This coming Wednesday, July 4th is the United State’s Independence Day. 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 chuhai has Japanese citrus fruit yuzu juice in it and it’s very refreshing!
Chuhai (チューハイ, 酎ハイ) is a cocktail containing the Japanese alcohol called shochu (焼酎), soda, and any kind of fruit juice. In Tokyo area, we sometimes call it Sour (サワー) instead of chuhai. This cocktail is very popular in Japan, commonly served in izakaya-style restaurants and restaurants that cater to Japanese salary workers. Have you tried shochu or chuhai/sour before?
If you are curious about this chuhai recipe or want to know more about this Japanese cocktail, please find my full post about it on Ang Sarap today. 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. I hope you enjoy the drink and Happy July 4th!
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Japanese Yuzu Cocktail (Yuzu Chuhai)
Ingredients
- ½ cup club soda (soda water)
- ¼ cup shochu (brand or type doesn’t really matter)
- 1 Tbsp simple syrup (recipe follows)
- 1 tsp yuzu juice (extract)
- ice cubes
- 1-2 Tbsp Korean citron tea (yuja cha) (optional)
- lime (optional; can use lemon)
Simple Syrup:
- ¼ cup water
- ½ cup sugar
Instructions
- Combine club soda, shochu, simple syrup, and yuzu extract in a glass and mix well.
- Add ice cube and Korean citron tea (optional) and mix well.
- Garnish with a slice of lime, and serve immediately.
To Make Simple Syrup
- Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan. Dissolve the sugar into the boiling water, stirring constantly. Once the sugar is dissolved completely, remove it from heat and let cool completely and thicken.
