Typically shōchū contains 25% alcohol by volume,[1] which is weaker than baijiu, whiskey, or vodka, but stronger than huangjiu, sake, or wine.

The word shōchū (焼酎) is the Japanese rendition of the Chinese shaojiu (燒酒), meaning "burned liquor", which refers to the heating process during distillation.

Interest in shōchū has begun to grow in North America, particularly in cosmopolitan cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Toronto, and New York.

Indeed, there "sake" (酒) generally refers to shōchū, and is sometimes consumed mixed with hot water (Oyuwari), especially in cooler months.

The early 21st century witnessed a consumer boom in shōchū within Japan, and in 2003 domestic shipments surpassed those of sake for the first time.

[5] The boom also had negative effects: It caused a serious shortage of sweet potatoes, a basic ingredient of some popular types of shōchū and, with the emergence of expensive premium brands, pricing scams appeared.

Its plot centered on the Minagawa family of Miyazaki Prefecture, who were brewers of a sweet potato shōchū called imojōchū.

[5][6] Shigechiyo Izumi, a Japanese citizen who apparently lived to be 120 (though the claim is disputed), made shōchū part of his daily dietary regimen.

When the missionary Francis Xavier visited Kagoshima Prefecture in 1549, he recorded that "the Japanese drink arak is made from rice [...] but I have not seen a single drunkard.

"[10] The oldest existing direct reference to shōchū in Japan can be found at Kōriyama Hachiman shrine in Ōkuchi, Kagoshima.

There, two carpenters working on the shrine in 1559 inscribed the following graffiti on a wooden plank in the roof:[9][11] "The high priest was so stingy he never once gave us shōchū to drink.

"[8][11] From these early times through to the Edo period shōchū was produced throughout Japan in the traditional kasutori way, using single pot distillation.

During the Meiji period, the column still was introduced to Japan from Great Britain, making affordable mass production of high-purity multiply distilled shōchū possible during a time of chronic rice shortages.

At its peak, the Kurose Koji Guild boasted more than 500 members who would travel throughout Japan to produce shochu from local agricultural ingredients.

[14] Tamaki Inui (1873–1946), a lecturer at University of Tokyo, succeeded in the first isolating and culturing aspergillus such as A. kawachii, A. awamori and a variety of subtaxa of A. oryzae.

These discoveries results in great progress in producing high quality shochu in Japan, but the Kawachi Drum machine and other innovations led to the eventual demise of the Kurose Toji Guild, which today has just a handful of active members, but primarily continues to live on in a museum in Kasasa Village.

[15][16][17][18] Japan's alcohol taxation law, as revised in April 2006, defines two categories of shōchū[19][20] (also called white liquor).

The specialized distillation equipment, called a patent still lends it to mass production at low cost, so large corporations produce this kind of shōchū in high volume.

As the shōchū is distilled just once it retains the character of the base ingredient, typically rice, barley, or sweet potato, with a strong taste and aroma.

This name derives from its production process:[26] Kōji (麹) mold, a kind of Aspergillus fungus, has a profound effect on the final taste of the shōchū.

Originally it was almost exclusively produced in Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures, but nowadays is made across Japan using locally grown sweet potatoes.

The 1956 film The Teahouse of the August Moon portrayed an American-occupied Okinawan village rebuilding its economy with sweet potato shōchū.

From the Edo period through to the time of the Pacific War, the Amami Islands produced drinks such as awamori and a distilled alcohol based on brown sugar.

From the middle of the war through to the American occupation, because of a shortage of rice (the base ingredient of awamori) and an inability to export the sugar-based alcohol to the mainland, a large surplus was produced.

Production ceased because of the war, but recently, aiming to revive its popularity, similar alcohol, using no rice kōji, has been introduced.

Awamori is made from Thai long-grained indica crushed rice, not the usual short-grained japonica of standard shōchū.

[37][38] Fermentation is done in a way that creates plenty of citric acid, allowing it to be produced all year round despite Okinawa's hot climate.

[40] Japanese law admits a very wide range of unusual base ingredients, such as perilla leaf, sesame and chestnut,[21] and shōchū made from most if not all of these exists.

Whilst the lees were used in the fields, the distilled alcohol was drunk, or offered to the gods, at the sanaburi (早苗響) festival held at the end of the rice-planting season to pray for a bountiful harvest.

This category is targeted at those viewing pure singly distilled shōchū as having too strong a smell or taste, aiming to be softer and more easily drinkable.