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Towari: a 100% Buckwheat Shochu from Miyazaki

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If you've tried other soba shochus, you're probably used to their lightly nutty aromas and flavors while still finding them light and easy drinking. Towari takes this in a completely different direction by using 100% soba. Most other soba shochus blend rice and even barley during the fermentation processes in order to smooth out the rich flavors of the buckwheat.

Satsuma Kuro Godai

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Kuro Godai, with the rich, dirty flavor so prevalent in black koji sweet potato shochus, adds a dimension to this richness by opting for an unfiltered approach. Nigori (unfiltered) sakes are cloudy, white, and sweet. Nigori shochus are still clear, but have a overtly rich, buttery mouthfeel not found in filtered shochus. The only telltale sign that this is a nigori are the droplets of spirit that cling to the walls of the bottle.

Satsuma Godai

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This odd label includes a sketch of a Japanese man. It would be easy enough to mistake his rough, jowly visage for that of a sumo wrestler, but it is, in fact, the last samurai, Saigo Takamori. He wasn't truly the last samurai, but he was the leader of the Satsuma Rebellion, which was the last stand of the samurai class against the modern Japanese imperial army in 1877.

Not Supposed to Pick Favorites

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Obviously, as lovers of shochu and Awamori, we are enthusiastic about this entire class of spirits, not any particular brand or style. However, a strange thing happened on our recent trip to Japan. Seikai & I discovered a shochu that we both agree is far and away the most delicious shochu we've ever experienced. Among the 250+ shochu and Awamori we tried on the trip (in addition to the 120 or so available in the US), one stood out among the rest.

Kitaya Shuzo

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Kitaya Shuzo is a nihonshu (sake) and shochu producer in Fukuoka Prefecture and the first stop on our shochu distillery tour. Seikai Ishizuka and I traveled nearly an hour south of Hakata (main station in Fukouka City) on a commuter train to reach Yame, a city of less than 40,000 people in southern Fukuoka Prefecture. There we were met by a Kitaya representative who drove us to the distillery.

Satsuma Mura Imojochu

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Satsuma Mura, a traditionally distilled honkaku imojochu from Kagoshima (home of the most famous imo shochus), is a mouthful of contradictions and complications. A fragrant, earthy nose as if you'd just dug a sweet potato out of the dirt and sliced it open promises a rich flavor that this shochu delivers without reservation.