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The Fabled Pour

The back bar

Spirits encyclopedia

This is my back bar. Each entry says what a spirit is, which cocktails it belongs in, how to buy it and where the popular stories go wrong.

Entries

  • sake · production

    Sake, soju and shochu

    One brewed, two distilled, all three built on rice and koji rather than malt and oak. How sake is made and graded, what Korean soju became after 1965, how Japanese shochu keeps its ingredient in the glass, and how each works behind the bar.

    7 min read · 12 sources