If sake is the elegant belle of the ball in the world of Japanese alcohol—mellifluous of flavour and perfectly at home on the pristine hinoki countertops of omakase sushi bars the world over—then shochu is the older, slightly less admired first cousin once removed: a regular face at the local watering hole, a little rough around the edges, generally affable, with a knack for seamlessly blending into any social circle. But lately, Cousin Shochu has undergone a transformation and is finally having its moment in the limelight.
Japan’s national spirit has long been overshadowed by sake, and while talk of shochu’s long-heralded rise outside of Japan has been humming in the background for the last decade or so, it finally reached critical mass during the pandemic, bolstered by a slew of new-wave Japanese bars outside of Japan in the cocktail capitals of the world, from New York
