Munemasa Shuzo · Saga · Shochu
Pour this first
Mizu Shiso Shochu, long, with Ginger ale, and Grapefruit.
The botanical is the whole point of the bottle, so the job of the mixer is to carry it, not to add to it.
One part shochu to three or four parts mixer, plenty of ice. If it tastes thin, go two to three next time. That is the whole method.
Honkaku shochu from Munemasa Shuzo in Saga. Importer's tasting notes: barley, grassy, tea. Nobody here has tasted this one, so the profile below is estimated from what its importer publishes rather than from the glass.
Tap a family to narrow it down. Every suggestion carries its reasoning, so if the reasoning does not convince you, ignore the suggestion.
The gentle ginger. For bottles that a ginger beer would bully.
A plain or ginger kombucha. It brings acid, bubbles and funk, all things sake is short of.
The shortcut to a sour when there is no fresh lemon. Less sweet is better.
Cold, and fizzy enough to matter. One part spirit to three or four parts soda for shochu; one to one for sake.
A dry tonic (Fever-Tree, Q). One part spirit, three parts tonic, a citrus wedge.
A spicy one, not a sweet one. The mule format works for every dark shochu and most sake.
Dry cava or crémant. Topping sake with it adds the acid and the bubbles sake lacks in one pour.
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.
Soft water, cold, over ice or not. One to one is normal. Mix a day ahead (maewari) and the edges round off.
Cold whole milk. Shochu milk-wari is a real order in Kyushu, not a dare.
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.
Oita's citrus, softer than sudachi. Bartenders in Oita mix it with the local barley shochu and soda.
Fresh juice, never bottled. The building block of the lemon sour, and the fastest way to give sake the acidity it does not have on its own.
A small green citrus from Tokushima, sharper and more herbal than lime. Sold frozen or as juice in Japanese markets.
Montenegro, Nonino, Averna. Equal parts with a dark shochu over ice is a whole drink.
Campari, Aperol, or a Japanese bitter like Kina. The aperitivo hour is where sake and shochu make the most sense as cocktails.
Angostura or a Japanese aromatic. Two dashes.
The concentrate, diluted with soda. Yogurt-sweet and sour. The Calpis sour is a national drink in Japan.
One white, dry-shaken. Texture without flavor.
Suze or Salers. Bitter root, bright yellow. A little in a highball changes everything.
Bruised stalks steeped in the spirit, or a syrup. Citrus without acid, which is useful when you want aroma but not sourness.
The dairy-free milk that tastes of cereal, which is why it likes grain spirits.
Green shiso leaves, slapped or muddled gently. Red shiso as a syrup. Japan already makes shiso shochu, which tells you it works.
Gentler than rosemary. Steep a sprig, or use a thyme syrup.
Cold-pressed juice or thin slices. Green apple is the aroma many ginjo sake already carry, so this is amplification rather than addition.
Ripe banana, muddled or as a syrup. The banana note in ginjo sake is real chemistry, not a metaphor.
Cold-brewed Earl Grey brings bergamot; plain black tea brings tannin. For the aged and brown-sugar bottles.
Late summer fruit with a savory edge. For the deeper bottles.
Orange with a raspberry edge. Winter fruit; worth waiting for.
A bar spoon. Cassis-oolong is one of the most common izakaya orders in Japan.
Juiced, or a stalk as the stirrer. Savory, salty and cold.
Cold-brewed chamomile as a lengthener, or steeped in the spirit.
Fresh in early summer; morello or amarena in syrup otherwise. Dark cherry for aged bottles, bright cherry for sparkling.
A stick in hot water with the spirit, or a light syrup. Winter.
Ribbons or muddled slices. Cucumber is what turns a glass of sake into something you would drink on a porch.
Dolin dry or Noilly Prat. A quarter of the sake's volume, stirred.
Cold-brewed sencha, unsweetened. The green tea highball is one of the most common ways shochu is actually drunk in Japan.
Diluted one to one with warm water so it mixes cold. A little goes far; taste before adding more.
Cold-brewed. Floral without sugar. The jasmine highball is a real menu item in Japan.
Okinawan or Amami kokuto dissolved one to one in water. Molasses, minerals, a little salt.
Eaten whole, peel and all. Muddle a few in a glass; the peel gives bitterness, the flesh gives tartness.
