Sake & brews
Shochu & Awamori
焼酎・泡盛
26 varieties
Shochu and awamori are distilled spirits made by first saccharifying rice, sweet potato, barley, or black sugar with koji mold, then running the mash through a single-distillation still. They're said to have developed in southern Kyushu and Okinawa, where plateaus ill-suited to rice paddies and a hot, humid climate favored a spirit that kept better than a brewed drink like sake. Awamori is built on Thai rice and black koji that arrived from across the sea, while Kyushu's shochu draws on white koji — a branch of black koji — alongside yellow koji, the older mold also used for miso and soy sauce. This section follows not individual brands but the types of raw material, koji, and distillation, and the water and climate of each producing region.
Brown sugar and awamori6
Other styles9
- Choki Chozo Shochu長期貯蔵焼酎long-aged shochu labeling
- Joatsu / Genatsu Jouryu常圧蒸留と減圧蒸留Atmospheric and reduced-pressure distillation
- Kame-tsubo Jikomiかめ壺仕込みearthenware-jar mashing
- Kashi-daru Jukusei樫樽熟成Oak-cask aging
- Kuro-koji, Shiro-koji, Ki-koji麹の違い(黒麹・白麹・黄麹)Black, white, and yellow koji — the three shochu molds
- Korui Shochu甲類焼酎(連続式蒸留焼酎)continuous-distillation shochu
- Maewari前割りpre-mixed and rested shochu
- Otsurui Shochu乙類焼酎(本格焼酎)honkaku, single-distillation shochu
- Soba-jochuそば焼酎Miyazaki Gokaseshochu distilled from buckwheat
Barley3
Sweet potato5
Rice3
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Before you go
- How to use an antenna shopA guide to what's sold at an antenna shop, its restaurant or eat-in counters, its tourist-information role, the cluster of shops around Ginza and Yurakucho, and how to use one before a trip or for last-minute souvenirs.
- All-You-Can-Eat and All-You-Can-Drink CustomsTime limits, last-order windows, and a few rules to know before booking a tabehodai or nomihodai course.
- Rules and etiquette around alcoholWhat's worth knowing before drinking in Japan: the legal drinking age, how strictly drink-driving is treated, rules on drinking outdoors, train etiquette, and customs like waiting for a toast and pouring for each other.