Japanese shochu distillery mixes rhythm and booze

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.

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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, adding 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 Nishihira 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 whisky, this Kagoshima spirit is being re-branded for international palates as domestic alcohol consumption continues to decline.

Brown sugar shochu's growth overseas is being driven by the end of Covid-19 restrictions, global interest in Japanese spirits and potential 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.