What’s the Difference Between Soju, Shochu, and Sake? (2024)

Sake, shochu, and soju are all unique drinks with their own distinct traits and loyal followings. But these umami-forward alcoholic beverages share elements of history and some similar production processes, like the use of cultivated fermentation starters.

They’re also often confused for one another in the U.S. market, partly due to liquor stores grouping the similar-sounding products next to one another on shelves. We consulted Don Lee, a veteran bartender of establishments like Existing Conditions, PDT, and Death & Co, among others, and an educator for the Japanese Sake and Shochu Makers Association, to help us break down the similarities and differences.

Brewing vs. Distillation and the Importance of Koji

“In terms of the big picture, soju and shochu are distilled products, while sake, for the most part, is a non-distilled, brewed product,” explains Lee.

Japanese sake and shochu are characterized by the addition of koji, a cultivated mold that is used in the brewing process. (Traditional Korean soju relies on a similar fermentation starter called nuruk, although it likely isn’t used in much of the modern soju you’re likely to find.)

Though sake is brewed like beer, the rice used in sake-making doesn’t convert starches into sugars on its own like barley does. Instead, sake brewers rely on koji to help saccharify the rice, or turn the starches into fermentable sugars. In addition to being a key part of the brewing process for sake, koji lends a distinct umami flavor profile.

“The koji process itself introduces other flavors that the process of turning starches into sugars doesn’t create,” says Lee. “It adds another layer of savory umami flavor that you don’t get from just malting.”

Shochu is made when the fermented rice-and-koji mixture is distilled. “The basic process of taking a rice, allowing it to get moldy, giving it the enzyme that breaks starch into sugar, and then the yeast converting that sugar into alcohol—that brewing process is sake,” says Lee. “And then if you take that, and you distill it, you have soju and shochu.”

What complicates matters is that shochu and soju aren’t always made with rice.

“Shochu can be made from anything—not only rice, but also barley, buckwheat, sweet potato, regular potato, green tea, seaweed, milk, carrots, tomatoes, chestnuts, whatever you can think of,” says Lee. “If you can turn it into alcohol and distill it, it’s shochu, as long as you [distill] it with koji.”

Soju, meanwhile, is often industrialized and can be made from any number of base ingredients.

Sake

Sake is a brewed Japanese alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice, water, and koji. It will typically have the alcohol level of a wine or beer, from 5% ABV on the lower end to 20% ABV on the higher end, with most bottles falling somewhere in between.

As with wine and beer, sake can exhibit a wide range of characteristics. “It can [taste like] anything from a dry, high-acid white wine like a gewurztraminer, to something super-sweet and funky, like a pedro ximénez sherry,” says Lee.

Sake is often labeled using terms that designate its ingredients, style, and the percentage of its rice that is polished, or stripped of its outer hull. When a sake is made solely from rice, water, yeast, and koji, it is referred to as junmai, which generally means “pure rice sake.” Those bottlings that have a small amount of distilled alcohol added (no more than 10% of the total volume) are called honjozo. Though there are adherents to both styles of sake, preference is a matter of taste. An additional, often overlooked category is nigori, or unfiltered sake.

“Broadly speaking, nigori sake is going to be sweeter,” says Lee. “Honjozo is often full and rich.”

The common terms that are used to convey rice polish ratio are daijingo (50% polish or more) and ginjo (60% polish or more). But although a higher polish ratio often comes with a higher price tag, Lee cautions against relying solely on the polish to assess sake quality.

“For a very cheap mass-produced product, [a higher] percentage of the polishing will give you a dryer and cleaner profile,” says Lee. However, on the mid- to high end, brewers can achieve characteristics like dryness, sweetness, and acidity through a range of methods. “Often the things we associate with flavor are actually impurities,” he says.

Common Sake Categories

Junmai: “Pure rice sake,” made only from rice, water, yeast, and koji

Honjozo: Sake in which a small amount of alcohol is added

Daijingo: 50% polished rice or more

Ginjo: 60% polished rice or more

Nigori: Unfiltered Sake

Shochu

Shochu is a distilled Japanese clear spirit that can be made from a wide range of base ingredients, including rice, sweet potatoes, and barley. Like sake, it includes koji in the saccharification process.It can be bottled with a range of ABV, from 17–27% on the low end to 38–45% on the high end.

The vast majority of shochu exported to the U.S. is labeled honkaku, says Lee, which denotes traditional processes like the use of single pot distillation. As such, you can usually expect a certain level of quality when picking a shochu in the U.S.

“In choosing a shochu, there are so many considerations,” says Lee. “Big picture is, what is it made from? If you want to be real nerdy about it, you can say okay, is it black koji or white koji or yellow koji? Does it use high pressure distillation, or is it regular partial distillation, which will create more floral, aromatic compounds? What proof are you distilling it to?”

Upwards of 99% of shochu is made on Japan’s southernmost island of Kyushu, says Lee, who explains that distillation evolved from the need to preserve a brewed beverage in warm temperatures so it wouldn’t spoil. “Within Kyushu, it’s not a monolith, it’s an island of different temperatures and soil types,” he says.

The type of base ingredient used and the unique terroir of where it’s grown can wildly affect the flavor profile of the shochu. Barley, for example, imparts a distinct earthy note, says Lee. Shochu is also typically made with a different type of koji than sake, which uses yellow koji. The black and white koji that are often used to make shochu are much more acidic, but this acidity is removed during the distilling process.

Soju

Soju is a clear distilled Korean liquor that many compare to vodka due to its relatively clean, neutral profile. The spirit dates to 13th-century Korea, when it was traditionally made from rice, but starting in the 20th century it evolved into a more industrialized beverage.

“If you went back in time to pre-Imperial Japan, shochu and soju were the same thing,” says Lee.

However, Japanese colonization of Korea in the early 1900s stripped Koreans of much of their culture. “It was illegal to speak Korean, it was illegal to wear Korean clothing, and it was illegal also to produce alcohol in Korea,” says Lee.

Then, during the Korean War, rice distillation was banned, giving rise to soju made from various grains like wheat and barley. Today, just a handful of large corporations in Korea manage the soju industry, says Lee. Conversely, in Japan, shochu has remained a small and mostly family-owned industry, with hundreds of distilleries producing a singular product.

Modern-day soju may be distilled from base ingredients including cassava, sugar beets, and yam, and likely do not use nuruk (koji’s Korean counterpart) in the distillation process. Most of the soju imported into the U.S. is lower-ABV, around 20%, whereas imported shochu will show a range of proofs.

Soju is particularly popular at Korean restaurants, in part because Korean-American restaurant owners lobbied to label soju as a wine or beer in the 1980s so it could be served with food—another factor that has contributed to the perceived difference between shochu and soju in the U.S.

Although traditional soju remains uncommon, Lee notes that some producers in Korea are attempting to make soju as their ancestors did, with a modern touch. “There are a handful of people who have tried to recreate this lost heritage,” he says.