Moriizou Ultra PR Shochu

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

• Its berry side flatters floral bottles
• An earthy, heavy spirit flattens out without acid. This is the ingredient doing structural work, not decoration.
• The sweetness here is aroma rather than sugar, because sugar does not come over a still. Acid is what keeps the impression from turning cloying.
• Orange with a raspberry edge. Winter fruit; worth waiting for.

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

• Lime frames tropical fruit so it does not go flat
• An earthy, heavy spirit flattens out without acid. This is the ingredient doing structural work, not decoration.
• The sweetness here is aroma rather than sugar, because sugar does not come over a still. Acid is what keeps the impression from turning cloying.
• Sharper and greener than lemon. The citrus for anything built on brown sugar or tropical fruit.

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.

• Daidai's bitterness sits on top of a delicate floral bottle rather than beside it
• Daidai is the citrus in ponzu, and ponzu is already on the table next to imo shochu
• The peel is doing what the orange twist on an old fashioned does
• An earthy, heavy spirit flattens out without acid. This is the ingredient doing structural work, not decoration.

Oita's citrus, softer than sudachi. Bartenders in Oita mix it with the local barley shochu and soda.

• An earthy, heavy spirit flattens out without acid. This is the ingredient doing structural work, not decoration.
• The sweetness here is aroma rather than sugar, because sugar does not come over a still. Acid is what keeps the impression from turning cloying.
• Oita's citrus, softer than sudachi. Bartenders in Oita mix it with the local barley shochu and soda.
• Harder to find outside Japan than most of this list. Worth ordering or a trip to a Japanese grocery, and where something easier works as well, that comes first.

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.

• An earthy, heavy spirit flattens out without acid. This is the ingredient doing structural work, not decoration.
• The sweetness here is aroma rather than sugar, because sugar does not come over a still. Acid is what keeps the impression from turning cloying.
• 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.
• Harder to find outside Japan than most of this list. Worth ordering or a trip to a Japanese grocery, and where something easier works as well, that comes first.

A small green citrus from Tokushima, sharper and more herbal than lime. Sold frozen or as juice in Japanese markets.

• An earthy, heavy spirit flattens out without acid. This is the ingredient doing structural work, not decoration.
• The sweetness here is aroma rather than sugar, because sugar does not come over a still. Acid is what keeps the impression from turning cloying.
• A small green citrus from Tokushima, sharper and more herbal than lime. Sold frozen or as juice in Japanese markets.
• Harder to find outside Japan than most of this list. Worth ordering or a trip to a Japanese grocery, and where something easier works as well, that comes first.

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.
• The sweetness here is aroma rather than sugar, because sugar does not come over a still. Acid is what keeps the impression from turning cloying.
• Salt is the fastest way to make an earthy bottle taste like more of itself.

Dried osmanthus flowers steeped, or the syrup. Apricot and honey, and the smell of October in Japan.

• Autumn blossom on a floral bottle
• Kinmokusei blooms when the new imo shochu is released, same season
• Honeyed flower on honeyed age
• Only for the lychee-scented bottles. On a heavy, roasted imo the flowers simply disappear.

A few crushed pods, or a syrup. Floral, citrusy and warm at once; it bridges fruit and spice.

• Cardamom is a floral spice; floral bottles meet it
• Spice on aged, nutty notes
• Warm spice gives an earthy bottle a pulse without covering the earth itself.

Cold-brewed sencha, unsweetened. Ocha-wari is one of the everyday ways shochu is drunk in Japan, alongside the oolong version.

• Green tea and oolong are how shochu is drunk with dinner across Kyushu. Tea's tannin meets the earth without covering it.
• Green tea softens the earth in imo shochu without hiding it

Cold-brewed, unsweetened. The floral top note sits above a dry spirit without adding weight to it.

• Jasmine tea on a floral bottle is a flower shop
• Cold-brewed, unsweetened. The floral top note sits above a dry spirit without adding weight to it.

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.
• Maewari: mix imo shochu and water a day ahead and it rounds out

Juice and peel are two different tools. Fresh juice, never bottled, is the whole basis of the lemon sour and the quickest way to put acid into a distilled base. The peel expressed over the top gives the oil and no acid at all, which is what a sweet or roasted bottle usually wants instead.

• Fresh lemon reads harsh against aged, caramel notes
• An earthy, heavy spirit flattens out without acid. This is the ingredient doing structural work, not decoration.
• The sweetness here is aroma rather than sugar, because sugar does not come over a still. Acid is what keeps the impression from turning cloying.
• Juice and peel are two different tools. Fresh juice, never bottled, is the whole basis of the lemon sour and the quickest way to put acid into a distilled base. The peel expressed over the top gives the oil and no acid at all, which is what a sweet or roasted bottle usually wants instead.

Unsweetened, cold. One part shochu to three or four parts tea, over ice. Drinks with food better than almost anything else here.

