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Japanese distillery mixes funky beats into brown sugar shochu
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Shochu is being rebranded for international palates as domestic alcohol consumption continues to decline.
JAPAN – At a small distillery on the Amami Islands, speakers thump with reggae bass lines, hip-hop beats and other music. It is not for the workers, but for the barrels of 'kokuto' shochu absorbing the vibrations.
The team behind this 'sonically aged' spirit says the music genres coax out different flavours , ad ding a rhythmic twist to the centuries-old island tradition that is gaining fans far beyond Japan.
'When I became the chief executive in 2021 after taking over the business from my father, I knew I had to make changes to appeal to a wider range of customers,' said Nishihira Distillery president Selena Nishihir a on the sun-drenched island in Kagoshima Prefecture.
Made by fermenting boiled-down sugarcane syrup with rice koji, brown sugar shochu is prized for its fragrant, mellow character. It contains no artificial sweeteners or additives.
Like Japanese sake and whisk y, this Kagoshima spirit is being rebranded for international palates as domestic alcohol consumption continues to decline.
Brown sugar shochu's growth overseas is being driven by the end of Covid-1 9 restrictions, global interest in Japanese spirits and p otential for food pairing.
The company ships to Singapore, the United States, Taiwan, Sweden, Thailand, Poland and Britain. It sells about 600 to 1,200 bottles of brown sugar shochu overseas a year.
Awamori, a similarly distilled liquor made from long-grain rice, was produced on Amami Oshima an d t he Ryukyu Islands. Due to restrictions on using local sugarcane imposed by Japanese feudal domain Satsum a, brown sugar shochu was produced secretly on the Amami Islands as early as the 19th century.
In the desperate days of World War II, rice shortages led Amami producers to use brown sugar as a substitute.
Production officially began amid the turmoil of the US post-war occupation, which limited commercial transactions with mainland Japan, leading to rice scarcity.
When the islands were returned to Japan in 1953, brown sugar shochu was taxed more heavily. It was classified along with rum as koji, a yeast starter, was not used.
However, producers convinced the government to approve brown sugar shochu as a distinct type of shochu with a lower tax rate, on the condition that koji be used.
After the war, Nishihira Distillery also began producing brown sugar shochu. Most of the koji production is done by hand and traditional jugs are used for brewing, said master distiller Yuya Kawaguchi.
Although she was born into the business, Ms Nishihira, 37, pursued a career in music after graduating from music college.
'After about a decade, I finally figured out how shochu can be related to music, making the most of my musical background,' she said.
As CEO, she has modernised label designs and created a high-alcohol product suitable for cocktails.
In November 2023, the distillery started using sonic ageing , akin to the use of classical and other music in the maturation of whisky, based on an employee's suggestion.
Workers installed special speakers onto six separate barrels in a music room, playing house music, hip-hop, reggae, Latin music, rock and 'shima uta' – the local folk music of the islands – to see how the sounds impart different flavours.
The company believes sound waves from different genres stimulate the shochu, prompting chemical reactions between the liquor and barrel wood molecules, as well as accelerating and modifying the ageing process.
'Shima uta tends to have a more soothing effect with its lower frequencies, while genres like rock or hip-hop introduce more energetic vibrations due to their higher tempo and bass-heavy nature,' Ms Nishihira wrote on her company's website.
Bartenders are also playing a key role in promoting brown sugar shochu, using their mixology expertise to introduce customers to the Amami spirit. With an alcohol content of around 40 per cent, brown sugar shochu is strong enough to make a cocktail.
'When I first tried brown sugar shochu, I was amazed by its rum-like flavour ,' said bartender Soran Nomura, the 41-year-old owner of several Tokyo establishments.
He recently served a cocktail based on the brown sugar shochu Beni Sango, aged for more than five years in oak and sherry barrels, at Quarter Room in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward.
Known as Flowers, the cocktail is a mix of Beni Sango, osmanthus coffee and other plant-based ingredients.
Mr Nomura's menu features Amami distilleries such as Nishihira brown sugar shochu. He says his exploration of the spirit of the islands has only just begun.
'I am paying respect to the individual makers and their craft, which has been cultivated in a close-knit community,' he said. 'As a bartender, I always think about how I can promote brown sugar shochu to a wider range of customers, including those overseas.'
The Nishihira distillery is promoting limited-edition 'comparison sets' of its three-year sonic-aged brown sugar shochu through crowdfunding till the end of August. It is set to go on sale in November before its official launch in 2026 . KYODO NEWS
