Stephen Lyman is one of the world’s leading English speaking experts on Japan’s indigenous spirits of honkaku shochu and ryukyu awamori. He has been helping make traditional handmade sweet potato shochu at Yamatozakura Distillery in Kagoshima every year since 2013 and has spent time working in a half dozen other distilleries around the US and Japan. Thanks to his tireless promotion of these traditional spirits overseas, he was named a Honkaku Shochu Ambassador by the Japanese Cabinet Office in 2016. He published the James Beard Award-nominated “The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks” in 2019 and co-hosts the Japan Distilled podcast. He is currently completing his 1st documentary (and 5th film), “The Spirit of Japan,” to be released at film festivals worldwide in 2025. He joined the founding team of importer Honkaku Spirits in 2020 to bring these amazing craft spirits to the United States, furthering his life mission to find shochu and awamori in every bar, restaurant, and liquor store in America. In 2024 he joined the faculty of the bar academy (BAR 5Day) at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. To further his shochu dreams, he moved to Fukuoka, Japan in 2018 where he is an avid Brompton bicycle rider, tennis player, and baseball nut.