Recently Andre and I were in Korea – what an eye opener. Drinking is a strong part of their culture, make no mistake. Walk around the city and you can see folks enjoying a tipple, usually soju and beer, accompanied by a steaming pot of kimchi chigae (stew) or other traditional cuisine.

Soju with food (fried chicken gizzzard) in a tent bar

Unlike in Singapore or many other countries, food is almost always mandatory at a drinking hole, restaurant or even in the mini mart. No Korean drinks without a couple of dishes alongside, even if its just fruits (really). At many establishments, its only us that purely order drinks and then looking around amazed at other patrons wolfing down ‘drinking snacks’ like kimchi/seafood pancakes, stewed pork slices with pickles etc at ALL times of the day.

Soju selection at a Familymart convenience store

So back to soju. You can find soju EVERYWHERE, from minimarts to restaurants to pubs. And they come in a variety of packaging. 250ml bottles, 1.5L PET bottles and even tetrabrik packs.

Soju in tetrabrick packs. Amazing.

And mixing soju into beer, what’s called pock tan ju, is a norm.

More soju, anyone?

They also have their submarines or ‘bombs’ as the Koreans call it.

Ladies also have gatherings over soju and beer, just like any bloke outing.  So it was a welcome sight to see an equal number of tables consisting all women diners as there were all male groups. Of course there were mixed groups as well.

One of the more ‘lady’ drinks is Kwai jul – consisting fruit juice (could be apple, orange, peach or watermelon I think) and alcohol. It was tasty enough but not sure if it was laced with soju or other alcohol.

Alcohol laced fresh fruit juice. Refreshing.

Soju is also brewed with pride regionally in Korea, like the specialty ones using volcanic spring water from Mount Hala (Halasan) in Jeju Island.

Having spoken so much abt soju, how does it actually taste? I would describe the taste as a more mellow vodka-like flavour (distinctly grain based) albeit less strong (20% abv) version – with a bit of sake character. But I’ve never seen soju drunk warm, unlike sake.  I thought the Jeju Halasan ones tasted more refreshing and sweeter than the normal Jinro nationally brewed ones.

Soju brewed from volcanic Mt Hala spring water

In the next few posts  I’ll talk about another indigeneous Korean alcoholic beverage called dongdongju, Korean beer, drinking venues as well as  some drinking etiquette in Korea. There’ll also be videos of some spectacular bartenders we were lucky enough to meet. You’ll see what I mean.