• Green tea and oolong are how shochu is drunk with dinner across Kyushu. Tea's tannin meets the earth without covering it.
• Oolong's tannin flattens delicate perfume
• Oolong's toast meets sweet potato's roast
• The bottle is already floral, and this puts more of that in the glass.

A dry tonic (Fever-Tree, Q). One part spirit, three parts tonic, a citrus wedge.

• The distilleries themselves now sell imo shochu as a highball. Soda lifts the aroma off the glass instead of burying it.
• Tonic's sweetness fights aged notes
• Tonic's quinine lets floral bottles show
• Imo shochu and tonic is what Kagoshima distilleries now recommend to first-timers

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

• Amaro bullies perfume
• The bitterness lands on the caramel rather than on the alcohol, which is what makes it read as depth
• Amaro and aged notes are a winter bar
• Amaro's herbs answer imo shochu's earth

Cynar, 16.5 percent, which is weaker than most shochu, so equal parts with a 25 percent bottle lands near 20 and the drink stays long. Soda or a grapefruit soda over the top is the producer's own serve.

• The bottle already smells of caramel, and this puts more of it in the glass.
• Cynar, 16.5 percent, which is weaker than most shochu, so equal parts with a 25 percent bottle lands near 20 and the drink stays long. Soda or a grapefruit soda over the top is the producer's own serve.

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.
• An aged bottle is the one you would not lengthen with a beer substitute
• One part shochu to five parts Hoppy drinks like a pint with none of beer's body. A 25 percent bottle lands just under 5; the figure follows the bottle, so a 40 percent one is nearer 7
• Carbonation carries aroma up out of the glass, so a highball shows an aromatic bottle off rather than diluting the point of it.

Cocchi Americano: moscato steeped with cinchona bark, gentian and bitter orange. The bark is the point of it, and it carries a quinine bitterness no citrus will give you.

• The bottle is already floral, and this puts more of that in the glass.
• Cocchi Americano: moscato steeped with cinchona bark, gentian and bitter orange. The bark is the point of it, and it carries a quinine bitterness no citrus will give you.

A syrup or a few dried blossoms steeped. See jasmine tea for the long drink.

• Jasmine amplifies whatever floral note the bottle has
• Jasmine against imo shochu's floral side is a real Kagoshima cocktail idea
• Only for the lychee-scented bottles. On a heavy, roasted imo the flowers simply disappear.

Salt-pickled blossoms (rinsed) or sakura syrup. Floral, faintly almond, a touch of salt.

• Cherry blossom is the first thing a rough bottle destroys, and this one has no rough edge to do it with
• Blossom on blossom
• Only for the lychee-scented bottles. On a heavy, roasted imo the flowers simply disappear.

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.
• Heat blows off delicate perfume
• Warmth opens caramel; the same bottle cold keeps most of it below the rim
• Oyuwari: hot water first, then shochu, six of shochu to four of water. Imo shochu opens up in warmth

A stick in hot water with the spirit, or a light syrup. Winter.

• Cinnamon and aged notes are a hot toddy
• Cinnamon on sweet potato is a pie
• Warm spice gives an earthy bottle a pulse without covering the earth itself.
• This mixer is sweetened too, so it lengthens the drink without cutting the sweetness that is already there.

The gentle ginger. For bottles that a ginger beer would bully.

• 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.
• This mixer is sweetened too, so it lengthens the drink without cutting the sweetness that is already there.

Dark, in small amounts, for the cask and sweet-potato bottles.

• Maple on sweet potato
• Maple and aged, caramel notes
• The bottle already smells of caramel, and this puts more of it in the glass.
• This bottle already reads sweet, on aroma rather than on sugar. Adding real sugar to it is the most common way a drink built on it goes wrong.

A pinch in the glass or a half rim. Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts; it makes it taste more like itself.

• A salt rim on an imo shochu drink is a Kagoshima bar trick
• Salt is the fastest way to make an earthy bottle taste like more of itself.

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

• Kumquat's bitter peel stands up to aged, nutty notes
• This mixer is sweetened too, so it lengthens the drink without cutting the sweetness that is already there.
• Eaten whole, peel and all. Muddle a few in a glass; the peel gives bitterness, the flesh gives tartness.

Loose or bagged, brewed weak: at full strength it takes the glass over. Takara's own guide to tea-wari lists it alongside mugicha and sobacha.

• Loose or bagged, brewed weak: at full strength it takes the glass over. Takara's own guide to tea-wari lists it alongside mugicha and sobacha.

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
• Sourness with nothing attached to it, so the bottle's own perfume stays in front
• An earthy, heavy spirit flattens out without acid. This is the ingredient doing structural work, not decoration.
• The sweetness here is aroma rather than sugar, because sugar does not come over a still. Acid is what keeps the impression from turning cloying.

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

• Umeboshi's salt flattens delicate perfume
• Salt-plum and imo shochu in hot water is a Kagoshima winter
• An earthy, heavy spirit flattens out without acid. This is the ingredient doing structural work, not decoration.
• The sweetness here is aroma rather than sugar, because sugar does not come over a still. Acid is what keeps the impression from turning cloying.

