Leona Fuji Apple Sparkling Shochu 375ml

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.

• The green apple ester in a ginjo-scented rice shochu is the same compound

Orange with a raspberry edge. Winter fruit; worth waiting for.

• Acid frames a single strong flavour and keeps it from turning syrupy.

A bar spoon. Cassis-oolong is one of the most common izakaya orders in Japan.

• Cassis and oolong with shochu is an izakaya standard

Ribbons or muddled slices. Cucumber is what turns a serious glass into something you drink outside without thinking about it.

• Barley shochu, cucumber, soda: a highball that tastes like a cool room

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.

• Acid frames a single strong flavour and keeps it from turning syrupy.

Bols Genever, around thirty-five dollars. The split base for a grain shochu, in a way plain gin is not.

• Malt wine and barley shochu are the same grain distilled two different ways

Diluted one to one with warm water so it mixes cold. A little goes far; taste before adding more.

• Honey and barley shochu in hot water is a Kyushu cold remedy

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.

• Acid frames a single strong flavour and keeps it from turning syrupy.

Cold-brewed. Floral without sugar. The jasmine highball is a real menu item in Japan.

• Jasmine-hai is on izakaya menus next to oolong-hai

Eaten whole, peel and all. Muddle a few in a glass; the peel gives bitterness, the flesh gives tartness.

• Acid frames a single strong flavour and keeps it from turning syrupy.

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.

• Black vinegar is rice fermented with koji and then soured, so it is the same mould arriving a second time

Sharper and greener than lemon. The citrus for anything built on brown sugar or tropical fruit.

• Acid frames a single strong flavour and keeps it from turning syrupy.

Sweet, low-acid Japanese mandarin. Juice it or drop segments in a glass. It needs a squeeze of something sharper alongside.

• Acid frames a single strong flavour and keeps it from turning syrupy.

Unsweetened, cold. One part shochu to three or four parts tea, over ice.

• Oolong-hai is the second most common shochu drink in Japanese izakaya

Fresh juice when you want it long and easy; the peel when the bottle is aged and the drink is stirred.

• Acid frames a single strong flavour and keeps it from turning syrupy.

A good one (Giffard, Merlet). A shortcut to the bellini when peaches are out of season.

• Barley shochu, peach liqueur, oolong: a Japanese izakaya order

A spoon of the brine, and a slice as garnish. Sweet, sour and hot at once.

• Barley shochu and gari brine is a bartender's shortcut to a ginger sour

A dry junmai as the lengthener for rice shochu, one to two. Low proof, all rice.

• Koji meets koji

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.

• Acid frames a single strong flavour and keeps it from turning syrupy.

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

• Barley shochu with an umeboshi dropped in is a real izakaya order

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

Sweet, sour, almondy. A splash does the work of both syrup and citrus.

• Barley shochu with a float of umeshu and soda

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 lactic acid land on the sweetness koji leaves behind

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.

• Acid frames a single strong flavour and keeps it from turning syrupy.

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

Sweet yuzu liqueur, usually on a sake or shochu base. A shortcut to yuzu when the fruit is out of season.

• Barley shochu, yuzushu, soda: a yuzu sour without a yuzu

Bitter, bright and forgiving. Ruby or white both work; white is drier. The grapefruit sour is a real bar order in Japan, not a novelty.

• On an already sweet bottle it turns to grapefruit candy
• Acid frames a single strong flavour and keeps it from turning syrupy.
• Barley shochu and grapefruit is the Kyushu sour after the lemon one

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.

• A strong bitter will argue with the botanical rather than support it. Keep it to a dash.

Montenegro, Nonino, Averna. Equal parts with a dark shochu over ice is a whole drink.

• A strong bitter will argue with the botanical rather than support it. Keep it to a dash.

Angostura or a Japanese aromatic. Two dashes.

• A strong bitter will argue with the botanical rather than support it. Keep it to a dash.

Muddled gently with citrus. Thai basil brings anise, Italian basil brings pepper.

• Only where the herb agrees with the bottle's own botanical. Shiso on shiso works; rosemary on shiso does not.

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.

• A strong bitter will argue with the botanical rather than support it. Keep it to a dash.

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

• A strong bitter will argue with the botanical rather than support it. Keep it to a dash.

Half-and-half or heavy cream, in the after-dinner glass only.

• Works for the sweet and nutty bottles, sesame especially. Not for the sharp herbal ones.

A quarter ounce. Menthol and bitterness, for the darkest bottles.

• A strong bitter will argue with the botanical rather than support it. Keep it to a dash.

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.

• A strong bitter will argue with the botanical rather than support it. Keep it to a dash.

Young sansho leaves, clapped between the palms and floated. Hard to find outside Japanese markets in spring, worth the hunt.

• Only where the herb agrees with the bottle's own botanical. Shiso on shiso works; rosemary on shiso does not.

Torn leaves steeped briefly. Perfumed citrus without juice.

• Only where the herb agrees with the bottle's own botanical. Shiso on shiso works; rosemary on shiso does not.

Slapped, not muddled to bits. Mint reads as cold, which makes any low-proof drink feel more refreshing.

• Only where the herb agrees with the bottle's own botanical. Shiso on shiso works; rosemary on shiso does not.

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.

• A strong bitter will argue with the botanical rather than support it. Keep it to a dash.

Unsweetened, four parts shochu to six parts soy milk, which is how the Japanese recipes write it. Stronger than it tastes, so pour it knowing that.

• Works for the sweet and nutty bottles, sesame especially. Not for the sharp herbal ones.

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.

• A strong bitter will argue with the botanical rather than support it. Keep it to a dash.