Sake & brews ── Shochu & Awamori
Imo-jochu
Imo-jochu — shochu distilled from sweet potato
Shochu distilled from sweet potato and rice (or barley) koji in a single-distillation still. It's said to carry a sweet, steamed-potato aroma and a thick sweetness, with the Koganesengan variety widely used as the main raw material.
- Sweet potato
Lineage
What it's made of
The main raw material is sweet potato, steamed and mashed together with rice or barley koji. The Koganesengan variety in particular is said to hold 20 to 30 percent more starch than other varieties, and is widely used for producing an imo-jochu with a good balance of aroma and sweetness. Whether the koji is black, white, or yellow also shapes the outline of the flavor, and a sweet, steamed-potato aroma with a thick sweetness that lingers after swallowing are said to be its defining traits.
How it's made
A first mash is built from rice or barley koji and water alone to build up yeast, then steamed and mashed sweet potato is added to form the second mash — a two-stage process said to be the basic method. Because sweet potatoes spoil quickly and must be used soon after harvest, production is said to concentrate into the narrow window of autumn and winter. Once fermentation is finished, the mash is run through a single-distillation still just once, leaving the raw material's own flavor intact.
Why it took this shape
Sweet potato is said to have reached Kyushu by way of the Ryukyu Kingdom during the Edo period, and because it grew well even on well-drained shirasu volcanic-ash plateaus unsuited to paddies, it's said to have spread as a famine-relief crop especially around Kagoshima and Miyazaki. In land where drought and typhoons made rice yields unreliable, turning a root vegetable that was close at hand into a distilled spirit that kept for a long time is said to be how imo-jochu came to take its present shape.
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Dishes in the same style
- Izu Shoto Shochu (Shima-zake)Imo-jochu made in Tokyo's Izu Islands, also known as shima-zake. It's said to have been introduced in 1853 by a man exiled there from Satsuma, who brought a still and sweet potato seedlings, and using barley koji — a response to the islands' scarcity of rice — is said to be its hallmark.
- Miyazaki Imo-jochuImo-jochu from Miyazaki Prefecture, a producing region on par with Kagoshima. Koganesengan remains the mainstay, alongside varieties bred in Miyazaki itself such as Joy White, and local differences in climate and soil are said to show through in the finished spirit.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Known for it here
- Known for it here: Kagoshima
The production zone for the GI 'Satsuma' designation, said to have become a core imo-jochu region because its well-drained shirasu volcanic-ash plateaus suited sweet potato cultivation.
- Known for it here: Miyazaki
A producing region on par with Kagoshima, where many breweries are said to use the same Koganesengan variety owing to the neighboring geography.
Derived style
- Izu Shoto Shochu (Shima-zake)Imo-jochu made in Tokyo's Izu Islands, also known as shima-zake. It's said to have been introduced in 1853 by a man exiled there from Satsuma, who brought a still and sweet potato seedlings, and using barley koji — a response to the islands' scarcity of rice — is said to be its hallmark.
- Satsuma ShochuThe name reserved for imo-jochu made from Kagoshima-grown sweet potatoes and water, single-distilled and bottled within the prefecture (excluding Amami City and Oshima District). It's said to have been recognized as a World Trade Organization geographical indication in 2005.