Share the Secret; It’s the Right Thing to Do
By Dean Callan
Over the last 20 years working in and around the bar industry I’ve had a lot of truly amazing experiences, I’ve travelled to more than 70 countries around the world and had the good fortune to taste some of the world’s absolute best food and drink; visiting restaurants like Osteria Francescana in Modena or Tickets in Barcelona, the time world renowned bartender Erik Lorinz came to my home to make me a Ramos Gin Fizz, or even drinking cocktails on the rooftop of the Plaza Athénée through the night and watching the sun rise over Paris. There are some experiences that create a powerful emotional response that strikes you so deep you change as a person, having experienced them you are no longer the same, you’ve grown.
One of my favourite perks of working in the world of hospitality and spirits is getting to visit distilleries. I love the sweet spot where the artistry and craft meets the geeky science-driven process. I love meeting the people who work day to day making the magic happen, finding out as much as I possibly can about them and what they do that might be different from someone else’s method. It all adds to the picture I have in my mind when I’m tasting the spirit. It might not be for everyone to deep dive into such detail but I see it like the extras on the deluxe DVD box sets I would buy for films; most people watch the movie, they enjoy it and they move on. But for me I want to know how they did it, what scenes did they cut out and why - I can never get enough. That said, having visited a lot of distilleries I sometimes feel like I have seen it all; anyone who has toured 10 or more distilleries in Scotland will understand when I say I don’t need to see another Porteus grist mill. I will obviously go to a lot more distilleries given the chance and still be in awe of the craft and in love with the process, but I really have to start digging deep to find questions I need answered.
This was not the case for my recent trip to Japan. I walked away with more questions than I can even remember, I returned home a changed person, I had grown. That trip will go down in my memory as a pivotal moment in my career, a once in a lifetime experience I desperately want to repeat or see other people experience for themselves. It’s right up there with Massimo Bottura’s crunchy part of the lasagne, only with one big difference; foodies the world over already know how brilliant Massimo Bottura is, his restaurant is booked out months in advance and people travel from all over the world to taste his food. I get the feeling that the world is sleeping on Shochu right now. I should have read a few books on it already and be able buy a broad range of Shochu brands here in London. But it’s somehow not popular yet, certainly not as popular as it should be.
Shochu has a lot going for it, not only does it taste great but there are so many variables at play in each distillery that there’s a seemingly endless amount of conversations to be had. It’s like getting a hold of a 1.5 hour long film that’s amazing to watch, then finding out there’s 2 weeks’ worth of free behind the scenes content that’s equally exciting.
Shochu can be made from a lot of different bases such as rice, sweet potato, cane, barley and more. It can be distilled in anything ranging from tiny copper pot stills to huge continuous stills. Vacuum distillation seemed to be much more common place with Shochu and we even visited a distillery that had a giant vacuum still that ran horizontally. Aging can take place in steel, clay or wood and honestly pretty much every single distillery uses different combinations of vessels. Also we never seemed to see 2 distilleries with similar stills, it’s as if every single distiller has built their own bespoke stills and has developed their own process. All of these factors come together to make Shochu such an interesting diverse spirit that I’m amazed it’s not the most talked about spirit amongst bartender circles. How is it not more popular?
When you add Koji to the mix and discover that unlike Whiskey production where endogenous enzymes convert starches to sugar through malting either in house on a floor or by professional maltings, Shochu uses a Koji and this has an effect of it’s own. Different types of Koji produce different flavours, and when coupled with different base starches you get an unbelievable amount of variables. One of the distilleries even went as far as sending the Koji into SPACE, then bringing it back and using it in a range of Shochu. I got a bottle of SPACE SHOCHU! This was a very exciting moment for me, not only because the geekiness of it blew my mind but also just the fact I was able to afford to buy this.
It’s such a beautifully crafted, skilfully engineered, passionately produced spirit that I would completely understand if it was, like most high end Scotch Whisky, Japanese Whisky or American Whiskey, outside of my budget. I’d completely understand if it was impossible to get and sold out on release. But it’s not. At least it’s not impossible to get in Japan. It makes me wonder what it might have been like to got to Scotland in the 1950s and see the distilleries as they were when they’d not started marketing as single malts to the outside world. Before there was a Diageo that owned and streamlined so many distilleries, before collecting Macallan was a thing. Do you think anyone back then could have imagined the industry becoming what it has today?
I feel like I got to experience a version of Shochu that won’t exist in 10 years time, when the rest of the world catches on to how good it is and demand skyrockets. When we spirits geeks can do more than name if white, yellow or black Koji was used. Instead conversations can go into depth on how it’s cultivated and sewn into the rice or barley, in what type of room and at what temperature. Are they wearing clothes in the hot rooms day to day? Or was that only for the tourists?
I have never been so torn by an experience, on one hand I feel like I should be shouting from the rooftops, letting everyone else in the world know the secret. On the other hand there’s a part of me that doesn’t want what I experienced to change. I want everything to remain as small and hand crafted as it is now. Either way I guess the one thing that will never change is the life experience I shared with an amazing group of people, travelling around absorbing the culture and establishing what will be the beginning of a lifetime appreciation of Shochu.
If you happen to like geeking out on spirits then Shochu is for you, also I guess if you hate the geeky stuff but love great tasting spirits and cocktails Shochu is for you too. Shochu is for everyone, and everyone should know about it. Share the secret, it’s the right thing to do.