There are many base ingredients that shochu is made from providing a wide variety of flavor profiles. The most commonly found are: Imo 芋 – (sweet potato) is highly aromatic, can be smooth, and also slightly sweet on the palate. There are many varieties of sweet potato all contributing their own characteristics. Kogane sengan is…
Tag: awamori
Shochu Basics
An article I wrote for Metropolis magazine on the basics of shochu: http://archive.metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/545/localflavors.asp (text follows) A women’s book series known as The Sweet Potato Queens may be all the rage in the US, but here in Japan men and women are falling over themselves for the liquid version: sweet-potato shochu (imo jochu). What was once…