The marketing blitz of The SG Shochu is in full swing. Over the past few months we’ve covered the initial announcement, the launch, and did a proper review of the IMO bottle in the series. The folks at The SG Group noticed, and I was extended an invitation to experience The SG Shochu Cocktail Pairing Course.
One of the things I whined about when I did the IMO review was the lack of recipes on the official website for what is supposed to be a cocktail-oriented spirit. As we wait for an update to the site that will bring more recipes — which brand manager Joshin Atone tells me is coming — I took them up on the invitation and headed over to Sip at The SG Club.Each course of the “Virtual World Tour” is dedicated to the food and drink of a given country. I won’t spoil the surprise and list all the countries featured, but I will say it’s great to see how versatile The SG Shochu is when matched with the likes of pisco, mezcal, and sherry. Perhaps my favorite drink of the dinner was the combination of MUGI, Cola?, and Champagne. The food is all prepared by chef Atsushi Furukawa, former sous chef at NY’s famed SakaMai. And of course the drinks are made by The SG Club head honcho Shingo Gokan. With a team like that it’s no wonder there’s so much attention to detail.
If you’d like to try the dinner for yourself, reservations are currently being accepted for seating until the end of June. There are now two options available: Business Class at 6PM (7 courses, 13000 yen before tax/service) and First Class at 8:30PM (10 courses, 18000 yen before tax/service).
Apart from the dinner, you can also now look to Instagram for more inspiration in your The SG Shochu cocktails. There are literally hundreds of them! The team recently ran “The SG Shochu Home Cocktail Competition,” open to anyone, taking entries via IG hashtag #homecocktailcompetition. And the grand prize winner was announced just yesterday: LURRA° mixologist Yusuke Sakabe (@lurrayusuke) created The Sonic Generator using The SG Shochu MUGI, hon mirin, thick soy sauce, orange peel, and mineral water.
While the international rollout of The SG Shochu is yet to begin, it’s great to see more and more exploration of shochu in cocktails here in Japan. As I said before, given their wild success here in Asia, The SG Group is very well positioned to get The SG Shochu into barbacks across the world.
Hi there! I created and run nomunication.jp. I’ve lived in Tokyo since 2008, and I am a certified Shochu Kikisake-shi/Shochu Sommelier (焼酎唎酒師), Cocktail Professor (カクテル検定１級), and I hold Whisky Kentei Levels 3 and JW (ウイスキー検定３級・JW級). I also sit on the Executive Committees for the Tokyo Whisky & Spirits Competition and Japanese Whisky Day. Click here for more details about me and this site. Kampai!