The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks

“Perfect for the traveler or epicurean, [The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks] reveals the secrets of Japan’s varied alcoholic beverages. Written in a conversational yet informative voice, every chapter delivers valuable insight into how these drinks evolved, found favor at home, and are often misunderstood overseas.” –Christopher Pellegrini, Author, The Shochu Handbook“Following Brian Ashcraft’s excellent Japanese Whisky, Tuttle has brought out this compendious guide to the full range of Japanese beverages…Written in an easy, flowing style, it covers a lot of ground in a short space of time…a beautiful, carefully put together coffee-table book full of insights, anecdotes and thirst-inducing pictures that leaves the reader yearning not just for a warm cup of sake or a stiff Yamazaki, but for individual titles devoted to each type of drink.”– The Japan Times“There’s nowhere I’d rather drink than Japan, and no one I’d rather have telling me what, where, and how to drink than Stephen Lyman and Chris Bunting, whose bibulosity is matched only by their curiosity.” –Matt Gross, formerly the New York Times Frugal Traveler

Stephen Lyman was an Associate Professor at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City when he discovered Japanese shochu at an izakaya. Over the next decade, he visited Japan more than twenty times, exploring shochu distilleries, sake breweries, and other alcohol producers. In 2013, he began interning at a shochu distillery in Kagoshima Prefecture. He became the first graduate of the Sake School of America’s Shochu Adviser Course and a kikisakeshi (sake sommelier) through Sake Service International. In 2016, he was named the first Honkaku Shochu Ambassador by the Japanese government through the Cool Japan program. He now spends about half his time in Kyushu, Southern Japan, exploring local food, drink, and culture.

Chris Bunting has worked in London and Japan for publications including the Asahi Shimbun, Times and Independent. He developed his love of Japanese alcohol while living in Tokyo and is the author of Drinking Japan. He currently lives in Yorkshire in the UK.