North Korean Soju to enter US market

by Jonathan M. Forester, Posted Jul 24th 2007 @ 3:02PM

Soju, the Korean distilled spirit, has long been the most consumed spirit in the world, especially throughout Asia. Low to mid-level brands from South Korea have been available in the US for years and I have enjoyed quite a few of them when out dining with friends at some of my favorite Korean restaurants in Queens and Manhattan, NY.

Soju is made in the most part from fermented rice, but also with other fermentable products like wheat, barley or sweet potatoes; then distilled an adjusted to 20-45% abv. / 40-90 proof. The North Korean brand would initially go on sale in the Eastern US states and should be available now.

Now North Korea is going to enter the playing field with one of their soju going to be sold in the US, Pyongyang Soju. This is quite rare for products from North Korea to be sanctioned for import to the United States. Many folks feel that products from North Korea shouldn't be allowed into the US or should be boycotted.

Personally, I will try one bottle of Pyongyang Soju if I run across it so I can review it, but after that I won't go out of my way. I much prefer the multitude of premium, Japanese distilled products called shochu to Korean soju. They are just so much better in taste and quality than soju. So much so, that they are now the number one alcoholic beverage consumed in Japan.

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Filed Under: Did you know?, Liquor Cabinet, Drink Recipes, New Products, Drinks
Tags: america, did you know, import, liquor cabinet, north korea, Pyongyang Soju, PyongyangSoju, shochu, soju, south asia, south korea, spirits

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

7-24-2007 @3:54PM Jason Truesdell said... Japan probably has a bigger market for quality shochu than Korea does for specialty soju, but decent soju does exist in Korea, too... I found a nice one called "Hwayo" in Seoul that was an excellent value by Japanese standards. For remarkable shochu I usually have to spend quite a bit more.

Seattle still can't get very decent shochu (I'm not that excited by Iichiko's standard offering at WA liquor stores) except at a few restaurants, so I reserve most of my drinking for when I'm in Japan, but I think it's not entirely fair to judge all of Korean soju based on the brands commonly sold here. None of the ones I've seen in the US go for more than $3/bottle in Korea.
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7-24-2007 @8:50PM jn said... i wonder what the kanji/hanji for soju and shochu are? i'm wouldn't be shocked if they weren't the exact same chinese characters, with the respective pronunciations being the difference. meaning? soju, shochu same thing originating in korea-or china in the distant past-adopted by japan with extra distillery.
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7-26-2007 @1:11PM Hiro said... I don't know whether it'll show under a one-bite environment, but while shochu is written "焼酎", soju is written "소주" or "焼酒". The first character is the same, but in Japanese the second one is "to concentrate" and in Korean, simply a "liquor". The latter is the same character as sake.
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