Each Friday evening, after spending a rather mind numbing week at work, I like to unwind with a drink or two of my choosing. Recently, I have been a fan of the chu-hai, usually the higher alcohol content varieties. A new favorite is a hybrid vodka chu-hai called 99.99 or フォーナイン. (four nine) It does the trick reasonably well.

But if you really want to get creative, and save some hard earned Yen, here is the recipe:

Buy your shochu in bulk. I prefer the liter bag varieties found in most supermarkets. Get a few liters of soda water. And finally, stock up on some Korean fruit vinegar (pomegranate, green apple, muskat!), which can be found at import stores like Kaldi, Jupiter, and Costco.

Take 2 parts soda water, 1 part shochu. Add a splash of fruit vinegar, and enjoy (on the rocks is best). You really can’t go wrong.