Natsu no Mannen 'Summer Penguin' Sweet Potato Shochu

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.

Cold, and fizzy enough to matter. One part spirit to three or four parts soda for shochu; one to one for sake.

Dry cava or crémant. Topping sake with it adds the acid and the bubbles sake lacks in one pour.

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

The most useful tropical fruit for mixing: intensely aromatic and properly sour. Pulp with seeds, or a good puree.

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

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

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

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

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

Soft water, cold, over ice or not. One to one is normal. Mix a day ahead (maewari) and the edges round off.

Cold-brewed Earl Grey brings bergamot; plain black tea brings tannin. For the aged and brown-sugar bottles.

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

A spicy one, not a sweet one. The mule format works for every dark shochu and most sake.

Cold-brewed hibiscus tea: sour, cranberry-red and floral. Acid and color in one pour.

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

The non-alcoholic koji drink, sweet from rice starch alone. Blend with the spirit and ice; it is a shochu smoothie.

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.

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

Sour enough to be useful. Muddle a handful, or use a good puree.

Cold-brewed sencha, unsweetened. The green tea highball is one of the most common ways shochu is actually drunk in Japan.

Unsweetened, cold. One part shochu to three or four parts tea, over ice. It is the drink half of Japan orders with dinner.

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

Campari, Aperol, or a Japanese bitter like Kina. The aperitivo hour is where sake and shochu make the most sense as cocktails.

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

A pinch of ground sansho over the top, or a few peppercorns steeped. Numbing, citrusy, green.

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

A plain or ginger kombucha. It brings acid, bubbles and funk, all things sake is short of.

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

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.

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

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

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

Angostura or a Japanese aromatic. Two dashes.

Fresh juice, a syrup, or a good ginger beer. The spice that makes a low-proof drink feel like it has a backbone.

Muddled with the seeds. Green, sour and refreshing, and cheap year round.

St-Germain or similar. A half ounce is enough.

Fresh in early summer, canned in syrup the rest of the year (drain it). The signature aroma of a whole school of imo shochu.

Whisked into a slurry first, never dumped in dry. Bitter, umami and creamy at once.

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

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

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.

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

Suze or Salers. Bitter root, bright yellow. A little in a highball changes everything.

Green tea with popped, toasted rice. Cold-brew it. Comfort in a glass.

Fresh juice, or grilled wedges for a smokier drink. The awamori fruit.

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.

One white, dry-shaken. Texture without flavor.

Cordial or the liqueur. Muscat, lychee and honey in one flower.

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

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.

One star, steeped, for the dark bottles.

A rim of shichimi, or a slice of fresh chili. Heat on fruit, not on rice.

Fresh in season, dried the rest of the year. Apricot and umeshu share a family, which is why they get along.

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

Late summer fruit with a savory edge. For the deeper bottles.

Dolin blanc or Lillet. Sweeter and more floral than dry; for the aromatic bottles.

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

Fresh in early summer; morello or amarena in syrup otherwise. Dark cherry for aged bottles, bright cherry for sparkling.

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

Ribbons or muddled slices. Cucumber is what turns a glass of sake into something you would drink on a porch.

Fresh figs muddled, or fig jam. For the aged and the brown-sugar bottles only.

Cold-brewed or hot. Roasted green tea, low in bitterness, high in toast. The oyuwari of teas.

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.

Green muscat grapes, halved or juiced. Shine Muscat if you can find it.

Cointreau or a dry curaçao. The sweet-and-citrus half of any sour.

Green shiso leaves, slapped or muddled gently. Red shiso as a syrup. Japan already makes shiso shochu, which tells you it works.

The bellini fruit. Nectar from a Japanese market, or a ripe peach muddled through a strainer.

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

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

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

The Korean-style yuzu preserve sold in jars. A spoon in hot water with shochu, or shaken cold.

The concentrate, diluted with soda. Yogurt-sweet and sour. The Calpis sour is a national drink in Japan.

Fresh orange juice for a sparkling sake mimosa; the peel for stirred drinks with aged bottles.

A split bean in a syrup, or a good extract, in small amounts.

Unsweetened juice. Sharp and a little tannic, useful for cutting sweetness.

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

Fino or manzanilla. Savory, salty, bone dry.

A small piece steeped in the bottle overnight. Savory depth without salt.

A dried shiitake steeped in the spirit for a day. Savory and strange in the best way.

Cold-brewed chamomile as a lengthener, or steeped in the spirit.

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

The dairy-free milk that tastes of cereal, which is why it likes grain spirits.