In the bottle: Custard, vanilla, and burnt caramel sit right at the brim of the bottle—not overpowering, but certainly letting you know they are present. After these fade a bit, you get a good sense of the aging on this bottle of awamori. At 15 years, Shurei has a beautifully mature funk that blends perfectly with the initial sweeter notes. This comes in the form of a slightly wet earthiness and clay, which provides a perfect backdrop for everything to come together. Overall, while slightly subtle, the nose does a great job of building anticipation for what will be in the glass.

On the rocks: Right from the start Shurei is super smooth and earthy, with that pleasant funk permeating the initial sip. As this settles down a bit, the custard, vanilla, and burnt caramel from the nose come in and balance out the entire experience, with the sweetness doing a great job of hanging around on the finish. As the ice melts a bit, the earthy notes fade into the background, leaving a mellowed sweetness that develops a slightly peppery prickliness at the end, which gives this 15-year bottle a nice bit of variety to enjoy sip by sip.

Straight: Amazingly bright as this hits the tongue. After that it is wave after wave of awamori awesomeness. The dryer earth and clay notes hit first but quickly transition to a bit of vanilla and custard. Interestingly, the burnt caramel here comes across much more bitter and is joined by a bit of prickly black pepper. The finish keeps the earthiness along with the bitterness. Overall, this was quite an intense experience.

Paired with Chocolate: Tonny's chocolonely 70% dark chocolate. Nope, not a good match this time, the bitterness from the Awamori and the chocolate is just too bitter and overrides anything the Awamori would add to this pairing..

Enjoy on the rocks or with a little Water