We found it worked really well with mango." Kratena also admires soju's lowering of the alcohol bar to provide "lots of flavour without being too strong" – ticking the box on the trend for lower-octane cocktails that allow drinkers to knock back a few without falling over. "When we first tried it at the Artesian there was a lot of doubt," he admits. Having shaken and stirred in Seoul, Kratena enjoys playing with Psy's best friend. When it comes to soju mixology, a key British pathfinder is Alex Kratena – head honcho at the Langham's Artesian Bar, rated the world's best bar by those Drinks International folk. We also have a soju mojito, and plan to increase the number of soju cocktails." "Both are infused for three-four days with natural fruits. "We have ginger and blackberry soju," says owner Leon Foong. In east London, the Korean restaurant Jubo has joined in. In San Francisco, the renowned Tonight Soju Bar does a roaring trade in watermelon or pineapple soju paired with kimchi pancakes or kimchi fried rice. "It also goes well with bossam – steamed pork wrapped in a red lettuce leaf with garlic, peppers and kimchi." "Soju is often drunk with jokbal, which is pork trotter cooked in a seasoned, well-flavoured broth," adds Chef Won, Korean chef at Harrods' Pan Chai restaurant. With Korean foods, try it with street-food favourites such as tteokpokki (a rice and fish cake) or salted shrimp. Sitting neatly between wine and western spirits in terms of alcoholic kick, soju works well with a variety of food thanks to the subtlety of its flavours, with the best sometimes described with words like buttery, grainy or malty, with hints of sweetness. This is also, of course, a great chance to discover soju's ubiquity as a novel complement to nosh. In the UK, it's the less potent soju you'll find in Korean bars and restaurants, where many punters drink it neat, chilled in a shot glass. If you're in Korea, search out Andong – a 45% ABV beauty so highly regarded it has been officially designated as Korea's Intangible Cultural Assets No 12. Look for respected brands such as Chamisul or the delightfully named Chum-Churum. Today, the final spirit ranges in strength from 45% ABV to more common varieties that hit your glass ataround 25% ABV.Īs with most spirits there's good stuff and bad stuff about – the latter being low-grade muck made from sweet potatoes and tapioca rather than artfully distilled fermented rice.
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But this is a drink embedded in Korean culture since the 14th century, when Mongol invaders taught the locals how to distill, with fermented rice as the traditional starter. In a country with the world's highest per capita alcohol consumption (hey, it can't be easy living next door to North Korea), soju takes a whopping 97% of the spirits market. Psy is just sharing his countrymen's passion. I mean, who hasn't pranced around pretending to ride a horse after a few? On YouTube, the Psy 13 soju shot drinking contest may suggest how the star came up with his Gangnam Style schtick in the first place. In New York, bars hawk apple soju aperitifs and lychee soju slushies to Big Apple hipsters. A pioneering soju outlet at the LA Dodgers baseball arena sold out its supply after three games. "K-Pop K-Shot" billboards sprouted across America, showing Psy clutching a bottle of Chamisul soju (available via Beers of Europe). Soju now sells in 80 countries, with a rising profile helped by Korean superstar Psy, who not only proclaimed soju his "best friend" but also lent his dark-glassed visage to various campaigns to get the rest of the world smitten too. That would be three times more than Smirnoff. Jinro Soju – available at Waitrose and Amazon – has topped Drinks International's annual list of best-selling global spirits for years, notching up sales of 65m nine-litre cases in the 2013 list. The answer is soju, national hooch of South Korea. Any guesses? If you said vodka, back of the class. There's a brand of one particular spirit that sells more than twice as much as any other in the world.
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