In the bottle: Slightly sweet and fragrant, with notes of fresh nectarine, watermelon rind and sour cherry Jolly Ranchers in the beginning before fading into the more earthy damp hay. If you really breath in deep you can also catch some vanilla and toasted rice toward the end, and a very slight scent from the alcohol. Overall, highly enjoyable and gives a good impression of what should be in the bottle.. 

On the rocks: The first sip is refreshing and light with a nice peppery, albeit slightly spicy note at the back of the palate which is balanced nicely with the soft sweetness that starts to make its way forward. From here, Kawagoe transitions smoothly into some of the fruitiness observed on the nose, there is a lot here that I have not usually found with a sweet potato shochu, so certainly glad to have picked this up. If you let this sit on your tongue long enough you can taste a rich toasted rice with hints of vanilla, sweet potato and what seems like baking spice.

水割り Diluted with water

4:1, 3:2 ratio: This really smooths out and in my opinion loses a lot of what makes this interesting, it is not bad by any means, it just doesn't have any real substance behind it. Unfortunately at this time I was not typically trying shochu neat in the glass, would have liked to have given this a go.