Taiko no Kuro Usagi : brown sugar shochu

 

• Name: Taiko no Kuro Usagi
• Type: Brown sugar shochu
• Origin:  Kagoshima prefecture, Amami-shi
• Distiller: Yayoi Shochu
• ABV: 25%
• Price: about 1700 yen

 This rabbit is a tricky critter, to the point that I twice made the way to Okachimachi’s Takeya department store to buy it again. Fact is, I enjoyed it at first sip, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. Let’s draw the first lines about what’s in the bottle to delimit the whereabouts of this black rabbit (Kuro usagi means black rabbit, hence the critter reference up there): this is a brown sugar shochu produced in the Amami islands, the sole officially acknowledged homeland of this kind of spirit. The company distilling Kuro Usagi started out as both a shochu and awamori producer, which probably explains the 30% ABV (customary for awamori) they still use for two of their main brands, Yayoi and Mankoi. This 25% ABV kiddo seems to be the underdog of the line-up though, apparently unassuming, it has quite a few aces up its sleeve.

With brown sugar shochu you can expect something akin to a parallel-world-rum, the same feeling you sometimes have in dreams: things appear familiar but are in fact radically different from what you already know. Here you have the swings between sweetness and chewy bitterness expected from sugar cane spirits but, this notwithstanding, when tasted straight I couldn’t stop thinking: MALT. Oh Lord, has that expired natto messed up my taste buds for good?

It is a lingering hint, but it really reminds me of young Speyside honey, plus the smokiness claimed by the producers really shows up inside the bottle, it is not the kind of flavor you can only pick up by reading the label. In a subdued, discreet form, medicinal smokiness lingers in the background, like an eerie, minor character in a David Lynch movie.

What really wraps everything together though is the citrusy bitterness of orange peel, which keeps on standing strong all the way through the ordeal of the soda+ice dilution which we have come to know as highball. As it often happens, the highball frame puts all the elements into a tidier and more easily drinkable order, though unfortunately the smokiness fades away in the background.

Throughout all this, vanilla is the wallflower of the party, which makes me think we are dealing with reasonably young oak casks. Anyway, Japanese companies are, as usual, stingy when it comes to information about the production process: Yayoy distillery’s web store only states that this was aged five years in unspecified wooden casks. Also, the shochu is called Black Rabbit, but white koji was used in the making of it, this is quite a twist in the plot...

ザ　ブレイクダウン    

Not only is this a very pleasant drink, but it is also interesting enough to become a repeat buy. The reasonable price doesn't hurt either, so i came to appreciate having a black rabbit hopping around the house.

Vote: 4  + 1 + 2 = 7

Kuro Tanabata - Sweet potato shochu

 

• Name: Kuro Tanabata
• Type: Sweet potato shochu
• Origin:  Kagoshima prefecture, Ichiki-Kushikino
• Distiller: Tasaki Shuzo
• ABV: 25%
• Price: about 1500 yen

For those who have never visited the land of the rising hangover, I think it is worth keeping in mind that shochu is hardly ever served straight. The usual options Japanese drinking holes (they call them izakaya here, but I think drinking hole could be a suitable translation: drinking holes with good food) give you are either on the rocks or mixed with mineral, soda or hot water. If you get used to drinking hot water shochu regularly you can apply for Japanese citizenship under the ‘Drunken Oji-san Protection Act’ of 2016. Good luck with that, you have my support.　

Of course, shochu can also be mixed with tea or soft drinks, but that fate is usually destined for the crappy 40% ABV cheap boozy ammo. This notwithstanding, I think that drinking shochu straight is the most interesting option for the spirit-curious: without any dilution all the flavours are cranked up to 11 and the relatively low alcohol content will spare you severe tongue burn, thus making it is easier to assess what kind of genie actually came out of the bottle.

 Trying this Kuro Tanabata straight was quite a roller-coaster ride: it smells rich and bourbony, with some dried dates or fruits giving it a sturdy body. Keep in mind that this is sweet potato shochu, usually fruity and sweet, but the black koji here seems to override everything and bring in extra thickness and brunt (as a rule of thumb: if you see the world kuro in the shochu’s name, it is very likely that black koji has been used in the production process. Kuro means black in Japanese). The mouthfeel is chewy, if not oily and somewhat salty: pickled olives come to mind sometimes. In the end a bitterness close to dark chocolate comes up and fits well in the picture, though the flavors are a little bit all over the place. Even for imo shochu standards this one has a very dry afterglow in the mouth. I think I also picked up oregano in the ending but I may be worryingly delusional on this one.

