Tantakatan: A Red Shiso Shochu From Hokkaido

Nearly all shochu comes from Kyushu and Okinawa. That's where the tradition lives.

This one comes from Hokkaido, which is about as far from Kyushu as Japan gets.

What It's Made From

Tantakatan is built on red shiso, perilla, grown in Shiranuka, and water from the same area. It's produced by Godo Shusei in Asahikawa, and it was created in 1992.

Shiso is everywhere in Japanese cooking and almost nowhere in Japanese drinking. If you've had it, it was probably shredded over sashimi or wrapped around something fried. Distilled and put in a glass, it's immediately recognizable and completely unfamiliar at the same time.

The name comes from Ainu: tan taka means flatfish.

What It Tastes Like

Bright, herbal and floral, with the cool green edge shiso has on the plate. Smooth and refreshing rather than sharp.

At 20% ABV it's lower than most shochu, which usually sits at 25%. Combined with how aromatic it is, that makes it the easiest bottle on our shochu list by a distance, the one people drink without thinking of it as a spirit.

It has taken a Monde Selection Gold Award every year from 2015 through 2023.

How to Drink It

Cold. Soda is the obvious move and the right one, shiso and carbonation belong together, and a Tantakatan highball is one of the most refreshing things we can make.

On the rocks with a squeeze of citrus also works. Neat is fine but you lose some of the lift.

Skip the hot water on this one. Heat flattens the herbal character rather than opening it.

Pair It With

Fried and fatty things that want cutting through. Karaage, tebasaki, shake shake fries, takoyaki.

Also very good alongside hiyashi chuka in summer, or with handrolls where the shiso reads as an ingredient rather than a drink.

Try It at Juraku

Tantakatan is on the shochu list at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side. Ask for it with soda and you'll understand it in one sip.