With the heatwave showing no sign of abating, fruity refreshing cocktails and effective air conditioning are very much in season, and both can be enjoyed at Roka in Pacific Place.
The bar does a brisk trade in vodka martinis, but as you would expect in a robatayaki restaurant, many of its cocktails are Japanese-inspired and have either a sake or a shochu base.
Sake is now a weapon in the armoury of many mixologists and the Saketini, in particular, has a loyal following. But I was surprised to find shochu on display behind the bar.
Apparently, I am behind the times. It is many years since I drank the stuff and my understanding was always that it was a cheap local substitute for expensive imported spirits, as was soju in South Korea.
Those who could afford whisky or cognac drank that. Those who could not drank shochu.
Shochu has become fashionable in Japan over the past 10 years or so and people drink it out of preference rather than as a cheap substitute.
Shochu bars are now fashionable rendezvous places rather than local dives, and the quality of the drink itself has risen. Certainly, the price has gone up. Premium brands are widely available in Japan, and now also here, and it is possible to pay about the same for quality shochu as for premium gins and vodkas.