Is Shochu Japan’s Next Big Thing? A Spirit for Everyone

The list of Japanese products that have come from nowhere to reach iconic status on world markets is endless. It includes everything from reading material (manga) to visual arts (anime) to culinary delights (sushi and everything umami), alcoholic beverages (Japanese whiskeys) and even toilets (all hail the washlet!).

So no one should downplay the potential of shochu, one of Japan’s still relatively unknown treasures. If Christopher Pellegrini has his way, this ancient, enigmatic alcoholic beverage may be on the cusp of international stardom, ready to take bows on bar counters worldwide. Pellegrini is a certified expert on the drink, and has been fascinated by all its aspects since his first encounter with shochu in 2003. He sees a bright future for this unique spirit, and his enthusiasm is downright contagious.

Coming from the U.S. state of Vermont, Pellegrini harbored an intense fascination with small batch drinks after discovering beer brewing in his teens. His world changed one rainy night in a small Tokyo izakaya when the owner poured him a sampling of five different kinds of shochu: barley, sweet potato, rice, soba (buckwheat), and kokuto (brown sugar). “That was an eye-opening experience,” he says. “All looked the same—completely clear—and yet each was very much its own thing.” He asked where the drinks were made and the owner simply said, “Down south.” “Within a few weeks,” Pellegrini says, “I took off in that direction. And that was the opening of an incredible rabbit hole that I’m still tumbling down 22 years later.”

Of course, even that’s just a blink of an eye compared to the history of shochu, which, according to Pellegrini, began some six centuries ago in the southern islands around Okinawa. The Ryukyuan people there were voracious traders when it came to the highest proof spirits, and they eventually started distilling their own. “It was awamori, Japan’s first spirit,” says Pellegrini.

The distilling process made its meandering way up the string of islands, eventually reaching Kagoshima, the district in the most southern part of Kyushu. “That was where what was known as shochu became the drink of choice,” says Pellegrini.” In the eighteenth century, sweet potatoes were introduced to southern Kyushu, where they thrived in the ashy soil and became a favored ingredient. Later distilling traditions spread, and took root in other parts of Japan where harvesting high quality rice was not easy.

“Shochu is truly unique,” says Pellegrini. He points to the fermentation process, in which a mold known as koji is used to break down the starches in the selected ingredient into fermentable sugars. “The process is much longer and more articulate, more pristine than most spirits,” he says. “A whiskey fermentation is four days at most, and then goes straight into the still. But a short shochu fermentation might be two weeks long, and can often be three to four weeks. It’s a very slow and careful process.”

He also points to the rare ban against additives, compared to the many extraneous ingredients found in other spirits, from caramel in whiskeys to sweeteners in mezcal. And while most traditional distillations use double-pot processes, shochu’s single pot method for honkaku (authentic) shochu demands a careful fermentation process. “Single-pot distilling results in a naturally lower alcohol content, but it also means that the drink tastes and smells like what it was made from,” he says. “That gives it immense diversity.”

Today, shochu has come to include distillations of some 53 different items, made in every Japanese prefecture. The four most popular are grains (rice, barley), sweet potatoes, sake kasu (lees), and kokuto. “By diversity, I mean there are five dozen varieties of sweet potatoes stretching from white to ruby and everything in between,” says Pellegrini. “So brewers have so many choices of how to blend flavor and aroma. Some of the more unusual ones include aloe, water chestnuts, carrots, and matatabi, a cousin of catnip.” Five regions of production have received Geographical Indication (GI) as protected places of origin. They include Iki island in Nagasaki (barley), the Kuma river basin (rice), Satsuma from Kagoshima (sweet potato), and Ryukyu awamori (rice). The newest one is Tokyo Shimazake (sweet potato and barley), made in the string of islands from Oshima to Ogasawara.

Then there are the many serving styles to consider. In Japan, neat or on the rocks is very common, as are shochu mixed in highballs and cut with hot water. Overseas is a different matter. “Bartenders love to experiment in the U.S.,” says Pellegrini. “Any good, cool cocktail bar is going to have a shochu or awamori cocktail.” That leads the conversation to pairing. He raves about a modern take on the old tradition of prior dilution. “At one event, they prediluted it down to 12 or 13 ABV, and poured it like a white wine in wine glasses,” he says. “Because there’s no acidity in shochu it doesn’t fight with food, making it very easy to pair. I’d highly recommend this style with sushi.”

He chuckles when recalling a surprising success with food from a fried chicken chain paired with a selection of a vacuum-distilled rice shochu. “It worked so well, I couldn’t even chew, I was laughing so hard,” he says. “Once, just for fun at a party, we had a brown sugar shochu with cheese fondue and it was great. The possibilities are endless.”

In his role as shochu “ambassador,” he has introduced the drink in venues all over the world to all stripes of people. “We did a shochu tasting at a Jose Andreas property called The Bazaar in Manhattan’s Ritz Carlton for the sommeliers and top service staff,” Pellegrini recalls. “With their background, they were able to process them on a very high level, and we drank them straight so they could get the flavor profile. A couple months later, we did a shochu pairing dinner at the same location, and it turned out to be hugely popular.”

And when introducing them to beginners? “I ask people if they are wine drinkers or if they prefer beer. Or maybe they like vodka and soda. Barley shochu is a hit with people who like beer and whiskeys, and recognize the graininess. Mezcal fans love the complexity of sweet potato shochu. Kokuto shochu works especially well for those who love cocktails.”

Pellegrini has this to say to those with a budding curiosity about what could be Japan’s next big thing: “You have to figure out your favorite ingredient, then how you like to drink it, cold serves or hot serves. There’s a variety for everyone because there’s not a pretentious bone in shochu’s body. The secret is to not be overwhelmed by the possibilities. So, sip slowly folks, sip authentic shochu.”

That sounds like particularly good advice for anyone who wants to get in on the ground floor of what just might be Japan’s next big “thing.”