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Traditional Japanese Wines and Liquors
- Sake: (polite O-sake)
- The general Japanese name for any drink, traditional or imported, but usually used to refer to a white wine made from fermented rice. Sake is well known to visitors to Japan but is often mispronounced, it should be pronounced Sa-Kay.
- Sho-chu:
- A distilled liquor (up to 90 proof) made from either sweet potatoes or rice. It is rarely known to foreigners and is much malligned by Japanese who tend to regard it as a cheap, inferior drink. Some of the best Sho-chu is an excellent pure liquor which compares favorably with the native liquors of other countries, such as vodka, etc.
- Mirin:
- A sweet wine made from Sho-chu, high gluten rice and malted rice, essential in preparing many Japanese foods.
- Ume-shu:
- Plum wine (or Apricot spirit) made during the summer in many households by putting green Japanese plums into Sho-chu and adding sugar. Ume-shu must be aged for at least a year.