A Beginner's Guide to Shochu
“The first written record of shochu was actually graffiti on a temple,” Rule of Thirds partner George Padilla told me. “In the 1500s, some builders working on a temple had scrawled, in the wood, a snide comment about the high priest being stingy with his shochu. Fittingly, this is the first record of what is, still today, considered a blue-collar beverage in Japan.”
Japan’s oldest, most traditional alcoholic beverage, shochu is a clear, distilled spirit made from fermented, well, almost anything. “I’ve actually calculated this once,” Kyushu-based orthopedic researcher by day; The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks author, Cool Japan Honkaku Shochu Ambassador, Sake School of America instructor, Japanese Sake & Shochu Makers Association consultant, and cofounder of Kanpai blog by night Stephen Lyman shared with me. “For all the different decisions made during the process, there are literally millions of styles of shochu you can make. The scope is enormous.”