Sharper and greener than lemon. The citrus for anything built on brown sugar or tropical fruit.
Dark, in small amounts, for the cask and sweet-potato bottles.
Sweet, low-acid Japanese mandarin. Juice it or drop segments in a glass. It needs a squeeze of something sharper alongside.
Unsweetened, cold. One part shochu to three or four parts tea, over ice. It is the drink half of Japan orders with dinner.
Fresh orange juice for a sparkling sake mimosa; the peel for stirred drinks with aged bottles.
A good one (Giffard, Merlet). A shortcut to the bellini when peaches are out of season.
A spoon of the brine, and a slice as garnish. Sweet, sour and hot at once.
Good tomato juice, or a ripe tomato muddled and strained. Sake's umami and tomato's are chemically the same thing.
Umeboshi (salt-pickled), ume syrup, or the fruit's own liqueur. Sour, salty and savory at once.
One salted plum, crushed with a spoon in the glass. Salty, sour, savory.
Sweet, sour, almondy. A splash does the work of both syrup and citrus.
A split bean in a syrup, or a good extract, in small amounts.
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.
The Korean-style yuzu preserve sold in jars. A spoon in hot water with shochu, or shaken cold.
Sweet yuzu liqueur, usually on a sake or shochu base. A shortcut to yuzu when the fruit is out of season.
The non-alcoholic koji drink, sweet from rice starch alone. Blend with the spirit and ice; it is a shochu smoothie.
Muddled gently with citrus. Thai basil brings anise, Italian basil brings pepper.
Half-and-half or heavy cream, in the after-dinner glass only.
Fronds, gently muddled. For the savory, saline glass.
A quarter ounce. Menthol and bitterness, for the darkest bottles.
Young sansho leaves, clapped between the palms and floated. Hard to find outside Japanese markets in spring, worth the hunt.
Torn leaves steeped briefly. Perfumed citrus without juice.
Slapped, not muddled to bits. Mint reads as cold, which makes any low-proof drink feel more refreshing.
These are shochu with one loud idea in them, shiso or sesame or green tea. Treat the botanical as the drink's flavour and everything else as its frame, and do not try to add a second loud idea.
punchdrink.com · Orlando Franklin McCray, New York City
Written for this bottle
Built in the glass, topped with soda.
Full method at punchdrink.com →punchdrink.com · Karen Fu, Thunderbolt, Los Angeles
Written for a different style
Written for Mizu Lemongrass Shochu, a different bottle. We have this one as the less floral of the two, which is what will move most in the glass.
Shaken.
Full method at punchdrink.com →punchdrink.com · Tom Liu, Los Angeles
Written for a different style
Written for iichiko Saiten, a different bottle. We have this one as the more aromatic of the two, which is what will move most in the glass.
Stirred.
Full method at punchdrink.com →punchdrink.com · Kenta Goto, New York City
Written for a different style
Written for iichiko Saiten, a different bottle. We have this one as the more aromatic of the two, which is what will move most in the glass.
Shaken.
Full method at punchdrink.com →Written for shochu generally
Built in the glass.
Full method at Pickled Plum →Written for shochu generally
Built in the glass, topped with soda.
Full method at Cocktail Society →Written for shochu generally
Built in the glass, topped with soda.
Full method at Just One Cookbook →Written for shochu generally
Built in the glass, topped with soda.
Full method at Pickled Plum →punchdrink.com · Brian Evans and George Padilla, Brooklyn, New York
Written for shochu generally
Built in the glass, topped with soda.
Full method at punchdrink.com →punchdrink.com · Teppoudama, Tokyo, Japan
Written for shochu generally
Built in the glass, topped with soda.
Full method at punchdrink.com →punchdrink.com · Kelly Brophy, Cheu Noodle Bar, Philadelphia, PA
Written for Gyokuo
We hold no record for that bottle, so treat this as a starting point rather than a match.
Shaken.
Full method at punchdrink.com →Written for Tan Taka Tan
Tan Taka Tan is a range rather than one bottle, so the strength and the style vary across it. Treat this as a starting point.
Built in the glass.
Full method at Umami Mart blog →Closest on the flavour profile within the same style family, so the mixers below tend to carry across.
Filed under shiso, sesame, tea and other single-botanical shochu.