On June 26, 2024, we had the great pleasure of attending a shochu media event at the Japan Sake and Shochu Information Center (JSS). Aside from hearing about the increasing recognition and appreciation of the beverage overseas, we had the opportunity to taste a couple of exceedingly creative shochu-based cocktails prepared by bartender Yukino Sato. We would like to focus on one of those in this entry—the Creamy Nuts (Negroni), whose recipe is pictured below.
There are sometimes disagreements when it comes to origin stories. Questions of who invented what are not uncommon. The most plausible story regarding the creation of the Negroni attributes it to an Italian bartender who, when asked to make a stronger version of the Americano, came up with the cocktail later named the Negroni. The customer making the request was Count Camillo Negroni, who, for a time, had worked as a rodeo clown in the U.S.1
There was no clowning around at JSS on that June evening, though a splendid time was had by all. Our sensory evaluation of Sato-san’s Creamy Nuts (Negroni) is as follows: It is a drink with a subtle sweetness combined with typical Campari bitterness and pervasive peanut butter notes that should be on most, if not all, menus.
That being said, we would like to make a suggestion with respect to future shochu-based cocktail creations, even those that are intended for the foreign market. Peanut butter, as opposed to peanuts themselves, is not widely consumed in Japan, but there is a pool of candidates for inclusion ranging from shaved bonito to burdock, from Sansho to seaweed that clearly are. Why not give these options a try?
1Ellwood, M. “How the Negroni Became Today’s It Cocktail,” Conde Nast Traveler, August 24, 2015.
Drinking Japan 