cinchona bark, gentian and bitter orange. Lillet dropped its quinine in 1985, so only the Americano side of the category still tastes of the bark, and equal parts with a shochu is about 21 percent.
Amaro and gentian answer the earth with more earth, which is why a split-base imo drink reads as intentional rather than odd.
Dewazakura's from Yamagata plums, or Machida Shuzo's on Amami kokuto shochu. It does umeshu's job and leaves the glass drier, which matters when the bottle is already sweet.
Acid and colour at once, and the drink stays drier than it would with umeshu
Jack Rudy's Extra Bitter, made with real cinchona bark, or Small Hand Foods'. Half a teaspoon and soda, set to the bottle in front of you rather than to a tonic maker's idea of a spirit.
Amaro and gentian answer the earth with more earth, which is why a split-base imo drink reads as intentional rather than odd.
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.
Ginger and sweet potato are the same autumn kitchen. Heat gives an earthy bottle a pulse.
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.
With no juice in the glass a light bottle can end up tasting thin; a fuller one carries it
An earthy, heavy spirit flattens out without acid. This is the ingredient doing structural work, not decoration.
There is real sugar in this bottle already, and acid is what keeps it from reading as syrup.
The dairy-free milk that tastes of cereal, which is why it likes grain spirits.
Milk and Calpis do soften imo shochu, and that is exactly the point for someone who thinks they dislike it. It is a gateway, not a destination.
Ways to serve it
On the rocks
Mizuwari (with water)
Sweet potato shochu is the one people are told they have to drink with hot water. Hot water is genuinely good, and it is also the hardest first sip to sell. Start it long and cold with soda and a wedge of grapefruit, and come back to the hot water once you like the spirit.
Cocktails other people made
Nobody has published 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 Aka Kirishima Shochu, also a sweet potato shochu. We have this one as the less fruity of the two, which is what will move most in the glass.
Written for Satsuma Kuradashi Genshu Shochu, also a sweet potato shochu. This bottle is lighter, 24% against 37%, so cut the mixer back or it will disappear.
Written for iichiko Saiten, which is a barley shochu, not a sweet potato shochu. This bottle is lighter, 24% against 43%, so cut the mixer back or it will disappear.
·3 ounces buckwheat tea concentrate (see editor's note)