After all these unexpected twists and turns, trying this black Tanabata in a highball puts everything back into a more reasonable frame: it is a pleasant potato shochu with a very pronounced bitter edge, which makes for a good variation from the average.

The maker’s website doesn’t offer specific information about the aging process, though it shows pictures of both clay pots and wood casks. We are left to argue, though I suggest leaving the arguing to spirit geeks and concentrating on the imbibing.

ザ　ブレイクダウン    

In the end I would say this is not likely to become a staple of my nightcap arsenal, but it is good to have such an interesting and challenging alternative on offer in the budget price range. I will definitely try it again, though not necessarily in the near future.

Vote: 3,5  + 1 + 1 = 5,5

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please do leave a comment. Terima kasih.

Den En Gold barley shochu

• Name: Den En Gold
• Type: Barley shochu
• Origin:  Kagoshima prefecture, Satsumasendai
• Distiller: Den En Shuzo
• ABV: 25%
• Price: about 1200 yen

Let's put things straight from the start: at 1200 yen this is a steal. DenEnShozu is one of the big

bosses in shochu production in Japan, but their focus on cask aging puts them in a league of

their own. They were the first to commercialize a cask-aged shochu in 1982, and that came after

26 years of trial-and-error experimentation. They manage to beautifully age sweet potato shochu

too, but this review is all about how DenEnGold is aged barley shochu, and a very beautifully 

made one.

Besides barley and koji, classical music is the other main ingredient contributing to this spirit: 

speakers transmit the vibrations of music through the tanks where the shochu, now diluted down to

25 abv, rests before bottling. The company maintains this causes water molecules to wrap 

themselves around alcohol molecules, providing a smoother mouthfeel.

I am unable to dispute over the chemical legitimacy of this claim, anyway speakers beam music

through the fermenting mash as well, so it looks like the guys at DenEnShuzo are firmly convinced

this has a major influence on the final result.

The casks which are used for aging are mainly oak, and they are hosted in three eight-floor 

storehouses. DenEnGold spends three years maturing in wood and what comes out of it is

a very intense, satisfying smell of toasted barley which, once sipped, is almost a little prickly on

the tongue. There are baked products lingering here in the background, alternating between bitter 

and sweet, while the vanilla from the oak only comes out as an aftertaste. Every once in a while 

apricots and wood show up and join the party. 

ザ　ブレイクダウン    

Maybe this won't be a life-changing experience for the jaded spirits geeks, but at retail price

DenEnGold is an undisputable bargain and deserves to be a staple of every self-respecting 

Japanese booze-imbibing household.

Vote: 3,5  + 2 + 1 = 6,5

Ougonkyou - 黄金郷 Rice Shochu aged in sherry cask

• Name: Ougonkyou
• Type: Rice shochu
• Origin: Kumamoto prefecture, Kuma
• Distiller: Fusato no tsuyu
• ABV: 25%
• Price: about 1500 yen

Good old Latin letters on the bottle salute you with the pretty straightforward catchphrase "Sherry cask", which compensates for the enigmatic "黄金郷" printed above it.  It took me a little search to find out the three kanjis are pronounced "Ougonkyou", it is in fact the Japanese world for El Dorado. This shochu is not one of the ubiquitous, most popular brands and finding a bottle demanded a little effort, but that is not enough to establish a connection between it and the legendary bountiful land hidden somewhere in South America. What the name refers to is an area of the Kuma region, in Kumamoto prefecture,  whose golden ears of rice earned it the name "Eldorado" (the golden one, for the Spanish impaired).       

The shochu itself has a golden hue thanks to the aging in sherry casks, though spirits geeks will be disappointed by the lack of information about the actual time the spirit rested in them. (To deepen the geeks' dismay, I shall add that the company's website states the casks come from 'abroad', which is a geographically vague definition, to say the very least...) .

Thank God I am not a geek, just your regular booze fiend: so pop goes the bottle and the smell coming up from the glass mixes the not cloying, gentle sweetness of rice with something reminding me of pastries made with liquor-soaked peaches (childhood memories kicking in, I guess). The influence of the sherry casks seems to have brought some slightly sour notes, not the all-round red fruits sweet attack you find in sherry bomb whisky, and they work great with the rice. The mouthfeel is very soft, and the flavour will linger long around with some faint soapy aftertaste, there is also a little dryness on the tongue, which kind of gave me a hankering for a cigarette.
Ah, alcohol, you are indeed the gateway to all vices. And I salute you for that!                

     

ザ　ブレイクダウン       

This was a very pleasant surprise, I like this one quite a bit and I wouldn't mind having always a bottle around the house.  It is encounters like this that push you to investigate the world of shochu furthermore.

