Satsuma Kohaku no Yume (Amber Dream) / Kohaku No Yume Shochu 720ml

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.

• Roasted buckwheat and roasted barley are one idea arrived at from two grains
• The bottle carries the grain and the mixer carries it roasted, so it is one ingredient reaching the glass two ways.
• 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.

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

• Black tea's tannin sits well with aged notes
• Tea and cask is a Scotch idea
• Cold-brewed Earl Grey brings bergamot; plain black tea brings tannin. For the aged and brown-sugar bottles.

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

• Oolong-hai and green tea highballs are izakaya staples, and barley is clean enough to let the tea lead.
• Green tea brings grassy bitterness and a little tannin, which gives a soft barley shochu an edge to push against

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

• Jasmine is perfumed without being sweet, so it gives barley shochu an aromatic top without touching its dryness
• Cold-brewed, unsweetened. The floral top note sits above a dry spirit without adding weight to it.

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

• A clean mugi does under citrus what a neutral shochu does, with a little more grain left behind it.
• Kabosu and barley shochu are both Oita's, and kabosu gets squeezed into drinks there; the gentler acid suits a mugi wherever it was distilled
• 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.

• A clean mugi does under citrus what a neutral shochu does, with a little more grain left behind it.
• Sharper and greener than the lemon a barley sour usually gets, which is what makes it worth the trip from Tokushima
• 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.

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
• The bottle carries the grain and the mixer carries it roasted, so it is one ingredient reaching the glass two ways.

Mr Black or a good Japanese one. Awamori and shochu makers bottle their own, so this is not a foreign idea imposed on the spirit.

• An espresso martini on an aged base has the caramel the coffee is looking for
• The bottle carries the grain and the mixer carries it roasted, so it is one ingredient reaching the glass two ways.

Fino or manzanilla. Savory, salty, bone dry.

• Oxidative on oxidative
• The bottle carries the grain and the mixer carries it roasted, so it is one ingredient reaching the glass two ways.

Bols Genever, around thirty-five dollars. The split base for a grain shochu, in a way plain gin is not.

• Malt wine and barley shochu are the same grain distilled two different ways
• The bottle carries the grain and the mixer carries it roasted, so it is one ingredient reaching the glass two ways.

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.

• Barrel against barrel, except this one brings back the acid the cask took away
• The bottle carries the grain and the mixer carries it roasted, so it is one ingredient reaching the glass two ways.

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 carries the grain and the mixer carries it roasted, so it is one ingredient reaching the glass two 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.

• Cask-aged bottles have the wood; apple has the orchard
• Barley's light sweetness reads as orchard fruit already, so apple and pear extend the bottle rather than decorate it.

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

• Long aging turns a spirit towards stone fruit; the apricot joins what is already there
• Fresh in season, dried the rest of the year. Apricot and umeshu share a family, which is why they get along.

Rothman and Winter, or a Japanese anzu liqueur. Closer to umeshu than to a candy liqueur if you buy a good one.

• Long aging turns towards stone fruit anyway; this meets it there
• Apricot and oak is the flavour of an old brandy, at a third of the strength

Juiced, or a stalk as the stirrer. Savory, salty and cold.

• Barley shochu and celery is an unlikely, real pair
• A clean barley highball takes a garden note without losing its own grain under it.

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

• Cinnamon and aged notes are a hot toddy
• Cask and cinnamon: an old fashioned instinct

Ribbons or muddled slices. Cucumber is what turns a serious glass into something you drink outside without thinking about it.

• Barley shochu, cucumber, soda: a highball that tastes like a cool room
• Cucumber and a clean barley highball is the most refreshing thing you can build out of this category.

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

• Honey and aged notes
• Honey and barley shochu in hot water is a Kyushu cold remedy

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.

• Mugi oyuwari in winter, with an umeboshi
• Barley has less to open up than sweet potato, so water shows you exactly what is there. That is a fair test and not always a flattering one: a thin mugi has nowhere to hide in it.

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

• A US barley shochu is literally made with lemongrass; the pairing is proven
• A clean barley spirit takes herbs the way vodka does, but with a cereal sweetness underneath that gives them something to sit on.

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

• Maple and oak are a bourbon idea
• Maple and aged, caramel notes

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

• Shiso and barley shochu is an izakaya sour
• A clean barley spirit takes herbs the way vodka does, but with a cereal sweetness underneath that gives them something to sit on.

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

• Six parts shochu to four parts water, the classic
• Barley has less to open up than sweet potato, so water shows you exactly what is there. That is a fair test and not always a flattering one: a thin mugi has nowhere to hide in it.

Carpano Antica or Cocchi. A quarter of the shochu's volume, stirred cold, makes a manhattan-style drink: on a 25 percent shochu that is about 23 before the ice gets to it, where a 40 percent rye starts nearer 35.

• An aged bottle already has the caramel a manhattan wants; this brings the botanicals
• Cask notes and vermouth's spice belong in the same stirred glass

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

• Barley shochu and thyme is an unexpected, clean match
• A clean barley spirit takes herbs the way vodka does, but with a cereal sweetness underneath that gives them something to sit on.

Good tomato juice, or a ripe tomato muddled and strained. Savoury and acidic at once.

• Tomato is savoury and acidic at once, which is exactly what a dry barley shochu has no supply of
• A clean barley highball takes a garden note without losing its own grain under it.

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

• Barley shochu with an umeboshi dropped in is a real izakaya order
• Umeboshi (salt-pickled), ume syrup, or the fruit's own liqueur. Sour, salty and savory at once.

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

• A clean mugi does under citrus what a neutral shochu does, with a little more grain left behind it.

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 barley highball is one of the most common ways shochu gets drunk in Japan. Clean spirit, cold soda, nothing in the way.

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

• A clean mugi does under citrus what a neutral shochu does, with a little more grain left behind it.

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

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

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

• A clean mugi does under citrus what a neutral shochu does, with a little more grain left behind it.

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.

Dry cava or crémant. Acid and bubbles in one pour.

• The barley highball is one of the most common ways shochu gets drunk in Japan. Clean spirit, cold soda, nothing in the way.

A sesame syrup, or a rim of ground sesame and salt. Toasty and rich.

• The bottle carries the grain and the mixer carries it roasted, so it is one ingredient reaching the glass two ways.
• A sesame syrup, or a rim of ground sesame and salt. Toasty and rich.

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

• Barley shochu and gari brine is a bartender's shortcut to a ginger sour
• A spoon of the brine, and a slice as garnish. Sweet, sour and hot at once.

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

• A long aged spirit and dried mushroom share a forest floor note
• A dried shiitake steeped in the spirit for a day. Savory and strange in the best way.

A drop. Think of it as salt with depth, for the savory glass only.

• A long aged spirit and aged soy share the same brown, oxidative notes
• A drop. Think of it as salt with depth, for the savory glass only.

One salted plum, crushed with a spoon in the glass. Salty, sour, savory.

• One umeboshi in a glass of barley shochu and hot water is the oldest shochu drink there is
• Dashi-wari and an umeboshi in hot barley shochu are real izakaya orders, but they belong to a winter counter rather than a summer glass.

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.

• A clean mugi does under citrus what a neutral shochu does, with a little more grain left behind it.
• 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.

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

• A clean mugi does under citrus what a neutral shochu does, with a little more grain left behind it.
• 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.

• A clean mugi does under citrus what a neutral shochu does, with a little more grain left behind it.
• 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.

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.

• A clean mugi does under citrus what a neutral shochu does, with a little more grain left behind it.
• 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.