When I was a student at the University of California at Berkeley, I taught a class called Female Sexuality with some of my fellow schoolmates (yes, everything you've heard about Berkeley is true). As my work with food and drinks seldom crosses into the realm of sex education, few people know this about my background — including my parents, who will probably ground me retroactively the next time I visit them.
But circumstances have at last conspired to merge these areas of expertise. In honor of Valentine's Day, my editor has asked me to write about intoxicating Japanese aphrodisiacs (or, to use his words, "seductive sake, brazen beer and shaggable shōchū").
Technically, any alcohol can function as an aphrodisiac. The inhibition-lowering effects have been well documented, most likely on your own Facebook wall. Recently, researchers at Durham University in northern England revealed that the "beer-goggle effect," where inebriated people view others as more attractive, actually exists.