SoDo Spirits Distillery

Casey knows his stuff about Soju. Unique experience and flavor of spirit. Recommend checking this place out.

My bf took me here and prior to, I had no clue what Soju was. The owner was so knowledgable and charming, it was such a lovely evening. We had a private tour, did some tasting and eventually bought a bottle and ran off into the sun. I recommend this spot for date night or just some interpersonal quality time!

I stopped by Sodo Spirits yesterday with some friends for a tour. The owner, K.C. was there to explain the history or shochu and how they make it here at the only shochu distillery in the United States! (He mentioned that there would be one in Hawaii soon, too — but still, not a big crowd of these kind of places here) We got to inspect the pot still they use to distill and try a variety of their shochus, both plain and mixed with hot water (which brings out the flavors of the shochu) or different juices.
The rosemary shochu was very subtly grassy– not an overwhelming rosemary flavor at all, it was really nice. We tried it with some hot water, too — it would be great with tea, I bet.
The ginger shochu we tried plain and also mixed with OJ. A «chu-​driver», if you will :)
Mint shochu was tried on its own and with cranberry juice, which was surprisingly tasty! I wasn’t as much a fan of it by itself but it went REALLY well with the cranbery juice.
Chili shochu didn’t have a lot of heat, but a great flavor — almost chocolate-​y like Mexican mole. It would be amazing in hot chocolate or maby with a smoky tea.
The last shochu we tried was barrel aged for a little more than 2 years, and tasted like a bourbon or a whiskey. It was one of my favorites, though it’s a bit more expensive ($ 40 I think?) than the other shochus ($ 32) per bottle.
KC explained that shochu is VERY low in sugar so it’s nice if you’re not into fruity froofy drinks and like something drier. It’s apparently popular in Japan to mix it with juices when drinking it (If you’ve ever been to TanakaSan in Seattle you may have seen these lighter alcohol drinks called chu-​hai on the menu) as well as with hot water or tea.
There are a couple other distilleries in the area, too, so you can make a day of it if you want to sample some different local spirits.

Stopped by yesterday on a Groupon with the bf. We had a great time and KC (co-​owner) was really nice. He explained the history and process of making shochu (which was totally new to me) and showed us the distillation set up. We had the opportunity to taste all 5 of their varietals as well. All in all, I liked the space, the experience and the price (slightly more per bottle than most quality liquors — reasonable for a craft liquor in my opinion). I had a lot of fun and I’d recommend this to a friend!
I don’t think the website is listed on the Unilocal page so here: