The awamori highball is how Okinawa drinks through a summer, and it is the easiest introduction to the category.
One part shochu to three or four parts mixer, over plenty of ice. If it tastes thin, go two to three next time.
What it tastes like
Awamori from Kin Shuzo in Okinawa. Producer's tasting notes: maple, umami, crisp. The profile below is built from the tasting notes the producer publishes.
rice
maple
umami
crisp
aged
Sweet
3/5
Body
4/5
Aroma
3/5
Fruit
1/5
Floral
2/5
Grain
2/5
Earth
2/5
Umami
3/5
Base
rice koji (Thai rice)
ABV
43%
Aging
three years or more
What to mix with it
Tap a family to narrow it down. Every suggestion carries its reasoning, so if the reasoning does not convince you, ignore the suggestion.
A drop. Think of it as salt with depth, for the savory glass only.
Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts. It makes a savoury bottle taste more like itself, which is why this pairing reads as strange and drinks as obvious.
A drop of soy in a savoury glass is seasoning rather than flavouring
Soy and rice
A long aged spirit and aged soy share the same brown, oxidative notes
Mikawa Mirin from Sumiya Bunjiro Shoten, made from glutinous rice, koji and shochu since 1911 with no added sugar. Not the sweetened seasoning sold as mirin-fu chomiryo, which is a different product.
The bottle already smells of rice, and this puts more of it in the glass.
It adds body and savour where a sugar syrup would only add sugar
Mikawa Mirin from Sumiya Bunjiro Shoten, made from glutinous rice, koji and shochu since 1911 with no added sugar. Not the sweetened seasoning sold as mirin-fu chomiryo, which is a different product.
Hana Makgeolli is brewed in Greenpoint, Brooklyn; Makku sells a canned one. Strength varies widely across the category, from around 6 percent in a can to the mid teens for an unfiltered takju, so read the label before deciding how much to pour.
The bottle already smells of rice, and this puts more of it in the glass.
Its lactic tang keeps a crisp bottle from going flat as the ice melts
Hana Makgeolli is brewed in Greenpoint, Brooklyn; Makku sells a canned one. Strength varies widely across the category, from around 6 percent in a can to the mid teens for an unfiltered takju, so read the label before deciding how much to pour.
Warm kombu-and-bonito stock, lightly seasoned, mixed with the spirit. It sounds strange and tastes like an oden counter.
Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts. It makes a savoury bottle taste more like itself, which is why this pairing reads as strange and drinks as obvious.
Dashi-wari, shochu cut with warm dashi, is a real order in a Kyushu izakaya
A small piece steeped in the bottle overnight. Savory depth without salt.
Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts. It makes a savoury bottle taste more like itself, which is why this pairing reads as strange and drinks as obvious.
Kombu is glutamate in a leaf, and koji fermentation puts it in the glass
Steeping kombu in alcohol is a real preparation in a Japanese kitchen
A bar spoon, no more. Salt, and the savory note that comes with it.
Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts. It makes a savoury bottle taste more like itself, which is why this pairing reads as strange and drinks as obvious.
Dirty, on a rice base: the sweetness and the brine argue in a good way
One salted plum, crushed with a spoon in the glass. Salty, sour, savory.
Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts. It makes a savoury bottle taste more like itself, which is why this pairing reads as strange and drinks as obvious.
Lustau or González Byass. Fino is salt and living flor; this is what is left after the flor dies, and at 18 percent an ounce lengthens the glass rather than strengthening it.
Both have spent years going quietly brown, and they meet in the middle
Flor leaves a savoury edge behind it, and koji leaves the same one
Lustau or González Byass. Fino is salt and living flor; this is what is left after the flor dies, and at 18 percent an ounce lengthens the glass rather than strengthening it.
Cynar, 16.5 percent, which is weaker than the shochu itself, so equal parts lands near 20 percent and the drink stays long. Soda or a grapefruit soda over the top is the producer's own serve.
With only 25 percent under it, the bitterness reads as celery and walnut skin instead of being scorched off
There is enough weight here to stand up to a bitter or a spice without disappearing under it.
Cynar, 16.5 percent, which is weaker than the shochu itself, so equal parts lands near 20 percent and the drink stays long. Soda or a grapefruit soda over the top is the producer's own serve.
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.
Black koji leaves citric acid in the mash, so awamori already leans citrus before anything is added.
The peel is doing what the orange twist on an old fashioned does
A Miyazaki citrus eaten with the white pith left on, which is sweet rather than bitter. Gentler and more floral than lemon, so it flavours a drink without taking it over.
Black koji leaves citric acid in the mash, so awamori already leans citrus before anything is added.
Softer acid than lemon, so the rice sweetness stays in the glass
The Japanese Bitters, five 100ml expressions, sold at Astor Wines in New York. Angostura at nearly 45 percent is a small spike in a 25 percent drink in a way these are not.
The Umami expression is kelp, shiitake and bonito, aimed straight at the glutamate koji already put there
There is enough weight here to stand up to a bitter or a spice without disappearing under it.
The Japanese Bitters, five 100ml expressions, sold at Astor Wines in New York. Angostura at nearly 45 percent is a small spike in a 25 percent drink in a way these are not.
Jack Rudy's Extra Bitter, made with real cinchona bark, or Small Hand Foods'. Half a teaspoon and soda, set to the bottle in front of you rather than to a tonic maker's idea of a spirit.
It is the only way to make a bitter highball that is genuinely dry
There is enough weight here to stand up to a bitter or a spice without disappearing under it.
Jack Rudy's Extra Bitter, made with real cinchona bark, or Small Hand Foods'. Half a teaspoon and soda, set to the bottle in front of you rather than to a tonic maker's idea of a spirit.
The Kyushu condiment, in a tube in any Japanese grocer: fermented yuzu peel, green chili and salt. A quarter teaspoon stirred into an oyuwari, which is the serve Asahi publishes.
The salt in it raises the perceived sweetness of koji
There is enough weight here to stand up to a bitter or a spice without disappearing under it.
The Kyushu condiment, in a tube in any Japanese grocer: fermented yuzu peel, green chili and salt. A quarter teaspoon stirred into an oyuwari, which is the serve Asahi publishes.
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.
Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts. It makes a savoury bottle taste more like itself, which is why this pairing reads as strange and drinks as obvious.
A koji ferment of rice poured into a koji spirit distilled from rice, so the savour is family rather than contrast
A spoon of the brine, and a slice as garnish. Sweet, sour and hot at once.
Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts. It makes a savoury bottle taste more like itself, which is why this pairing reads as strange and drinks as obvious.
Gari sits next to sushi rice; it sits next to a rice spirit for the same reason
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.
Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts. It makes a savoury bottle taste more like itself, which is why this pairing reads as strange and drinks as obvious.
Barrow's Intense, made in Brooklyn, is the one to look for: much more ginger and much less sugar than most, so it works as the spice in a drink rather than as the sweetener. Domaine de Canton is the easier one to find and the sweeter one. Either gets you the mule flavour without the sugar load of a ginger beer, and both work hot as well as cold. They carry their own alcohol, so they lengthen a shochu less than a juice or a syrup would.
Warm spice against caramel, without the sugar a ginger beer brings
Barrow's Intense, made in Brooklyn, is the one to look for: much more ginger and much less sugar than most, so it works as the spice in a drink rather than as the sweetener. Domaine de Canton is the easier one to find and the sweeter one. Either gets you the mule flavour without the sugar load of a ginger beer, and both work hot as well as cold. They carry their own alcohol, so they lengthen a shochu less than a juice or a syrup would.
Cointreau or a dry curaçao. The sweet-and-citrus half of any sour.
Awamori has enough of its own character to be the base of a cocktail rather than the neutral part of one, which is why an orange liqueur or a mezcal sits beside it instead of covering it.
Braulio, made in Bormio from gentian, juniper, peppermint and yarrow, around forty-five dollars. A summer drink on shochu and a winter one on whisky, which is one bottle behaving two ways.
There is enough weight here to stand up to a bitter or a spice without disappearing under it.
Braulio, made in Bormio from gentian, juniper, peppermint and yarrow, around forty-five dollars. A summer drink on shochu and a winter one on whisky, which is one bottle behaving two ways.
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.
Water and ice is how awamori is drunk in Okinawa, and with an aged kusu it is the serve that lets the age show instead of burying it under a mixer.
Cocchi Americano: moscato steeped with cinchona bark, gentian and bitter orange. Lillet dropped its quinine in 1985, so only the Americano side of the category still tastes of the bark, and equal parts with a shochu is about 21 percent.
There is enough weight here to stand up to a bitter or a spice without disappearing under it.
Cocchi Americano: moscato steeped with cinchona bark, gentian and bitter orange. Lillet dropped its quinine in 1985, so only the Americano side of the category still tastes of the bark, and equal parts with a shochu is about 21 percent.
Cappelletti Sfumato, where sfumato means smoked and the smoke is the point, or the sweeter Zucca. At 20 percent it can take a third of the glass and still leave the drink under 22.
There is enough weight here to stand up to a bitter or a spice without disappearing under it.
