Enjoying Shochu: Ways to Savour Your Spirit

Serving and Enjoying Shochu

How should enjoy your bottle of shochu when you’ve bought a bottle from us? We are here to give you some ideas! (If you haven’t yet please check out our Spirits Shop).

Depending on how you prepare your shochu drink, your experience with shochu would also be very different. Like sake, you could experience shochu at different temperatures. But unlike sake, you could also mix with other drinks to create something unique! Here are some ideas on how to enjoy your bottle of shochu at home: 

Usual ways of enjoying shochu 

Neat or on the rocks – most shochu are watered down to 25% before bottling, which still ensures the shochu is aromatic at that abv level. Sip the shochu in a whisky glass like your western spirits. In Tengu Sake, our shochu are at a higher abv (e.g. 30%, 38%) and it will be more flavourful when you drink it neat!

Mix with water (mizuwari) – pour water (room temperature) with shochu for a 1:1 ratio. Adjust the ratio depending on preference and abv level, e.g., shochu : water = 6:4 or 7:3. 

Mix with hot water (oyuwari) – opens up the aromas of shochu. Pour hot water (do not exceed 80°C) into the glass first and shochu next, usually in a 1:1 ratio or in the suggested ratios above depending on preference and abv level. Obviously the cooler the initial hot water the cooler your oyuwari experience (for your first time try 60°C and then adjust from there).

Other mixing options for enjoying shochu: 

Mix with soda water (Sodawari) – good mixer for all types of shochu for a slight fizz.

Mix with Juice (Juice-wari), e.g. orange, lemon, or grapefruit juice – good mixer for all types of shochu for a refreshing drink.

Mixing with tea (Cha-wari), e.g. green tea, hojicha, oolong tea – a lighter roasted barley shochu (e.g. Shochu from Iki) would be preferred.

Mixing with coffee (Coffee-wari) – a more roasted barley shochu (e.g. Shochu from Oita or Miyazaki) would stand up the complexity of coffee.

Shochu Cocktails 

Shochu can also be enjoyed in the form of cocktails. If you are interested in doing mixology at home, you can also browse through the cocktail recipes on the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association (JSS) website, which has gathered shochu cocktail recipes from bartenders all over the world.