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Weird, Unusual, Uncanny Shochu (Ep. 48)

December 6, 2022 · Leave a Comment

INTRO

In episode 48, our hosts have a little fun by jumping into the weird, unusual, or shall we even say, uncanny shochu styles that make up a sliver of the category, but make shochu such an odd spirit to categorize.

CREDITS

Intro: Theresa Matsuura of the Uncanny Japan Podcast.

Theme Song: Begin Anywhere by Tomoko Miyata (http://tomokomiyata.net/)

Mixing and Editing: Rich Pav (https://www.uncannyrobotpodcast.com/)

HOSTS

CHRISTOPHER PELLEGRINI Vermont born and bred, long-time Tokyo resident and author of The Shochu Handbook, Christopher learned about delicious fermentations as a beer brewer at Otter Creek (Middlebury, VT). He now spends most of his waking hours convincing strangers that shochu and awamori are unlike anything they’ve ever tried before. 

STEPHEN LYMAN discovered Japan’s indigenous spirits at an izakaya in New York City. He was so enthralled that he now lives in Japan and works in a tiny craft shochu distillery every autumn. His first book, The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks, was nominated for a 2020 James Beard Award.

Stephen and Christopher enjoy going off the beaten path to discover uncanny shochu styles.

If you have any comments or questions about this episode, please reach out to Stephen or Christopher via Twitter. We would love to hear from you. 

SHOW NOTES

Uncanny Shochu

uncanny shochu
Chiran Tea Chu – a sweet potato shochu with green tea added to the fermentation.

While the most popular shochu base ingredients make up about 98% (or more) of volume, the other ingredients can be just as enjoyable if much harder to find. As we are sure you know by now, sweet potato, barley, rice, kokuto sugar, and soba (buckwheat) make up the lion’s share of the market with sake lees shochu playing a culturally important, but minor role in driving volume. While the aromatic shochu subcategory is vast, but also just a sliver of sales.

While not intended to be a comprehensive dive into all of these alternative ingredients, we do highlight a few that are worth exploring.

Milk: whole milk, skim milk, and whey powder

Tea: green tea, black tea, and matcha

Seaweed: konbu (kelp), wakame, nori, and red algae

Garden Vegetables: carrot, tomato, onion, and green pepper

Mushrooms: enoki, shiitake

Seeds/Nuts: chestnut, sesame seeds, peanuts, sunflower seeds

Herbs: silvervine, shiso, saffron

Other Oddities: cactus, aloe, water chestnut

Matatabi Shochu, which Christopher was sipping on during the episode.

Why?

Why are all of these different types of shochu legal to make? Truth is, we’re not sure. The tax office decided which were approved and distillers, farming cooperatives, and just about anyone else could apply for approval. The full list was approved and its been stated that no new ingredients will be approved, but suspect that’s only going to be true until another ingredient is approved. We personally would vote for Mizu Shochu’s Lemongrass. There’s nothing Japanese about lemongrass, but Mizu’s expression is off the charts delicious.

Serving Styles

As with any shochu, how you drink it is up to you, but generally since these uncanny shochu are vacuum distilled, they’re going to express best straight, on the rocks, or with soda. If you like to be able to taste the diluted spirit without cold, use Stephen’s twice up receipe: 50/50 filtered water and shochu. Good way to get the experience with dilution.

Milk shochu plays wonderfully with bubbles.

That said, some of the nuttier (sesame, chestnut) expressions are great with hot water and the konbu and mushroom shochu are loaded with umami – so they will also play well with hot water or as a way to add body to a cocktail. Very much look forward to getting our hands on a few bottles and doing some experiments.

More to Explore

As usual, there is so much to explore in this world of honkaku shochu. If you find anything interesting out there, please let us know.

Kanpai!

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