Sake & brews ── Shochu & Awamori
Kokuto-jochu
Kokuto-jochu — shochu distilled from black sugar
Shochu made from black sugar pressed from sugarcane, together with rice koji. It's said to carry a rich, sweet aroma from the black sugar, yet doesn't come across as cloying since it's fermented with koji and then distilled — and a special provision of the liquor tax law permits it to be made only in the Amami Islands.
- Brown sugar and awamori
Lineage
What it's made of
The raw materials are black sugar, made by boiling down pressed sugarcane juice, and rice koji. Rather than the straightforward sweetness of boiled-down black sugar, it's first fermented with rice koji before distilling, so a rich, sweet aroma is said to remain while the finish stays clean rather than cloying. It's sometimes compared to rum, but unlike rum, which ferments molasses directly, kokuto-jochu is said to rely on rice koji to carry out both saccharification and fermentation, a key difference.
How it's made
A first mash is built from rice koji and water to raise up the yeast, then dissolved black sugar is added for a second-stage fermentation. Using rice koji is the condition that lets it be treated as shochu under the liquor tax law; fermenting and distilling black sugar alone without meeting that condition would place it in the separate category of spirits instead. Once fermentation ends, the mash passes through a single-distillation still just once.
Why it took this shape
When the Amami Islands reverted to Japan in 1953, an interim liquor-tax measure is said to have permitted a black-sugar-based distilled spirit to be treated as shochu, on condition that rice koji be used. That special provision is said to still apply only to the Amami Islands today, which is how kokuto-jochu is said to have come to take the unusual shape of a shochu that, by law, can be made nowhere else. This special provision is said to let Amami's breweries keep their own distinct drinking culture alive to this day.
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.
Dishes in the same style
- Amami Kokuto-jochuKokuto-jochu permitted to be made only in the Amami Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture. It's said to carry a sweet aroma distinctive to islands where sugarcane cultivation thrives, and around 30 breweries are said to compete on character while observing the liquor tax law's condition that rice koji be used.
- AwamoriA distilled spirit from Okinawa made only from Thai rice and black koji, with every grain of rice turned into koji in a method called zen-koji-jikomi. Citric acid from the black koji is said to keep the mash from spoiling even in hot, humid conditions, and it's classified alongside shochu as a single-distillation spirit.