What is shochu made of?

Shochu is the most diverse spirit on the planet because it can legally be made from 53 approved ingredients (and their koji). However, one of the most beautiful things about the spirit is that additives are never permitted, meaning that the flavors are 100% natural. If you’re the type of person who prefers spirits with unannounced additives, then check this list for potential targets.

Make no mistake, however, shochu taste and aroma are directly influenced by natural ingredients.

Permitted ingredients

53 approved ingredients?!

As dictated by Japan’s tax authorities, there are four important ingredient baskets: potatoes, grains, sake lees (kasu), and kokuto sugar. And then there are 49 other–often regional–ingredients that are approved for authentic (honkaku) shochu production, and they can get a little weird sometimes. I’m talking about water chestnuts, whey, lily bulbs, aloe, and seaweed. They’re all approved ingredients.

It’s the most diverse spirit on the planet. Common ingredients, at least as far as sales in Japan are concerned, are sweet potato, barley, rice, kokuto sugar, and buckwheat (soba). Well over 9.5 out of every 10 bottles sold in Japan are from one of these subcategories. In fact, sweet potato and barley make up more than 90% of domestic sales on their own.

Other popular ingredients (not pictured above) are sesame, sake lees, and chestnut. But despite their quality, they currently enjoy precious little market share.

Flavor profile diversity

Thanks to a single pass through a pot still, which leaves the flavors of the fermentation intact, plus those important rules prohibiting additives, shochu smells and tastes like the natural ingredients used to make it. Sweet potato shochu tastes like sweet potatoes, and barley shochu exudes the breadiness we expect from that grain.

Notice that I haven’t mentioned any fruit while discussing ingredients. That’s because the tax office doesn’t allow them in authentic shochu production. In other words, you’ll never see a strawberry, apple, or watermelon spirit labeled as Honkaku Shochu.

And if I can go back to that solitary run through a pot still–I don’t think the importance of this little fact can be overstated.

It is so incredibly rare for spirits to be single pot-distilled. Why? Because it’s difficult to make a spirit taste good after only one run through the still. Each distillation helps strip out off-flavors (and increases the proof).

That’s why most spirits are at least double-distilled. But shochu (and awamori) don’t do that. They’re restricted to a single pass. And this forces shochu and awamori makers to master the art of fermentation. (More on that soon!)

Kanpai!