« Warmed sake in winter is the way to go! We tried some Kanro warmed in a“kurojoka” | Main

July 26, 2005

Shouchu culture across the water. Sicilians say “buono” to the Kanro.

here was one thing I had wanted to try since I started this blog: to see how people overseas would react when tasting imo (sweet potato) shouchu.
As you know, around the world, there are a number of distilled alcoholic beverages made from potato, such as aquavit in Portugal, which is made from potato.
But I don’t think I have heard of distilled liquor made from sweet potato.
How would foreign people like Japanese potato shouchu?

With this on my mind, I traveled to Sicily, Italy for 10 days at the end of January.
It was a gastronomic journey with my friend, chef Shige of “MUNIRO”, a Sicilian restaurant in Shimokitazawa. I am a regular customer there.
As for details of my journey in Sicily, see my own blog “The Gastronomer’s Diary”.

Anyway…. So, I took the Kanro with me on this trip.
Actually, I took three types: the Kanro, the most orthodox one, the Tokusei Kanro and the Kanekyo Kanro.
How heavy they were!

Our journey in Sicily started with a harbor town called Siracusa
To start with, I would like to tell you about a guy named Pascualino, who played the important role of guide on this trip.

“Kenzii! (This is how he pronounced my name). Have a taste of this! Good, isn’t it? Oh, but before that, take a picture from this angle!” In this way, he excitedly showed us around.
He and his younger brother Roberto run a restaurant called “Ionico” in the bay area overlooking the sea of Siracusa.

There we enjoyed local traditional cuisine and found ourselves with full stomachs.
After gorging ourselves on “dolce”, which is an essential part of the Italian culinary experience, we deliberately brought out the Kanro.

“You know, this is a very popular distilled liquor in Japan made from potato!”

It was difficult to explain shouchu to an Italian for me, so I used the words “grappa patate”.“Grappa” is a famous Italian distilled alcoholic beverage made from grape. It’s a strong distilled wine with a high alcoholic content. “Patate” means potato. Actually, imo shouchu is made from sweet potato, so it’s a bit different, but I could only describe it like that.

“Hmm, I see…” said Pascualino as he brought the glass up to his lips.

Keeping the first sip in his mouth, mixing it with air, and enjoying the aroma coming through his nose, he smiled.

“Buono! (Good)” he said.

I was relieved…. I seemed to have cleared the first hurdle.

“Mmmm! Delicious!… It has retained its delicate potato flavor, and is really good. And it’s mild. But the alcoholic content is too week for grappa. If you drink grappa, you’ll feel the back of your throat burning!” continues Pascuano. Actually, grappa has a high alcoholic content, which is something that makes a strong impression on the drinker. Thus, they may have felt that a potato shouchu of 25% alcohol is not enough compared with grappa.

Roberto, after his first sip, gave a similar opinion. Then he said, “Wait a minute!” He left us for a while and came back with a bottle.

To me, the green bottle was similar in appearance to a “ramune” (Japanese old style soda pop) bottle. I underestimated it at this point.

I poured the water-clear liquid into a glass. And the instant I sipped it, a strong alcoholic pungency and indescribable deep, sweet aroma came through my nostrils.

“Wow, it’s strong! …But good!”

It was a distilled alcoholic drink, and believe it or not, made from honey.
Having been told this, I could really sense the sweet aroma of honey.

“We prefer this level of strength in a liquor”, they said, emptying one glass after another. Incredible! Maybe we should have brought the undiluted Kanro to counter this.
Imo shouchu is usually mixed with water to give it an alcoholic content of about 25%. Thus, they would probably be more impressed with undiluted shouchu. This will be a new challenge for us!

The day after next we arrived at our second stage, Hotel Nettuno, a resort hotel by the seaside where Shige had been trained in the kitchen to become a chef.



At a bar in the lobby, a man called us over to have a drink.

What he was holding was a bottle of martini. It’s cool to sip and savor sweet, sweet martini just like an Italian!

When we went into the kitchen, the people there welcomed Shige with open arms.

“Hey, Kiko (Shige’s nickname)! We see you’ve become a fully-fledged chef!”

It seems that they think highly of Japanese deft hands in the “battle field” of the hotel kitchen.
When we dropped by they were taking an afternoon break. We decided to take this opportunity to let them try the Kanro.

The head chef seemed very curious. Taking a sip, he said, “Hmmm…” and gulped it down.

“Oh, its great. It really tastes of potato, and has a sweet aroma. Buono!”

And another guy, seemingly of strong character and known as “Shige’s partner in crime”, gulped it down, too.

“Oh, good. Yeah, yeah, a little weak but it’s a grappa,” he said, drinking up two plastic cups of the Kanro.

Looking at their dynamic way of drinking, I expected the food that they prepared to be of an equally vigorous nature. How wrong I was! I was pleasantly surprised by how they served delicate appetizers in such an exquisite way. Wow!

Shige seems very much satisfied with the warm hospitality of his old fellow workers.

“When you call shouchu “grappa”, they take it to be a strong liquor. For them the impression may be a little different. ”

Maybe we need to think of another expression to convey the character of this shouchu to Italians. Next time, I really want to surprise them with how strong unprocessed shouchu is.
Anyway, I think people in Sicily viewed imo shouchu as being “faintly sweet distilled liquor with the aroma of potato”.

Well now, we will end the blog on this note. Did you enjoy the series?
We’ve tried storm visits and interviews of some bars, delving into shouchu culture and interviews overseas, to find the potential of imo shouchu from various aspects. We really enjoyed everything we did and had many wonderful experiences.
Thank you for sending us many good works for the “Drinkers’ Poem” column.
And I’d like to express special thanks to our sake connoisseur Chie, who has been tasting many drinks for me. She obtained the qualification of “wine expert”, and is surely on the way to becoming successful in the world of liquor and cuisine.

Lastly, I would like to ask for your continued support for the Kanro and the Kyoya Brewary. It’s the standard of Miyazaki shouchu, according to the chef of a Japanese restaurant in Miyazaki City.

I will continue to favor it myself.
I hope to see you all sometime soon and have a hot Kanro together!

Posted Admin : July 26, 2005 02:44 PM