Shochu that goes with soy milk (tonyu)
Cream and milk
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.
Best bottles for soy milk (tonyu)
The strongest matches in the catalogue, across every style. Everything below is the same ranking opened out by what the shochu is made from.
Grain and roast are the same flavour arrived at twice, once by the still and once by the pan.
This is a light bottle and this is a heavy ingredient. It will not taste bad, it will taste like the ingredient.
Cream and molasses is a flip, and kokuto shochu with milk is an ordinary Amami dessert.
dried fruit, chocolate, honey, kokuto
kokuto, vanilla, spice, cask
kokuto, rice, vanilla, umami
kokuto, rice, cask, koji
kokuto, umami, smooth, light-bodied
kokuto
kokuto, light-bodied, clean, aged
kokuto, rice, banana, cherry
kokuto, rice
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
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.
79 more, all of them in Imo shochu
Kokuto shochu
Cream and molasses is a flip, and kokuto shochu with milk is an ordinary Amami dessert.
9 more, all of them in Kokuto shochu
Shiso, sesame, tea and other single-botanical shochu
Works for the sweet and nutty bottles, sesame especially. Not for the sharp herbal ones.
7 more, all of them in Shiso, sesame, tea and other single-botanical shochu
Mugi shochu
Calpis sour is a national drink in Japan and it is usually barley underneath. Cream is a different and much narrower idea.
2 more, all of them in Mugi shochu
Soba shochu
3 more, all of them in Soba shochu