Prep Time: 5-10 mins
Cook Time: 0 mins
Servings: 6-8
Main Ingredient: Soju, Sake
Difficulty Level: 1

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South Koreans love their coffee. In Korea, around 80 percent of the coffee consumed is accounted by vending machines. There are about 350,000 vending machines across Korea selling coffee.

Instant coffee is predominant in Korea, but coffee houses are starting to push more and more consumers towards quality coffee. In Seoul, there are many coffee shops, which began to appear in major cities in the late 1990s, to choose from.

Coffee shops in Korea have a great selection of coffee from Vietnam, Brazil, and Honduras. Contrarily from the United States, coffee drinkers in Korea love to spend time enjoying their coffee, as well as, socializing with the people around them.

Coffee shops in Korea not only sell coffee, but also offers a great selection of magazines, freshly baked cakes, and they also let you buy coffee mugs.

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Soju

Soju is, without a doubt, the most internationally popular of all Korean drinks. A distilled liquor traditionally made from rice, but also from sweet potatoes, wheat, and other starches, soju ranges from quite strong to mildly strong, and is a traditional part of Korean social gatherings. It can be drunk on its own, or mixed with other ingredients to make soju cocktails.

Korean Beer

Though it didn’t originate in Korea, Koreans still love beer. Brought to Korea by the Europeans, beer is one of the most popular Korean drinks, with three name brands sharing most of the country’s market. These are Cass, Hite, and OB, and all of them are lagers. Korean beer is generally light and dry and very refreshing– it’s especially good to wash down a big bowl of dolsot bibimbap.

Korean Wines

There are literally hundreds of types of Korean wine. Some of them are drunk casually, others are mixed, and still more are used for medicinal purposes.  The most common type of Korean wine is probably rice wine. There are several types of rice wines, and they are among the most widely drunk of all Korean drinks.  The most common are:

- Cheongju: a clear rice wine similar in flavor to Japanese sake
- Takju: a thick rice liquor (sometimes made from other grains). Commonly white and milky in appearance.
- Makgeolli: an unfiltered rice wine

Other Korean drinks and wines are made from fruit and herbs. Some of the more popular Korean fruit wines are made from acacia, quince, plum, cherry, and pomegranate.  Ginseng and other medicinal herbal wines are also used to treat a variety of illnesses.

Korean Teas

It seems like there are more varieties of Korean tea than you could possibly taste in a lifetime. Made from just about anything you can think of (roots, fruits, leaves, grains, fungus, you name it), Korean teas are hugely prized for their medicinal qualities.  Full of antioxidants and other good-for-you ingredients, their health benefits are a huge reason why tea is the most popular of all Korean drinks.  There are literally hundreds of types of Korean tea, and some of the most popular are:

- Bori-cha (Barley Tea): made from unhulled, toasted grains of barley, this is the most widely drunk tea in Korea.  Full of antioxidants, this nutty-flavored tea is drunk with meals and served either hot or cold.
- Saengang-cha (Ginger Tea): this is a wonderful tea to cool you off on a hot day or warm you all the way to your toes on a cold one.  Made with fresh ginger, Asian pears or persimmons, orange zest, and sugar, this sweet, pungent tea has been drunk for centuries to ward off the common cold.
- Nok-cha (Green Tea): Green tea has show to have a myriad of health benefits, and is drunk throughout Korea.
- Insam-cha (Ginseng Tea):  Made from dry or fresh ginseng root, insam-cha is drunk to increase one’s energy.  Many commercial Korean drinks are based off this general recipe, and marketed as “energy drinks.”

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In reality, though, the truth is much more interesting. The “gold medal” prize for the best-selling brand of booze in the world goes to Jinro, a brand of Korean soju. Soju is a starch-based liquor that is hugely popular– at least, it’s hugely popular in Korea, where 72 million cases are sold in a single year.

Most people have never tasted soju… and they’re really missing out.  Similar in flavor and appearance to vodka, soju is a great substitute for those that enjoy vodka but want to try something special.  Its alcohol content varies from 20% to around 45%, depending on the brand of soju, making it slightly softer than its Russian cousin.  And the sugar added during the manufacturing process makes it just a bit sweet.

Drinking Soju

Traditionally, soju is enjoyed own its own, taken as a quick shot or sipped from a small glass.  And like many Asian drinks, such as tea, there is an entire etiquette surrounding the drinking of soju.  Some of the rules include never pouring soju for yourself, and holding the glass with two hands when you’re being served by somebody you particularly respect.

But, fortunately, you don’t have to know the rules to drink it. More and more soju drinkers are shaking off tradition and using this Korean liquor as a casual ingredient in mixed drinks.  And while soju is a wonderful substitute for vodka in pretty much any cocktail you’d normally make (it simply makes a softer, sweeter version of the original cocktail) there are some soju cocktails that were created especially for the flavor this tasty liquor.

One traditional way to drink soju is a poktanju, (which means “bomb drink”), which is a pint of beer with a shot glass full of soju dropped into it.  Like the idea of more liquor than beer?  The opposite combination is called a suo poktanju, or “hydrogen bomb drink.”  Seems like an appropriate name, doesn’t it?

Other soju cocktail recipes are generally made along a shared formula: one part soju, one part flavoring, and one part “sparkly” (tonic water or lemon-lime soda).  Some of the more popular flavors are lemon, plum, grape, apple, and peach.  But the most popular (and probably the most delicious) of these recipes is the yogurt soju cocktail. This is made with one part soju, one part flavored liquid yogurt (you can buy this at a Korean market, but can also find it at any grocery store), and one part lemon-lime soda.  These go down so smoothly that they’re a little dangerous.

Whether you’ve enjoyed soju for years or are just now hearing about it, this is definitely a drink to get excited about.  And if its popularity keeps growing as quickly as it is now, it doesn’t seem like soju will have any problem holding its spot as the top-selling booze in the world.

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