Haamonii Smooth | World’s smoothest shochuWorld’s smoothest shochu

“…Haamonii Smooth and Haamonii Smooth lemon. These were the favorites among two Food and Wine staff tasters who found both to be light and smooth, with a hint of sweetness.”

As you can imagine, we were very excited about the article that was printed in the San Francisco Chronicle last Friday, 10/17. Of course, we were [...]

Talk about increasing popularity. Soju (shochu) is now going to be a new word within Merriam-Websters dictionary!

It’s little known, but shochu (soju) is one of the most popular distilled spirits in the world.
In fact, it is so popular that shochu has recently surpassed sake consumption in Japan for the first time in history!
Across Asia there is some form of the white spirit. In Korea, there is soju, in Japan there is [...]

There are two main types of distillation with shochu. Each one is very distinct from the other.

Honkaku shochu = single distilled (like whisky).

Kohrui shochu = multiple distilled (like vodka).

Honkaku shochu carries a strong resemblance to the base ingredient that it was made from and it often stronger in taste and in alcohol.
Kourui shochu [...]

There are many variations of shochu utilizing a multitude of base ingredients. As shochu gains in popularity, however, there are really only 3 that you need to remember in order to teach friends:

Grain shochu = made from a variety of grains
Imo shochu = [...]

I often get asked what the difference between shochu and soju is.
The answer today is that the lines are becoming blurred. Today, you can consider the two words to be interchangeable.
Before, one could simply say that if it was spelled ’soju’ it is from Korea and if it was spelled ’shochu’ it was from Japan.
Based [...]