This year’s edition of the Shochu Tram, an annual staple of the Kagoshima summer, departed on its first journey August 22nd and the shochu-filled excursions embarked every night for a week. Most journeys were hosted by a single distillery, but the night of the 22nd featured a consortium of shochu makers and most guests were from overseas. A Special Kind of … [Read more...]
Shochu in the Japan Times
Prolific food and drink writer, Melinda Joe, enjoyed a shochu tour on the tatami-mat floor of Shochu Zanmai in Ikebukuro. Local shochu savant, Christopher Pellegrini, was there to rummage through the crates and rustle up some gems. It all played out beautifully in the pages of yesterday's Japan Times: Distilling the Mysteries of Shochu Hopefully they do a follow-up … [Read more...]
Shochu Renaissance in Shibuya
Shidax Hall in Shibuya played host once again to one of the biggest annual honkaku shochu events held in Tokyo, Shochu Renaissance. This year's event, the 18th iteration in its history, showcased products from nearly three dozen shochu and awamori distilleries on the afternoon of April 10th. And the makers were eager to show off the versatility of the drinks they brought … [Read more...]
2015 Otsurui Shochu Shipment Numbers
The Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association (JSS) released shipment tallies for December 2015 which means that we can relay the total for the entire year. Pot still-produced shochu makers sold 460,172 kiloliters in 2015. The most popular type of otsurui shochu was potato (芋) with 206,901 kl in sales. Barley (麦) was second at 188,895 kl, and rice (米) third at 41,804 kl. … [Read more...]
October 2014 Shochu Stats
The Japan Saké and Shochu Makers Association (JSS) has released the September numbers for shochu shipments. Honkaku potato shochu shipments retook the lead in October after falling behind barley shochu shipments in September. The 19,696 kl of potato shochu shipped represented a 8.3% jump year over year (YoY) when compared to October 2013. Barley shochu was second with 17,236 … [Read more...]