This canned sour is made with a liqueur jointly developed with Shoro Sake Brewery in Kushima City, located at the southernmost tip of Miyazaki Prefecture. Unlike your typical lemon sour, this is a grapefruit sour. The liqueur itself was originally sold exclusively at the brewery—but it’s already sold out. Here's a little backstory behind it:

Designed as a go-to drink for early spring, the Shoro Grapefruit Sour—or SGS for short—is a refreshingly bittersweet liqueur with a crisp and vibrant profile.

The grapefruit used comes from Midori-no-Sato Ryokun, a farm located in southern Miyazaki known for its low-pesticide cultivation practices. Domestically grown grapefruit is still a rarity in Japan, and this particular fruit has drawn attention from buyers nationwide. The orchard is about an hour’s drive from Shoro Brewery, and on the morning of production, we drove over to collect the fruit fresh from the grove.

Each grapefruit was peeled entirely by hand, then steeped in Colorful, Shoro’s original shochu. The fruit itself was juiced, reduced with sugar into a syrup, and blended in—meaning nothing was wasted. If we had used only the peel, the flavor would have leaned too dry, but by incorporating the juice as well, we brought out a much fuller and more rounded taste.

Colorful, the base shochu, already carries an exotic profile—more like tea or tropical fruit than the typical sweet-potato richness. The juicy, sweet-and-tart grapefruit layers beautifully with those notes, giving the drink a vibrant, slightly floral depth.

While grapefruit typically peaks around March, we used fruit harvested in early February. This early-season fruit gives the sour a milder, greener freshness that enhances its drinkability. The unique combination of bitterness, tartness, and sweetness links beautifully with the savory complexity of the shochu, creating a truly refreshing finish.

In the world of shochu, bitterness and sourness aren’t always praised—floral aromas and sweetness are currently more in vogue—but we’ve embraced these flavors head-on in this liqueur. Personally, I hope this drink inspires a deeper appreciation for the broader range of what shochu can be.

This is a sour made for the changing of the seasons—from winter into spring, when the sun grows warmer and the first hints of new life appear. It pairs beautifully with spring vegetables like nanakusa or mountain greens, especially when prepared as miso pickles or sesame-dressed dishes.

For an extra touch, try serving it with a slice of fresh grapefruit. It’s a perfect nod to spring.