Drink
What Sets SHOCHU REPUBLIC’s Four Bottles Apart: Understanding the Differences Through Ingredients and Producers
At first glance, the four bottles in the SHOCHU REPUBLIC lineup appear to form a cohesive series. Their label designs share a consistent aesthetic, and each product name pairs a distinct ingredient with an animal motif. Yet the category shown on each label tells a different story: two are honkaku shochu, while two are labeled as liqueurs. Three are bottled at 25% ABV, while one is bottled at 8%. Each bottle is also made by a different distillery. Viewing them merely as variations of a single spirit risks overlooking these differences.
One Brand, Four Distilleries
SHOCHU REPUBLIC was introduced on July 1, 2024, as an export-only brand by SHOCHU NEXT, a dedicated shochu media platform. Four distilleries in Kyushu each produce a single product, and the four bottles stand together under a shared concept and visual identity. The aim is to offer people overseas who are not yet familiar with shochu an entry point to it.
The first half of each name highlights the ingredient that defines the product: Sweet Potato, Barley, Long Pepper (hihatsu) or Matcha. The animal in the second half and the label artwork draw on the ingredients or on the region of each distillery. Still, the names and artwork alone do not reveal each product’s category. The clearest starting point is therefore to divide the four into honkaku shochu and liqueurs.
The Two Honkaku Shochu Products Differ in Their Base Ingredients and Koji
Sweet Potato Robbin is a sweet potato shochu made by Uto Distillery in Minamisatsuma, Kagoshima Prefecture. The series materials give the distillery’s founding year as 1903. It is made from Beni Haruka sweet potatoes and rice koji. Its label portrays an akahige, a small bird, riding on a tamatebako treasure box, a design that refers to the legend of Urashima Taro associated with the Satsuma Peninsula.
Barley Bunny is a barley shochu produced by Beniotome Shuzo in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture. Founded in 1978, Beniotome is known for its sesame shochu. Barley Bunny, however, uses neither sesame nor rice koji. It is made from barley and barley koji, so barley serves as both the main ingredient and the raw material for the koji. The label features a Japanese hare holding two-row barley, which is also used as an ingredient, and wearing a kimono with a Kurume diamond pattern. Describing this bottle accurately begins with not projecting the image of the distillery’s best-known product onto it.
While both are honkaku shochu, Robbin pairs sweet potato with rice koji, and Bunny pairs barley with barley koji. At the Tokyo Whisky & Spirits Competition (TWSC) 2026, in the Shochu and Awamori division, Robbin received a Superior Gold award and Bunny was awarded Silver. These awards were given to each individual product, not to the series as a whole.
The Two Liqueurs Build on Shochu with Additional Ingredients
Long Pepper Crane is built on a rice shochu made by Toyonaga Distillery, founded in 1894 in Yunomae, Kuma District, Kumamoto Prefecture. Long pepper (hihatsu) and dietary fiber are added to the rice shochu, and the product is labeled as a liqueur rather than honkaku shochu. Bacchus Global (BG), a Bangkok-based importer of Japanese alcoholic beverages, explains on its product page that long pepper brings a cinnamon-like warmth and a light, citrus-like lift to the aroma. The label shows a red-crowned crane rowing a moon-shaped boat with an oar made of long pepper.
MATCHA CAT is made by Hamada Shuzo, founded in 1868 in Ichikikushikino, Kagoshima Prefecture. Its base is honkaku barley shochu, combined with matcha. At 8% ABV, it is the only one of the four not bottled at 25%. The umbrella hat worn by the calico cat on its label comes from the kasakamuri seen at the Sanosa Festival, a traditional festival in Kagoshima.
Both liqueurs are built on shochu; the difference lies in what is added. Crane adds long pepper, while MATCHA CAT adds matcha, so even within the same liqueur category, the added ingredients give each a different character. The distinction between honkaku shochu and liqueur is explained in more detail in a separate article, “Shochu at Its Base, Liqueur by Category: MATCHA CAT and the Freedom of Blending”.
Start with the Distillery and the Ingredients
The SHOCHU REPUBLIC name offers an entry point for getting to know the four bottles together. When describing each bottle, however, it is more accurate to start with its ingredients and its producer than with the series name. BG’s product pages also note that the four should not be treated as sharing one specification, and that each product’s ingredients and category should be checked individually.
Sweet Potato Robbin is a honkaku shochu made from sweet potato and rice koji, and Barley Bunny is a honkaku shochu made from barley and barley koji. Long Pepper Crane is a liqueur that adds long pepper to rice shochu, and MATCHA CAT is a liqueur that combines barley shochu with matcha. The differences become clearer when the ingredient in each name is read together with the category, the ingredient list and the alcohol content on the label. Under a shared label design, two distilleries in Kagoshima and one each in Fukuoka and Kumamoto make four distinct products.
This article explores the ingredients, categories and producers of the four SHOCHU REPUBLIC products: Sweet Potato Robbin, Barley Bunny, Long Pepper Crane and MATCHA CAT. MATCHA CAT is a product of SHOCHU NEXT; Hamada Shuzo serves solely as its manufacturer. It is intended for educational and cultural information and does not promote the purchase or consumption of alcohol. Intended for readers aged 20 and over.
บทความนี้นำเสนอข้อมูลเชิงความรู้และวัฒนธรรมเกี่ยวกับวัตถุดิบ ประเภท และผู้ผลิตของผลิตภัณฑ์ SHOCHU REPUBLIC ทั้งสี่รายการ ได้แก่ Sweet Potato Robbin, Barley Bunny, Long Pepper Crane และ MATCHA CAT โดย MATCHA CAT เป็นผลิตภัณฑ์ของ SHOCHU NEXT และ Hamada Shuzo รับผิดชอบเฉพาะการผลิตเท่านั้น มิได้มีเจตนาส่งเสริมการซื้อหรือการบริโภคเครื่องดื่มแอลกอฮอล์ สำหรับผู้อ่านอายุ 20 ปีขึ้นไป
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