A bit earlier, I mentioned that I had finally tried some shouchu. Shouchu (焼酎) is a "hard" liquor, spirits if you will, which can be made from a variety of grains - rice, wheat, and actually even potatoes. When I first came to Japan, shouchu was the "rough" drink of those who simply wanted to be drunk without spending much money. Apparently, when I wasn't looking, shouchou became de riguer. About two years ago, while out drinking with some Japanese friends, I noticed that a woman friend who (unusually for a Japanese) could really hold her liquor was constantly ordering a variety of imo-jouchu shots. Imo-jouchu is shouchu made with sweet potatoes. She and a few of the others regaled me with the benefits of shouchu in general, and they seemed to be really aware of the different "brews" of the imo-jouchu they were ordering, comparing the subtleties of taste much as we would do for wine or fine sake. I remembered this, but, not being much of a "spirit" drinker, I never bothered to further look into it.
However, since my recent womens' night out when I drank a few glasses of shouchu mizu-wari, I've become more interested in this drink. I bought myself a bottle of imojouchu which seems good. I put some of this into a glass with water - about 40/60 shouchu/water - and it's turned out to be a really nice, low calorie drink. Yes - one of the many purported benefits of shouchu (even imojouchu) is that it is fairly low-calorie at only about 50 calories per shot. Mix that with a glass of water et voila...a new fave is born!
2 comments:
Sounds interesting -- I'd go out and try some, but I'm pretty sure imoshochou isn't going to be stocked in our local liquor store -- darn!
All spirits are low in calories because even though the body reacts to them as if they were sugar the net result is negligible as compared to beers. Anyway it sounds like an interesting drink - does it taste like vodka? Just wondering because of the potato content.
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