Wide-eyed Kids on a Shochu Adventure
By Susan Choi
As bar/hospitality professionals working with, tasting, understanding, and knowing spirits is a core part of the business. We participate in countless meetings, tastings, and distillery visits. It’s just something that is part of our day-to-day – day after day. But what really struck me was our group – a spectacular one at that; even with decades upon decades of being in the spirit life, we were constantly ‘wow’d’ (literally, we must have said WOW – like a robust, heartful WOW a million times) with every part of our experience. We were like wide-eyed kids embarking on this incredible shochu adventure, completely exuding joy and wonder at every distillery, at every experience - whether it was nerding out on how stills were built (it’s amazing all the tinkering, engineering, and innovation that goes on), learning about the koji process, or feeling emotional at meeting distillery owners and their families .. in their living room. This unique access is what created a better and deeper knowledge, memory, and connection to the product. It also says so much and is so refreshing that all of us could find all of this joy and wonder.
We ran the gamut of distillery experiences – ones that were family-owned passed down from generations to larger operations. Each had distinct personalities as a brand, as products, in the distilleries themselves, and as the people that make the magic happen. I went from knowing close to nothing about shochu to being curious about what type of Koji was being used, obsessed with clay pots, and understanding the distinct flavor characteristics of shochu. Generally, the base processes of making shochu are loosely the same - you start with the raw product that gets processed, fermented, and distilled. Yet, the repetition of hearing the process at each distillery was key for me to understand shochu fully. On the first day, I was overwhelmed, scared that there would be a pop quiz – but by the last day, I fully comprehended the process and the product and could easily digest how each place added its own layers to make its product distinctive. This is the great thing about repetition. It sticks. Pop quiz now? No problem. Ask me about Koji! Moromi! Imo!
This kind of immersive, multi-sensorial learning, with the kind of entrée that we were privileged to receive coupled with this well-curated, absolute delight of a group, was incredibly special, and I will be forever grateful to of been included.