Japan Distilled

In the 20th episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini and Stephen Lyman explore cool shochu (read "cold") service styles for the traditional Japanese spirits of honkaku shochu and ryukyu awamori. While other styles exist these days, cool shochu service is most common throughout most of Japan.

In the 19th episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini and Stephen Lyman make brief mention of Japanese vodka.

In the 18th episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini and Stephen Lyman turn their noses into the wonderful style that they've taken to calling aromatic shochu.

In the 17th episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini and Stephen Lyman take a look at an environmentally and historically important, but uncommon style of shochu. That is kasutori shochu made from the sake lees, or the solids remaining after sake production.

In the 16th episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini and Stephen Lyman take a closer look at Japanese gin. While gin was first made in Japan over 200 years ago, it has really only taken root in the past few years.

In the 15th episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini and Stephen Lyman take a deep dive into kokuto shochu. This continues a multi-part series breaking down the various styles of honkaku shochu, which are classified by ingredient type in the main fermentation.

In the 14th episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini and Stephen Lyman take a deep dive into sweet potato shochu. This continues a multi-part series breaking down the various subcategories of honkaku shochu, which are classified by ingredient type in the main fermentation.

In the 13th episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini and Stephen Lyman take a deeper dive into barley shochu. This continues a multi-part series breaking down the various subcategories of honkaku shochu, which are classified by ingredient type in the main fermentation.

In the 12th episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini and Stephen Lyman take a deeper dive into rice shochu. This begins a multi-part series breaking down the various subcategories of honkaku shochu, which are classified by ingredient type in the main fermentation.

In the 11th episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini and Stephen Lyman tackle their most controversial topic yet: shochu vs. soju. One made in Japan (shochu) and one made in Korea (soju). A previous post on kanpai.us ended up garnering the most visits and more comments than usual, many defending soju. Well, we are here to set the record straight.

In this episode we explain the differences between Japanese sake and shochu (and awamori). They are uniquely Japanese due to some key similarities, but their key differences make them very different in how we enjoy them.

In this episode we explain the differences between honkaku, otsurui, korui, konwa, single distilled, multiply distilled, and white liquor categories of shochu in Japan.

In the 8th episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini and Stephen Lyman reflect on what defines authentic whisky in Japan and abroad. In this fourth and final part of our series on Japanese whiskies, we ask a few questions that sent us down a rabbit hole of ideas and suggestions that the Japanese whisky industry may never consider, but we enjoyed discussing.

In the 7th episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini and Stephen Lyman introduce the newly announced Japanese whisky standards. In this third of a planned four-part series on Japanese whiskies, we dive into the production quality standards, labeling rules, and other arcane parts of the new guidance issued by the Japanese Spirits and Liqueur Makers Association (JSLMA...

In this episode we explore how Japan's best whiskies rose from obscurity to beat the best Scotch whiskies in the world in their own backyard.

In this first of a 3 part series, we tackle the origins of Japanese whisky from the samurai's first taste to the collapse of the Japanese whisky industry in the wake of the bubble burst.

In the 4th episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini and Stephen Lyman tackle a completely unexpected and under-appreciated Japanese spirit - rum. Japan has a more than 400-year history of commercial sugar cane production thanks to the semi-tropical regions of southern Japan. Yet, Japanese rum as we understand rum did not appear in Japan until the 20th century. Them...

In the 3rd episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, we introduce you to the mysterious world of Okinawan awamori. Theme Song: Begin Anywhere by Tomoko Miyata ( http://tomokomiyata.net/ ) Mixing and Editing: Rich Pav ( https://www.uncannyjapan.com/ )

In this episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini and Stephen Lyman introduce you to the wonderful world of shochu, Japan's traditional craft spirit. Most people outside Japan think of sake as Japan's national drink and are more familiar with Japanese whisky, but shochu outsells sake and whisky in Japan. In fact, more shochu is made is Japan every year than tequila...

In this first episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini & Stephen Lyman introduce the vital Japanese words needed to explore the traditional Japanese distilled spirits of shochu and awamori. The sooner you remember these first few words, the faster you will begin to understand these fascinating drinks. By learning these few key Japanese words and phrases, you can ta...