Reduction of the alcohol-stimulative taste of Japanese pot-distilled spirits.

The Japanese traditional pot-distilled spirit shochu has various tastes that are produced by variations in the manufacturing processes. In this study, an alcohol-stimulative taste was organoleptically evaluated using shochu samples, and the chemical components and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (H NMR) spectra were measured. In some shochu samples, the alcohol-stimulative taste was weaker than that of the standard 15% (v/v) EtOH-HO mixture, and the water-ethanol hydrogen-bonding structure was stronger compared to a water-ethanol solution.