Learn to make this refreshing Japanese yuzu cocktail called Yuzu Chuhai. Made with Japanese shochu, club soda, and yuzu citrus extract, it’s one of my favorite beverages to enjoy on a warm day. Perfect for a backyard barbecue or summertime party.
This coming Wednesday, July 4th is Independence Day in the United States. It’s a day of celebration, with great barbecue food and drinks, and watching fireworks. Since I don’t like the taste of beer, I’ve decided to share one of my favorite Japanese alcoholic beverage called chuhai for other non-beer drinkers to celebrate this holiday. I enjoy all kinds of fruity chuhai, and this particular version has Japanese citrus fruit yuzu juice in it and it’s very refreshing!
Table of Contents
What is Chuhai?
Chuhai (チューハイ, 酎ハイ) is a cocktail made with the Japanese alcohol shochu (焼酎), club soda, and any kind of fruit juice. In the Tokyo area, we sometimes call it a sour (サワー). This cocktail is very popular in Japan, commonly served in izakaya-style restaurants and those that cater to Japanese salary workers.
What is Yuzu?
Yuzu (柚子, Citrus junos) is a small yellow or green citrus fruit that’s prized in Japanese cuisine for its highly aromatic zest and floral juice. It’s a hybrid of the satsuma mandarin and ichang papeda. The peel is thick and pebbly with lots of oil glands. It has very little juice and a lot of seeds.
Did you know that Japan is the world’s largest producer and consumer of yuzu? It’s highly popular in Japanese cooking. Kochi prefecture in Shikoku is famous for growing the world’s best yuzu. You can read more about this highly prized fruit in my yuzu post.
Ingredients You’ll Need for Yuzu Chuhai
- club soda – or soda water
- shochu – any brand or type
- simple syrup – make it with water and sugar (see below for the recipe)
- yuzu juice (extract)
- ice cubes
- Korean citron tea (yuja cha) – optional
- lime – or lemon; optional
How To Make a Yuzu Cocktail
- Combine the club soda, shochu, simple syrup, and yuzu juice (extract) in a glass. Mix or shake well.
- Add ice cubes and Korean citron tea (yuja cha). Mix well.
- Garnish with a slice of lime, and serve immediately.
Popular Chuhai Flavors
You can use any fruit juice to make a chuhai cocktail. Some other popular flavors use the fresh ingredients or extract of fruits include lemon, lime, grapefruit, apple, orange, pineapple, grape, kyoho grape, kiwi, ume, and lychee.
If you are curious about this yuzu chuhai recipe or want to know more about this Japanese cocktail, please find my full post about it on Ang Sarap. You might remember Ang Sarap because the blogger Raymund shared his delicious Kare Kare (the popular Filipino dish) recipe on my blog while I was in Japan last April. He has numerous recipes in various cuisines on his blog and I’m sure you will find some recipes you want to try for this week’s meals! Please click here to see the post.
Wish to learn more about Japanese cooking? Sign up for our free newsletter to receive cooking tips & recipe updates! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.
Japanese Yuzu Cocktail (Yuzu Chuhai)
Ingredients
- ½ cup club soda (soda water)
- ¼ cup shochu (any brand or type)
- 1 Tbsp Homemade Simple Syrup (recipe follows)
- 1 tsp yuzu juice (extract)
- ice cubes
- 1–2 tsp Korean citron tea (yuja cha) (optional)
- lime (optional; can use lemon)
For the Simple Syrup
- ¼ cup water
- ½ cup sugar
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. Combine ½ cup club soda, ¼ cup shochu, 1 Tbsp Homemade Simple Syrup, and 1 tsp yuzu juice (extract) in a glass and mix well.
- Add ice cubes and 1–2 tsp Korean citron tea (yuja cha) (optional) and mix well.
- Garnish with a slice of lime, and serve immediately.
To Make the Simple Syrup
- Bring ¼ cup water to a boil in a small saucepan. Dissolve ½ cup sugar into the boiling water, stirring constantly. Once the sugar is dissolved completely, remove it from heat and let cool completely and thicken.
I never knew that 酎ハイ and サワー were one and the same! This is a game changer, thank you so much for the information. I am definitely going to try this recipe and some of my own variations! 乾杯！
Hello, Rosie! We’re happy to hear you learned something new from Nami’s post!
We hope you have fun creating different kinds of Chuhai! Enjoy!
I will be making this recipe for my gourmet cooking club in a couple weeks and have a question about the Korean Citron Tea. 1-2 tablespoons seems like a lot per cocktail. I’m assuming that you dilute it first, but can you tell me how much water you would use to dilute the tea before adding it to the recipe? Thank you in advance!
Could I use sake instead of shochu for this recipe? Have sake I’m trying to use up. Thanks!
Hi Ally,
We normally make this kind of cocktail with Shochu and unsure what type of Sake you have.
You may want to make a small amount first and sample the taste to see if you like the mix or not.😉
Thank you for this yuzu cocktail recipe. I needed to use up some leftover shochu after making Umeshu and this was perfect! Very delicious cocktail! I am not sure if I had the correct product for the yuja cha tea optional ingredient but it tastes so good I don’t really care!
Hi Jeanine! I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you! I added this recipe to my Umeshu recipe so others can enjoy it as well (I forgot about this recipe!). Thank you for trying it and for your kind feedback. xo