About

Chuuhaifive was born out of the lack of chuuhai-devoted websites in English and my love of terrible cross-lingual puns.

What is chuuhai? (Also written as chuhai or Chu-Hi or 酎ハイ or チューハイ  )

Chuuhai is a Japanese word originally referring to “shouchuu highball”, (焼酎ハイボール) highball cocktails made from mixing a base of shouchuu (焼酎, a Japanese liquor similar to vodka) and a higher quantity of a mixer, usually soda water. Nowdays though, chuuhai are made from plain spirits (there are exemptions) and are most commonly found in supermarkets and convenience stores all across Japan in the form of canned or bottled drinks, which are often fruit-flavored. One friend described drinking a lemon-lime chuuhai as “alcoholic sprite.”

However, the power and scope of chuuhai now far exceed its shouchuu origins and can refer to the whole class of alcoholic beverages made from distilled liquor and carbonated water. These chuuhai, or alcopops, or FAB (flavored alcoholic beverage) or RTD (ready to drink) cocktails or whatever-you-like-to-call-them have developed into a huge class of drinks in Japan. Having spent college in a place where the only RTD alcoholic beverages were Smirnoff Ice (also available in Japan) and Zima (still available in Japan!) I developed a passionate love for this cheap and tasty family of booze. I hope you will come to share this passion, too.

Chuuhaifive: Uniting The World Through Shared Inebriation