You know about sake and Ichiban. Now meet shochu, your new Japanese happy-hour friend. A traditional Japanese distilled beverage, shochu is doubly buzzy right now — trendy in Japan, where it’s been embraced and revitalized by a new generation of distillers creating artisan and craft versions; and trending here, where it’s getting the treatment at both Two Ten Jack and No. 308. Distilled from rice, sweet potatoes, buckwheat or barley, shochu is smoother than Western spirits but stronger than wine. No. 308 on Gallatin Road has shochu shots infused with strawberry and with cucumber. Two Ten Jack on Eastland Avenue offers house shochu and a shochu-pineapple-ginger tonic on tap for the dabbler. The curious imbiber can press onward with specialty shochus, infused shochus (lemongrass-peppercorn) and shochu cocktails. At 25 percent alcohol, shochu slides down the gullet much easier than vodka or tequila, so be mindful and take it easy after the first two. Or so.
