Blog » Shochu Stop

Happy new year! How did you spend your new year's day? The start of my new year was the worst. On new year's eve, I was at my a party in SF and drank many whisky cocktails that my friend made. I enjoyed the cocktail and...

Hi everyone, I'm back! Let me tell you what I was doing all this time, while neglecting this shochu column. Two months ago, I went back to Japan to take the Shochu Advisor's test, so I needed to concentrate on studying shochu. I did pass the...

A guide to the differences between Japanese Shochu vs. Korean Soju.

Since I have moved to the U.S. from Japan, I have felt sad about how Americans drink, because American people don't drink so much. "飲みが足んねえ" (nomi ga tan ne e, or "They don't drink enough"). They are too discreet. Maybe people can't be a dead...

This time I would like to talk about mugi (barley) shochu in more general terms. Mugi shochu might be easier to understand than any other shochu, because mugi shochu is distilled from barley--like whisky, vodka, and gin. There are two types of...

I'm ashamed to say that I had not tried kome (short rice) shochu so often in Japan because I didn't have many occasions to try it. Truthfully, I did not care for it much anyway, since I was most into

Today, I'll introduce you to Satsuma Shiranami which used to be my go-to shochu in Japan. I would get home late from work, turn on the TV and settle down into my couch and have this shochu on the rocks. It relaxed...

Hello, I'm Washi. Nice to meet you! I moved to the U.S. in January 2010 from Tokyo. Sorry ladies, I'm married. Anyway, I have been drinking soooo much shochu for years, and I just wanna say, SHOCHU IS FANTASTIC! Huh? What...