Nihonshu

Jay

Author

Alcohol liquid made by rice. Fermented rice liquid itself without filtration is called 'makgoli' usually spread in South Korea. The liquid filtered rice particles has a clear texture of liquid and that is called 'cheong-ju' in Korean and 'nihonshu' in Japanese. 

Jay

Author

Usually Japanese people like this nihonshu one of the most. On the other hand, South Koreans love distilled cheong-ju which is called 'soju'.

As soju is distilled, it has a strong portion of alcohol in the same volume as you could imagine vodka, rum, brandy, or whisky. 

Jay

Author

Cheong-ju as well as nihonshu has yellow colour from the fermented rice. It also has its own scent. 

Soju made by professional craftsmen also has the yellow colour with its own scent though, factory made soju is usually transparent and just has alcohol scent with a little of sweet taste due to aspartame. 

Jay

Author

Thank you as well!