For a lot of of at present’s drinkers, soju is related to extra. It’s taken as photographs between bites of Korean barbecue, thrown again throughout a raucous consuming sport or shared with colleagues at a post-work joyful hour, the place heavy consuming is each inspired and anticipated. (“Geombae!” goes the Korean cheer.) Soju is, briefly, primarily consumed for one objective: to get drunk quick, and on a budget.
“It’s fairly unlucky, as a result of now we have a extremely wealthy heritage of artisanal sool,” says grasp sommelier Kyungmoon Kim, referring to the class of Korean spirits that features soju and makgeolli. Kim is the founding father of KMS Imports, the initials through which stand for Korean Trendy Spirits, a reputation he selected deliberately over the Korean phrase for conventional spirits, jeontongju, due to his deal with new and rising manufacturers.
Kim began working with wine at Jungsik, a Korean restaurant with areas in each Seoul and New York Metropolis, however, lately, he has been importing spirits into the US, working with Korean American eating places—amongst them, Jua and Mari in New York and San Ho Gained in San Francisco—to introduce soju to American diners. At a lot of Kim’s consumer eating places, menus now function a devoted part for soju, itemizing a variety of artisanal manufacturers alongside wine, cocktails and different spirits.
Now not restricted to its party-ready repute, the soju Kim imports comes from impartial producers round Korea. With their emphasis on home rice, heritage substances, old-school strategies and methods impressed by Korean delicacies—corresponding to maturing the spirit in onggi, conventional Korean clay pots sometimes used to ferment kimchi, and substances like doenjang (soy bean paste) and gochujang (chile paste)—the brand new sojus mix historical past with innovation.
As a second-generation Korean American, previously I might typically describe soju to non-Koreans as “Korean vodka.” The very best-known variations of soju, made by industrial manufacturers corresponding to Jinro and Chum Churum, are made primarily from tapioca and loaded with components and sweeteners in an try to masks their low cost, ethanol style. However soju hasn’t at all times been this fashion. Kim, of KMS Imports, thinks a extra apt parallel for high-quality variations of the spirit is mezcal or single malt whiskey, the place “the primary ingredient actually takes middle stage.” Although the mass-market bottles have strayed from this custom, in soju, rice initially performed that starring function.
Koreans have been brewing alcohol from rice for over 2,000 years, with soju produced largely in small batches at house till the twentieth century, when a collection of disruptions, from the Japanese Occupation to the Korean Warfare, modified each soju and general sool consuming tradition. In 1965, in response to poverty and starvation, the Korean authorities outright banned using rice for something however meals consumption, inflicting the shift to industrial soju made out of different grains, in addition to tapioca and candy potato. In 2009, the biggest soju firms unofficially agreed to start out bottling their product in the identical inexperienced bottles so they might all recycle and reuse them, and a budget bottles took on the colloquial title “green-bottle soju.”
Although the rice ban was lifted in 1999, the return to rice-based brewing strategies has been gradual. Kim attributes that partly to a veneration of Western merchandise by older generations, explaining, “In the event that they had been to pay $50 for a premium alcohol, they’d quite drink whiskey or wine.”
However for the youthful era, who invoke a renewed sense of pleasure in Korean id, artisanal soju provides a wealthy narrative steeped in custom and historical past. It additionally indicators a change in Korean consuming conventions. In Korea, alcohol is a compulsory a part of work tradition, with younger professionals required to attend hoeshiks, these after-work gatherings the place green-bottle soju—plenty of it—is widespread. Naturally, there’s nonetheless a spot for these inexperienced bottles, however the brand new spirits provide a unique consuming expertise. Because of artisanal producers, “you may sit and ponder and actually benefit from the complexity and all the trouble the brewer has put in soju,” says Kim. It’s an alternative choice to that tradition of extra, and a brand new connection to outdated Korean heritage.
