“dancyu” September 2013 Issue

January 6, 2014 by Christopher Pellegrini 2 Comments

The title reads "Shochu Summer." Yes, it most certainly was. — The title reads “Shochu Summer.” Yes, it most certainly was.

This is a few months old now, but last year’s September issue of “dancyu” (pronounced /dahn chew/) was all about shochu. The famous culinary magazine covers just about every topic and trend it can think of, but this was the first time in recent memory that we can remember virtually the entire issue being devoted to shochu.

Contained within are all manner of interviews with distillers, food pairing suggestions, and bottle recommendations. There’s also plenty of exposition dedicated to bringing shochu and awamori newbies up to speed.

One of my favorite parts is the blind tasting that they ran 30 F&B professionals through to see what they thought about nearly three dozen different imo jochu. The part that tickled my funny bone was that only one of the contestants could correctly identify the legendary Mori’izou label out of the 11 grouped in the “light” category. A surprising 20% of the field actually guessed incorrectly that another imo jochu, Tsuru no Izumi, was the crown jewel of Kagoshima, Mori’izou.

I guess they can be excused though since Mori’izou is so prohibitively expensive and difficult to find. I doubt that more than one or two of them had tasted it within recent memory.

About Christopher Pellegrini

Christopher Pellegrini, author of The Shochu Handbook, happened upon shochu more than a decade ago, and his curiosity was piqued by the dearth of published information about it. Many years of distillery visits, palate refining, and test taking later, he became one of the few Certified Shochu Sommelier (SSI) to be born outside of Japan. He now spends his time conducting shochu and awamori tastings, writing for various food and drink publications, and consulting restaurants, bars, and distributors on how to bring these drinks into the fold.
A native of Vermont, Christopher was an accomplished pole vaulter and spent several years working for Otter Creek Brewing where he eventually inhabited the night brewing shift. Little did he know that his experience making good beer would lead him to a career in another high quality drink thousands of miles away. After a year in Spain and two in South Korea, Christopher moved to Tokyo, Japan in 2002, where a distinct lack of craft beer sent him straight into shochu's open arms.
He has since found a home talking about Japanese food and drinks for an international audience. He is the host of Japan Booze Blind and Ishokudogen, two web series that cater to Japan's culinary fans around the world. Christopher holds an MA in language education from University College London's Institute of Education, and is the English translator of the survival Japanese textbook Konnichiwa, Nihongo! He has also been published in print and online outlets such as Koe and Global Insider.

Comments

Sake guide says

April 18, 2014 at 8:58 pm

Interesting! I should order it from my local Kinokunya.

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The First M - Kampai! : Kampai! says:

May 9, 2015 at 4:26 am

[…] which deserve their due. However, in Japan sweet potato rules. In fact, in the September 2013 “shochu issue” of the Japanese food and drink magazine Dancyu, the editors brought together 30 shochu experts from around Japan for a blind tasting and rating of […]

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