Where to drink shochu in Los Angeles

At Ippuku, I believe the rice shochus were the most expensive. Certainly none of them was among the cheapest.

The vegetal / green / raw flavors are what appeal to me, too.

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I think that for me and probably many others, soju brings back memories of many drunken, smoky “AYCE KBBQ” nights in college.

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Are you saying that potatoes and barley are more expensive pound-for-pound than milled rice?

@BradFord, do you get these types of “flashbacks” when drinking Japanese once-distilled shochu?

Japanese honkaku shochu and Korean soju are VERY different beverages.
Also, the way the two are drunk is VERY different.

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I don’t, in part because the settings in which I have drank shochu is different than that of my experiences with soju. I understand that shochu and soju are different. I was responding to @robert’s question of why people tend to apparently hate soju

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Having watched visiting Japanese businessmen knocking back shochu, I think sometimes it’s not very different.

Does shochu rice go though the same milling process as sake rice? I have no formal or informal education in shochu. Just was introduced to it while working in Japan and came away with the impression that imo shochus were the tops from both imbibing and speaking with others.

There is a level of nuance and structure (the beverage has a beginning, middle and end) to imo shochus that was absent from any rice shochus I drank. Barley and sesame additions to primarily rice shochus were an interesting note, but that ‘structure’ as defined above always seemed absent.

If I’m missing out on quality rice shochu, where’s a good place to start?

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My apologies @BradFord, I misread your comment.
I totally agree that people get turned off of soju, and unfortunately shochu, because of too much Jinro/Chamisul at KBBQ.

Big ups for your endorsement of Satsuma Shuzo. Love Shiranami! (Especially Shiranami Genshu)

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You saw Japanese businessmen trading pouring shots of shochu and knocking them back?
I have to think that would be quite a rare occasion.

Usually shochu is drunk on the rocks, on the rocks with water, on the rocks with soda, on the rocks with various teas/juices, with hot water, but rarely straight from the bottle into a shot glass and slammed in quick succession.

@mrgreenbeenz, there are at least two processes which rice is used for in the production of rice shochu.

  1. Creation of Rice Koji
  2. Steamed rice that is used to create the moromi

The rice variety and the percent to which it is milled vary, but both batches of rice are almost always milled to some extent.

For quality rice shochu, Kawabe from Sengetsu Shuzo is very good.
Also from Sengetsu Shuzo: Mugon, as introduced by @Sgee, is EXCELLENT.

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Not shots. They were knocking it back on the rocks with fresh grapefruit juice.

It seemed similar to soju bang drinking to me in that their goal appeared to getting drunk.

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No disagreement there. :laughing:

Sounds delicious btw.

My point: there is a difference between utilitarian soju and craft-made shochu. They should not be conflated.

Not that I’m very impressed by Jinro Chamisul, but I’d rather drink that than some of the craft shochu I’ve had.

Fair enough. Some people prefer Budweiser.

Jinro’s innocuous but drinkable, as are Hite and OB. To my taste Bud is a couple of steps down.