Shochu that goes with citric and malic acid solution
Wine, liqueur and spirits
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.
Best bottles for citric and malic acid solution
The strongest matches in the catalogue, across every style. Everything below is the same ranking opened out by what the shochu is made from.
There is real sugar in this bottle already, and acid is what keeps it from reading as syrup.
Rice shochu stirred with vermouth is a martini at half the proof.
sweet potato, rice, lychee, grape
An earthy, heavy spirit flattens out without acid. This is the ingredient doing structural work, not decoration.
sweet potato, rice, tea, vanilla
sweet potato, rice, spice, clean
sweet potato, rice, clean, sweet
sweet potato, rice, tropical fruit, floral
sweet potato, floral, maple, rich
rice, vanilla, caramel, chocolate
sweet potato, berry, yogurt, sweet
rice, ginjo-like, floral, aged
Grouped by what the shochu is made from, because that is the level the reasoning works at: what this does to an imo shochu is a fact about imo shochu rather than about one bottle. Within each style, the strongest matches and anything poured at our bar come first. The ranking is the same engine that recommends a mixer from a bottle, run the other way round.
Imo shochu
43 more, all of them in Imo shochu
Kome shochu
Rice shochu stirred with vermouth is a martini at half the proof.
23 more, all of them in Kome shochu
Awamori
3 more, all of them in Awamori
Mugi shochu
Shiso, sesame, tea and other single-botanical shochu
3 more, all of them in Shiso, sesame, tea and other single-botanical shochu
Soba shochu
1 more, all of them in Soba shochu
Kokuto shochu
1 more, all of them in Kokuto shochu