Shizuoka Tea with Shochu: Not the Best Combination

    A few weeks ago, I found this display in a pharmacy-turned-grocery-and-liquor-store near me and I decided to try it out. Admittedly, my only experience with Shochu was only last month at a Korean barbecue place in Atlanta. The grapefruit flavored bevarage my brother recommended had been highly delectable with soft undertones of the alcohol flavor. 
    The can boasts that the green tea is exclusive to Shizuoka prefecture, which is something worth bragging about. It is too bad that the rest of the product didn't live up to my expectations.

    Shochu and Green Tea are perhaps not things that should be together. When I opened the beverage, just the smell of it, which wasn't terribly strong and had to be inhaled at close proximity, turned my stomach. I poured it into a glass and took a small sip, acknowledging the delicate flavor of green tea that I had come to expect with a less than perfect attempt at the alcoholic undertones of shochu. Given that the alcoholic beverage normally contains around 25 percent alcohol by volume, an underlying flavor is to be expected. Unfortunately, with only 7 percent alcohol by volume, the undertones felt strange and unnecessary.
    This could be a matter of personal taste as I tend to enjoy the occasional alcoholic beverage but will not touch beer with zero alcohol by volume and similar mocktails. It could be that I've never had a good non-alcoholic beer, or that I do not enjoy the taste of beer so much as to enjoy it sans alcohol, but it seems a waste of calories to drink something made to fake the impression of a much stronger beverage, especially by copying some of the least enjoyable aspects of that beverage. This shochu mimics the strong aftertaste, one of my least favorite aspects of a strong drink, but without the benefits associated with stronger drink. In addition, the way the flavors combine seems to irritate my stomach. After three sips, I was forced to pour the rest out, having given the drink a fair shot. Green tea combining with alcohol isn't new and can be alright, as I found out last year with green tea beer, but this is not the case with this product.

    If this isn't available near you but for some reason you would want to try it, I would recommend taking a watered down glass of chilled green tea and adding a shot of gin. it would be almost the same but probably a little stronger as far as drinks are concerned.

    On the positive side, the tea flavor came without any note of bitterness and the alcohol flavoring, while unnecessary and uncomfortable, was not to the point of rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover.

This post is supported by Shizuoka Green Tea Guide, one of City-Cost's Supporters helping City-Cost bloggers to enjoy life in Japan and engage in new experiences.