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kokuto

Kokuto: Japan’s Delicious Dark Sugar

August 31, 2020 by Christopher Pellegrini 2 Comments

Kokuto: Japan’s Delicious Dark SugarKokuto sugar is Japan's top-quality dark sugar tradition. It is one of the world's great "unrefined" sugars, and it's used in cooking, consumed as a snack, or added to the second fermentation when brewing kokuto shochu in Japan's Amami Islands.

Filed Under: Shochu Tagged With: amami kokuto shochu, kokuto, kokuto shochu, kokuto sugar, sugarcane

Amami Island: Week One

February 24, 2018 by Chuck Malone 1 Comment

Amami Island: Week OneHad I known it was the last time I’d be sleeping in a bed for the next 10 weeks, I would have enjoyed the moment more. I found myself at 5 a.m. wide awake staring at the ceiling in my small hotel room in Amami City. It still hadn’t hit me how much different Amami is than the Japanese mainland.

Filed Under: Shochu, Shochu Adventures, Shochu Misc. Tagged With: Amami, amamioshima, Atreyu!, Billy Joel, black sugar, Chuck Malone, chuhai, House of the Rising Sun, Jazz, Just the Way You Are, Kana, kokuto, Mayasco, Nishihira, onigiri, Rock, Sango, squid ink soup, Sukiyaki, sushi, yakitori, Your song

A New Shochu Adventure

January 17, 2018 by Chuck Malone Leave a Comment

A New Shochu AdventureI just spent 2 months in Amami-o-shima, an island off the coast of Kagoshima Prefecture in southern Japan. I went there to learn how to make kokuto, or black sugar, shochu. How did I get there? Well, that’s kind of a long story. Let me start at the beginning. In fact, before that.

Filed Under: Shochu, Shochu Adventures, Shochu Misc. Tagged With: Amami, amamioshima, black sugar, Chuck Malone, chuhai, Jazz, Kagoshima, kokuto, shochu

Amami

November 2, 2012 by Stephen 3 Comments

AmamiLike other kokuto shochus, Amami lacks the distinct scents of some other styles of shochu, but a delicate scent of molasses does appear with patience. Overt molasses flavors hit the palate immediately, though this is better described as a black sugar flavor. The full richness of the black sugar is present before the sweetness invades followed by an unexpected dryness, likely thanks to the mineral rich aquifer in the Amami islands.

Filed Under: Shochu, Shochu Reviews Tagged With: Amami, kokuto, review, shochu

Kikaijima Kokuto Shochu

March 12, 2012 by Stephen 3 Comments

Kikaijima Kokuto ShochuKikaijima is a small island just north of Okinawa. This is as close as you can get to Awamori country without making Awamori. As such, Kikaijima Kurochu, or "Kikai Island Black Kiss" is an aged black sugar, black koji shochu with all of the rich characteristics you'd expect from the southern islands.

Filed Under: Shochu, Shochu Reviews Tagged With: aged shochu, Kikaijima, kokuto, kuro koji, review, shochu

Jougo

October 9, 2011 by Stephen 3 Comments

JougoJougo was my first introduction to “black sugar” shochu. Black sugar is a richer, darker Asian version of western brown sugar. It contains molasses and sugar cane. And it’s delicious. If you can find black sugar in your local Asian market, pick some up and experiment with it as a replacement for other sweeteners. Jougo is smooth, sweet, and rounded. It lacks the complexity of many other shochus, but it’s easy drinking. It’s not as sweet as you’d expect from something distilled from a sugar, which is probably due to the spring water added at the end of the distillation process.

Filed Under: Shochu, Shochu Reviews Tagged With: brown sugar, Jougo, kokuto, molasses, review, shochu, sugar cane

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Shochu Reviews

iichiko Saiten

After winning some awards on the international spirits circuit (including double-gold at the 2020 San Francisco World Spirits Competition), there's ample evidence that iichiko Saiten deserves serious consideration by bartenders everywhere.

Shochu Reviews

Tasting Notes: The SG Shochu IMO

The SG Shochu IMO is a clear invitation to create the classic imo cocktail. If you get it right, it will resonate and cascade around the world until you can't not have sweet potato shochu on your menu if you consider yourself a proper drinking establishment.

The SG Shochu Cocktail Recipes

Bartender Shingo Gokan mixes a cocktail.
The SG Shochu brand manager, Joshin Atone, talks with Kanpai.us about shochu's versatility and potential in the cocktail. He also shares three recipes for bartenders to try.

Tasting Notes: Nankai

Nankai Shochu
At first whiff, Nankai smells faintly grassy, which is common in kokuto shochu owing to how kokuto sugar is made from fresh cut cane and that fresh grassiness is a sign of well made kokuto sugar. Sugar cane is, after all, a tall perennial grass. It is still pretty wild that they can capture that after fermentation and distillation.

Shochu Reviews

Tasting Notes: Lento Shochu

Lento is the top selling kokuto shochu in Japan, and it is available internationally as well. Try it on the rocks or with sparkling water for a refreshing taste of the Amami Islands. Kanpai!

Tasting Notes: The SG Shochu MUGI

The SG Shochu MUGI Label
The SG Shochu MUGI wraps several barley shochu identities into one. It's lightly barrel-aged and carries the associated sweet notes. But there's also a graininess that is revealed when the temperature of the drink drops. It's a versatile barley shochu that can be enjoyed a variety of ways.

Tasting Notes: The SG Shochu KOME

Putting your nose in a glass of The SG Shochu Kome shows you just how complex a vacuum distilled rice shochu can be. Ginjo sake aromas from the yeast, pineapple, melon, and a faint hint of dairy-like lactic acidity are all present.

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