In the bottle: At first Sato Shiro is quite neutral; however, after giving it a bit of oxygen, it still remains a bit on the neutral side. For the flavors that you can find, there is what comes across as a young, fresh, sweet potato note that has a subtle bit of sourness to it as well as maybe a bit of Japanese grapes. In comparison to Sato Kuro, the white comes across as quite soft, at least on the nose.

On the rocks: As soon as the first drop hits your tongue you get an intensely fresh sweet potato along with a nice blend of caramel and vanilla which continues through on the early finish. Some of that sourness observed on the nose is present on the first sip; however, as the ice melts this fades into the background quite a bit which opens up more of a rich sweetness, not overly sticky sweet but certainly a bit bigger. The finish remains really nice even as the ice melts, you continue to get several waves of milky caramel and vanilla, overall, a nice glass to sip.

Straight: Soft and sweet with a nice bit of peppery notes that hit on the back of the palate, there is a bit of sourness on the finish but overall this is a decent way to enjoy this. The finish is a bit alcohol forward; however, this does mellow out with a bit of caramel and vanilla balancing this out.

Paired with Chocolate: Sticking with the Kaldi 70%, in general the dark chocolate becomes a bit sweeter, there is still a bit of that dark chocolate cherry tart vibe but not as much as other pairings I have tired. There is a nice velvety chocolate finish that pulls this together pretty well and makes this worth giving a shot. Overall, not bad, but clearly so far the rice type shochu & Awamori match much better.