This underground cocktail haven has an a la carte offering — but it’s much more fun to reserve the five-course tasting menu ($85), which includes an amuse bouche, two cocktails, one food item, and one dessert. Guests can choose their cocktails from two menus, Le Jardin and Floriography. For a shōchū-based cocktail, try the Yushoku Mae (“perfect before dinner”) from head mixologist Jeremy Le Blance. The cocktail uses a sweet potato shōchū (Kuro Kirishima), with a slightly spiced kümmel that balances the shōchū’s floral profile.

Led by manager and head bartender Atsushi Nakayamane, one of New York City’s oldest speakeasy-style bars is still one of its best. Even though plenty of people know how to access the semi-hidden craft cocktail spot tucked behind an East Village Japanese restaurant, the tuxedoed bartenders continue to impress customers with perfectly executed drinks that often highlight signature Japanese ingredients and techniques. Try bartender Tsunetaka Imada’s Verre de vin cocktail with Aka Kirishima, an authentic sweet potato shōchū — its aroma and clear, sweet taste is similar to that of wine.

This 1920s-style Japanese bar with a yoshoku (Japanese-adapted Western cooking) menu has excellent food and drinks, so come hungry and thirsty. There’s an extensive shōchū-by-the-glass list (next to the long sake and Japanese whiskey menu), divided into categories like sweet potato, barley, rice, and specialty. And out of 12 cocktail options, four feature different types of shōchū. Try the Zireael cocktail from Team MOGA (led by head bartender John Anthony Ober): It’s a combination of Beni Ikko shōchū and gin, with an extra twist added from smoked Sakura wood.

From the owners behind Angel’s Share (Tony Yoshida and his daughter Erina), this newish Industry City bar is more relaxed than its predecessor. Head bartender John Carlson has built a reputation in the NYC cocktail scene, and many of Oldies’ drinks feature Japanese whiskies, sakes, and shōchūs combined with freshly squeezed fruit juices. For example, the key ingredient in Oldies’ Okinawa Gold cocktail is Nankai Gold, a premium blended shōchū hailing from Amami Island in Japan, finished in oak casks.

A welcoming Echo Park bar with comfy leather couches, orange bar stools, and green walls, Thunderbolt boasts inventive drinks and Southern food (think pimento cheese, biscuits, and fried chicken). The drinks are more eclectic — featuring flavors from the tropics, Asia, and Mexico. Try head bartender Tom G. Liu’s Fu Gwaa Falsetto, which combines the layered Iichiko Saiten shōchū, rum, bittermelon, chamomile, avéze liqueur, lemon, and li hing mui (dried, salted plum powder). 

If you’re interested in trying shōchū by the glass, then this intimate restaurant has a lengthy list of options to peruse. It includes bottles like Tenshi no Yuwaku, a premium sweet potato shōchū aged in sherry casks in Kagoshima Prefecture, and the handcrafted 10-year-aged Motoko rice shōchū. If cocktails are more your thing, they range from highballs to a classic gin martini. Or, try mixologist Chris Gomez’s Hojichawari cocktail, which fuses Japanese and Viennese traditions. It’s made with hot hojicha and Sakura Shiranami shōchū, and served with whipped cream to add a Viennese taste. The roasted aroma of the hojicha, the smooth sweetness of the whipped cream, and the warm taste of the shochu make it the perfect cocktail for the wintertime.