The World of Shochu

I promised to say a few words about shochu cocktails, so I will: sawa, chuhai, and Hi-Likki.

First, shochu, if you aren't familiar. It is a Japanese clear distilled liquor, made from barley or sweet potato or most anything you can ferment. It is pretty low proof for liquor, around 50 proof. It used to be completely low-class and pretty nasty - Japanese white lightning. Around 10-15 years ago, it started getting trendy, and now supports a serious connoisseurship. In America, the Korean version, soju, is more well known.

It's often drunk in cocktails. Aside from shochu and water or hot water (mizu wari and oyu wari), we find:

• "Sawa": a shochi sour. Shochu, lemon and soda.
• Chuhai: A shochu highball. Shochu, something and soda. The "something" can be lemon, grapefruit, or orange juice, or something more Japanese, like oolong-cha (iced tea) or ume (pickled plum)
• Hi-Likki: This is a brand of canned chuhai. I only included it because: 1) they sell this stuff in cans, and 2) don't you love the name?

A typical Japanese dinner usually features beer, wine, sake, whiskey and shochu cocktails. It depends, but I think a lot of drinkers like the chuhai best.

Try it, why don't you?