Vote: 3,5  + 2 + 1 = 6,5

Lento - Amami brown sugar shochu （れんと 奄美黒糖焼酎）

 

• Name : Lento
• Type: Brown sugar shochu
• Origin : Amami Oshima
• Distiller: Amami Oshima Kaiun Shuzo
• ABV: 25%
• Price: about 1000 yen

Just as the need for malternatives brought me to shochu in general, it was when 

looking for an alternative to rum that I first tried brown sugar shochu. Recently I had a hankering for my beloved Appleton Estate rum but a 20 minutes subway ride to score a bottle wouldn't fit into my schedule: following the line of thought "sugar-cane based booze will do" I thus grabbed a bottle of the ubiquitous Lento at the supermarket.

The word  lento comes from classical music's terminology, which the Japanese seem to be very familiar with judging from the bicycles named allegro, fortissimo or arpeggio (to quote just a few) I see all over Tokyo.
The name of this shochu seems to refer to the sound of classical music played through the  steel tanks the spirit spends three months in, an aging process the distillery calls "acoustic maturation" (my approximate translation of 音響熟成). Whether the likes of Mozart and Vivaldi exert any influence on the shochu itself is anyone's guess, though. 

I'll try to enhance further aging in bottle by exposing the unaware distillate to hyperfast technical death metal, rest assured I'll keep you updated about the results.

By Japanese law, brown sugar shochu can be produced exclusively on the Amami islands, which are roughly situated between Okinawa and Kyushu in the most southern part of the Japanese archipelago.
The production process involves the use of rice koji, aka the mold which makes 

things tasty (think soy sauce and miso), and low-pressure distillation. Air pressure inside the stills is lowered to the point where alcohol evaporation happens at about 44 degrees celsius, as opposed to the 78 degrees necessary in normal conditions. This technique is pretty common in shochu production, and it is deemed to give the spirit a cleaner, neater taste without undesired impurities.

Time to dive inside the bottle at last: Lento is transparent as water and leaves long, thin legs on the  glass, given its relatively modest abv. The smell is sweet in a subdued way, it reminds me of slightly unripe red grapes: European grapes that is, Japanese grapes smell like they have a cloud of candy cotton hanging around them. There is also some sort of faint vegetal, herbaceous smell which pairs well with the sweetness, think rum agricole with the volume turned down dramatically.
The mouthfeel is super delicate, the flavours are very close to what the nose suggested, with a slightly bitter note added in the ending. It leaves a pleasant afterglow in the mouth, don't expect to have your tongue buried in molasses: gentle is the name of the game here.
I like this quite a bit, it will not have you screaming from the roof in rapture, but it's gonna be a reliable buddy to hang out with. Very likely to work great in cocktails.

ザ　ブレイクダウン　(the breakdown)

this is a bottle you can find in almost any supermarket and its cheap price makes the cost/performance ratio highly satisfactory. Not super complex or sophisticated but definitely very, very pleasant.

Vote: 3 + 2 + 1 = 6

An introduction

 This blog chronicles my explorations of the fascinating and somewhat elusive world of Japanese shochu. I am a European man in his forties, living in Japan since 2016: the transition from binge-drinking to a less troglodytic enjoyment of booze has brought me to focus more on the organolectic properties of spirits rather than on their ability to induce stupor. In layman's terms: getting hammered beyond recognition is no longer the priority, flavour is.

My forays in spirits appreciation began with whisky, price hikes and fluctuating quality pushed me into looking a little bit further down the aisles of the liquor shop. Awaiting there were rows and rows of enigmatic shochu bottles: curiosity and thirst met, it was love at first sight.

I am your average drinking prole, though, alas! no sommelier tastebuds grace this tongue of mine and what you'll find here are more or less the log entries of the bottles I buy and drink.
Since information on shochu in the English-speaking world is scant (the great book
'The shochu handbook' by Christopher Pellegrini is an exception) I thought maybe putting my meager two eurocents here wouldn't be completely useless.

Let's stress  it once again: these are the opinions of your average drinking guy, don't take this as spirits-dogma spewed out by the pope of booze.

Ratings are the very definition of subjectiveness but at least they give a rough outline of what to expect, so I tried to come up with my own rating system.
The scale goes from 0 to 10 with the breakdown of: zero to six points for nose and flavour (0 = out of the sewers of hell, 6 = liquid beatitude), zero to two for price/quality ratio (0 = this is a scam!, 2 = this is a steal!), zero to two for likeliness to buy it again (0 = not even at gunpoint, 2 = I'm on my way to the liquor store).

As I'm writing I do not even know if anyone will ever read these lines, it feels like sending out a message in a bottle. Even though in this case, may Marshall McLuhan forgive me,  the bottle is the message.