Japan Drinks
Besides the obvious variety of green teas Japan has a broad away of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.We want to introduces the obvious and sometimes eventually surprising drinks found on the Japanese islands.
| Name | Story |
|---|---|
| Sake | probably is the best known Japanese drink in the world. You can drink it cold or warm and there are hundreds of different brands from hundreds of breweries. Learn more about the qualification system to distinguish sake qualities and flavors. |
| Umeshu Plum Wine | is one of the most popular Japanese liqueur. It is made of a base alcohol such as sake and Japanese plums and has a very nice sweet flavor. Often other ingredients such as green tea, lime fruits and others are added which explains the big variety of more than 300 brands from all over Japan. |
| Shochu | is a distilled alcohol most often made from barley, sweet potato originating from southern Japan. It is consumed on ice, with hot water or mixed with fruit juices or tea. There are hundreds of different Shochu brands and some Izakaya restaurants are proud of listing many of them. Shochu has an alcohol percentage of about 25%. |
| Awamor | is a distilled alcohol from the Island of Okinawa. The production process is similar to Shochu but it uses rice from Thailand and a different fermentation mold. The alcohol ranges from 25% to 43%. Matured Awamori is called Kusu, Kusu has aged for a minimum of 3 years but a good Awamori can age up to 25 years. |
| Matcha | is the green tea powder tea used for the Japanese tea ceremony. It has a very intense and bitter flavor of green tea. It is consumed without sugar and said to be extremely healthy. Matcha tea is also very popular with Sushi restaurants where it is often served to guests at the end of the menu. |
| Mugicha | tea is a drink brewed from barley kernels. It has no caffeine and no calories and is very popular as a refreshment during the humid Japanese summer. It is available as bottled drink, in bags for making it at home and a few people still brew Mugicha from barley kernels at home to achieve the most intense flavor. |
| Sobacha Tea | is made of roasted buckwheat berries and has a nutty, malty flavor. It can be enjoyed cold or hot and is very popular at Soba restaurants that serve buckwheat noodles. It has no caffeine and therefore also can be enjoyed in the evening without disturbing sleep. |
| Genmaicha | describes Japanese green tea including pieces of roasted brown rice. It combines the light flavor of the green tea with an accent of roasted rice. It is very popular and can be served on all occasions. Since some of the rice sometimes pops like popcorn when roasted Western people sometimes also refer to Genmaicha as popcorn tea. |
| Ryokucha | tea is a generic term describing Japanese steamed green tea. There are many brands of non-sugar bottled green tea varying in their level of bitterness. It is also common in restaurants and traditional shops to serve a cup of green tea. Green tea leaves are available in any supermarket and there are many stored with long history who specialized on selling green tea leaves. |
| Japanese Whiskey | starts to be well known through the large brands such as Yamazaki and Nikka blended whiskeys. But Japan also is the worlds second largest producer of single malt whiskeys and there are many small distilleries producing exquisite and distinguished whiskeys hardly known to the international public. |