Cappelletti Sfumato, where sfumato means smoked and the smoke is the point, or the sweeter Zucca. At 20 percent it can take a third of the glass and still leave the drink under 22.
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.
Black koji leaves citric acid in the mash, so awamori already leans citrus before anything is added.
Roasted buckwheat, in any Japanese grocery, hot or cold. In a soba restaurant the same serve is made with soba-yu, the starchy water the noodles were boiled in, which is thicker and cannot be bought.
There is enough weight here to stand up to a bitter or a spice without disappearing under it.
Roasted buckwheat, in any Japanese grocery, hot or cold. In a soba restaurant the same serve is made with soba-yu, the starchy water the noodles were boiled in, which is thicker and cannot be bought.
A dried shiitake steeped in the spirit for a day. Savory and strange in the best way.
No
Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts. It makes a savoury bottle taste more like itself, which is why this pairing reads as strange and drinks as obvious.
Dried shiitake is the umami bomb of the Japanese pantry
A long aged spirit and dried mushroom share a forest floor note
A sesame syrup, or a rim of ground sesame and salt. Toasty and rich.
Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts. It makes a savoury bottle taste more like itself, which is why this pairing reads as strange and drinks as obvious.
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.
Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts. It makes a savoury bottle taste more like itself, which is why this pairing reads as strange and drinks as obvious.
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.
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.
Cold-pressed juice or thin slices. Green apple is already in the aroma of a lot of rice shochu, so this amplifies what is there rather than adding something new.
Small Hand Foods', or sugar, water and gum arabic from the baking aisle at home. Worth knowing that most Japanese gum syrup on a shelf today has no arabic gum in it at all.
It puts the body back without adding more sugar, which is the other way to fix it
Ayagiku's, on a shochu base, or Kikusui's. Raw quince is inedible and gives up its scent only in alcohol, so the liqueur is the only practical form; it opens up in hot water.
Ayagiku's, on a shochu base, or Kikusui's. Raw quince is inedible and gives up its scent only in alcohol, so the liqueur is the only practical form; it opens up in hot water.
Zuiyo's Kuririn, from Japanese chestnuts at 11 percent, or Dover's wa-shu kuri, which is on a rum base. A dessert direction, and not the same thing as kuri shochu, which is a base spirit.
Zuiyo's Kuririn, from Japanese chestnuts at 11 percent, or Dover's wa-shu kuri, which is on a rum base. A dessert direction, and not the same thing as kuri shochu, which is a base spirit.
Blandy's or Barbeito, ten year. It is the one fortified wine that brings real acid, so it can do the lemon's job on a bottle where fresh citrus reads harsh.
Blandy's or Barbeito, ten year. It is the one fortified wine that brings real acid, so it can do the lemon's job on a bottle where fresh citrus reads harsh.
A quarter ounce as a rinse or a split base. Smoke for the earthy bottles.
Awamori has enough of its own character to be the base of a cocktail rather than the neutral part of one, which is why an orange liqueur or a mezcal sits beside it instead of covering it.
Dewazakura's from Yamagata plums, or Machida Shuzo's on Amami kokuto shochu. It does umeshu's job and leaves the glass drier, which matters when the bottle is already sweet.
Dewazakura's from Yamagata plums, or Machida Shuzo's on Amami kokuto shochu. It does umeshu's job and leaves the glass drier, which matters when the bottle is already sweet.
White miso whisked into a syrup, a small spoon per drink. Salty, sweet and savory at once.
Miso weighs down a crisp bottle
Salt does not make a drink salty in small amounts. It makes a savoury bottle taste more like itself, which is why this pairing reads as strange and drinks as obvious.
Umami on umami
Ways to serve it
On the rocks
Mizuwari (with water)
Awamori is older than mainland shochu, and what defines it is black koji and an all-koji mash rather than the Thai rice nearly every distillery happens to use. The black koji leaves citric acid behind, which is why it wants citrus and tropical fruit and why it will split milk.
Cocktails other people made
Nobody has published a cocktail written for this exact bottle. These were written for other bottles, so each one says which, and what changes if you pour this instead.
Written for iichiko Saiten, which is a barley shochu, not awamori. We have this one as the fuller of the two, which is what will move most in the glass.
·1 ounce plus 5 teaspoons shochu, preferably iichiko saiten
·1/2 teaspoon mezcal, preferably fidencio joven
·3/4 ounce citrus blend (equal parts lemon and lime juice)
Written for iichiko Saiten, which is a barley shochu, not awamori. We have this one as the fuller of the two, which is what will move most in the glass.
·3 ounces buckwheat tea concentrate (see editor's note)