Exploring the Different Identities

By Aidan Bowie

It was a truly wonderful experience and I am very grateful for being a part of it. I have always wanted to visit Japan and I think that the itinerary was a great combination of distillery tours, delicious meals, and visitor attractions. It was a very good group of people that were selected to go on the trip and that made it very enjoyable. Chikako and Hiromi were excellent hosts and their hospitality, knowledge of the places we visited and sense of fun was perfect!

My knowledge of shochu before the trip was okay, but after spending time in multiple distilleries that we visited I was able to get a much better understanding of the category. It was very interesting to taste through the different styles of shochus, and also how versatile the category is. Each distiller has their own identity which is translated into their final products. The schedule really showcased a variety of distilleries and it was a great way to learn about shochu.

I think the best thing for me was that all of the distilleries were different and had their own style. I really like the Oishi and Sengetsu Shuzo distilleries but it was great seeing them all and all the science, personality and work that went into them all.

I think there is a large potential for authentic shochu in the US. I can probably only speak to what is happening in New York at the moment but bartenders are constantly looking for ways to capture new flavors and shochu is an incredible way to do that. The more education and work that the JSS does in bringing awareness of Shochu to America, the more we will see that work filtering down in cocktail bars across the country. Activations like the cocktail competition, education seminars or shochu week are really good ways of reaching out to more bartenders and getting more people to consider using shochu in their cocktails.