Torn leaves steeped briefly. Perfumed citrus without juice.

• Lime leaf and tropical fruit are one cuisine
• The bottle is already floral, and this puts more of that in the glass.
• Harder to find outside Japan than most of this list. Worth ordering or a trip to a Japanese grocery, and where something easier works as well, that comes first.

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

• Caramel needs a bitter edge or it reads as syrup, and peel gives that without adding acid
• This bottle already reads sweet, on aroma rather than on sugar. Adding real sugar to it is the most common way a drink built on it goes wrong.
• Fresh juice when you want it long and easy; the peel when the bottle is aged and the drink is stirred.

Coconut water for lengthening, coconut milk or cream for weight.

• The bottle already smells of tropical fruit, and this puts more of it in the glass.
• This mixer is sweetened too, so it lengthens the drink without cutting the sweetness that is already there.
• Coconut water for lengthening, coconut milk or cream for weight.

A spicy one, not a sweet one. The mule format works for every dark shochu, and it is the most forgiving way to serve one.

• The distilleries themselves now sell imo shochu as a highball. Soda lifts the aroma off the glass instead of burying it.
• Ginger beer covers delicate perfume
• Imo shochu mule: ginger beer, lime, over ice
• Carbonation carries aroma up out of the glass, so a highball shows an aromatic bottle off rather than diluting the point of it.

The shortcut to a sour when there is no fresh lemon. Less sweet is better.

• The distilleries themselves now sell imo shochu as a highball. Soda lifts the aroma off the glass instead of burying it.
• Sweet soda and aged notes argue
• A lemon soda softens imo shochu for the unconvinced
• Carbonation carries aroma up out of the glass, so a highball shows an aromatic bottle off rather than diluting the point of it.

Luxardo. It is sweetened, whatever the name suggests: their own account of the process ends by adding a syrup of water and sugar to bring it to 32 percent. What makes it read as dry is the stone. The cherries sit in larch vats for up to three years, pits, leaves and all, before the lot is distilled and the heart rested in ash, and that almond bitterness arrives before the sugar does. So measure it as a sweetener that tastes bitter, not as a dry modifier, and a bar spoon changes a stirred drink completely.

• Maraschino is what makes a stirred aged drink taste finished rather than flat
• The bottle is already floral, and this puts more of that in the glass.
• This mixer is sweetened too, so it lengthens the drink without cutting the sweetness that is already there.

Angostura or a Japanese aromatic. Two dashes.

• Bitters stomp on perfume
• Two dashes wake up an aged bottle
• Bitters give imo shochu a stirred-drink shape
• Angostura or a Japanese aromatic. Two dashes.

Dolin dry or Noilly Prat. A quarter of the shochu's volume, stirred cold.

• The bottle is already floral, and this puts more of that in the glass.

The cordial, sweet and alcohol-free, poured like a syrup. Muscat, lychee and honey in one flower. The liqueur has its own entry below: a different product rather than a stronger or weaker version of this one, and it brings alcohol along with the flower.

• Nothing here is sharp enough to cut the elderflower down, so it survives at the strength it was poured
• Elderflower on a floral bottle is the obvious spritz
• This mixer is sweetened too, so it lengthens the drink without cutting the sweetness that is already there.
• Only for the lychee-scented bottles. On a heavy, roasted imo the flowers simply disappear.

A plain or ginger kombucha. Acid, bubbles and a little funk, all three in one pour.

• The distilleries themselves now sell imo shochu as a highball. Soda lifts the aroma off the glass instead of burying it.
• No
• Carbonation carries aroma up out of the glass, so a highball shows an aromatic bottle off rather than diluting the point of it.

Bruised stalks steeped in the spirit, or a syrup. Citrus without acid, which is useful when you want aroma but not sourness.

• The bottle is already floral, and this puts more of that in the glass.

Gentler than rosemary. Steep a sprig, or use a thyme syrup.

• The bottle is already floral, and this puts more of that in the glass.

A drop of rose water, or a rose syrup. A drop; it takes over.

• Rose on a floral bottle is a perfume counter
• Only for the lychee-scented bottles. On a heavy, roasted imo the flowers simply disappear.

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.

• Vinegar flattens a delicate perfume
• An earthy, heavy spirit flattens out without acid. This is the ingredient doing structural work, not decoration.
• The sweetness here is aroma rather than sugar, because sugar does not come over a still. Acid is what keeps the impression from turning cloying.
• An earthy bottle has a savoury side already, and these meet it rather than trying to sweeten it away.

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

• Kagoshima bartenders pair imo shochu with mikan when it is in season
• This bottle already reads sweet, on aroma rather than on sugar. Adding real sugar to it is the most common way a drink built on it goes wrong.
• Sweet, low-acid Japanese mandarin. Juice it or drop segments in a glass. It needs a squeeze of something sharper alongside.
• Harder to find outside Japan than most of this list. Worth ordering or a trip to a Japanese grocery, and where something easier works as well, that comes first.