Soju

July 7, 2003 8:50 PM

JINRO:The liquor thrice-filtered with charcoal made from bamboo In Korea, Chamjinisulro is the first clean and safe soju filtered three times with charcoal made from bamboo, which is cooked at 1,000 degrees celsius. Because Chamjinisulro has been filtered twice, it has never been leaving no harmful ingredients or impurities. You can enjoy pure taste without the burden of hangovers due to it's containing asparagine and affulent minerals.
posted by cmicali (32 comments total)

Apart from the atrocious spelling, i happen to love Soju. Anyone else?
posted by cmicali at 8:52 PM on July 7, 2003

Asparagine causes hangovers?
posted by mr_roboto at 9:04 PM on July 7, 2003

I love Soju. Mix it with tonic water and lemon, and you get Shuhi (I'm pretty sure it's called Shuhi). 4 beers and a few of those later, you're ready to stumble back to the chikatetsu.
posted by SweetJesus at 9:08 PM on July 7, 2003

Jinro's brand intended for international consumers and professionals only.

um, profesionals? who might that be?

I am amused by a menu category named "enjoy." Just as about and contact have become fairly standard menu items on the corporate website, I would strongly advocate for "enjoy" to join their ranks.
posted by madamjujujive at 9:10 PM on July 7, 2003

Ah, my bro-in-laws favorite drink. Jinro Gold. He can pound that, go to sleep at 3:00 AM, get up at 6:00 AM and head to work like nothing is wrong. Of course, he can't remember anything from the previous night...
posted by Plunge at 10:18 PM on July 7, 2003

Never tasted the stuff, but I've always wondered about the distinction between "export" versions of alchoholic beverages and the domestic ones. Are we (outside of the exporting country) getting something better? Worse? Or is it just a label in English ...sorry, French?
posted by skyscraper at 10:19 PM on July 7, 2003

thrice-filtered ... filtered three times ... filtered twice

filterfilter.
posted by soyjoy at 10:31 PM on July 7, 2003

Actually that stuff looks pretty good.
I would like to give it a shot sometime.
posted by kavasa at 10:35 PM on July 7, 2003

i happen to love Soju. Anyone else?

Yes, I love it... Enjoyed quite a bit of it... was always worried about the possible formaldehyde content it was supposed to have. Heard all manner of GI folklore about guys going blind and such. But, from what I could gather it wasn't true of the better brands. Mixed with just about anything sweet, it is nearly undetectable.
posted by Dean_Paxton at 10:41 PM on July 7, 2003

I like my soju the old-fashioned way, with lots of formaldehyde. ^_-

But seriously, sitting at an outdoor sidewalk bar/cafe in Seoul with your best friends and a few liters of those soju+lemon mixes that SweetJesus mentioned above = good times.
posted by SenshiNeko at 11:12 PM on July 7, 2003

Doesn't cooking any liquid at 1000 degrees Celsius pretty much turn it into a gas? Color me spectacle. No, I mean, susceptible. Damn, too much Soju. Skeptical.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 11:48 PM on July 7, 2003

Horrendous, nasty, foul demon piss, reminiscent of rubbing alcohol stored for too long in a cheap plastic jug. Cheaper than bottled water, though, so it's got that going for it, anyway.

The same stuff that goes for about a dollar a bottle here sells for A$10-12 at the many Korean establishments in Sydney, which never ceased to amuse me when I lived there.

Also, I recall reading that Jinro sells more booze by volume than any other distiller in the world, although I can't find a link to back it up, which says more about Korean drinking habits than it does about the quality of their products.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:51 PM on July 7, 2003

Horrendous, nasty, foul demon piss...

Do they export to Wales?
posted by ceiriog at 12:50 AM on July 8, 2003

I vaguely recall drinking something out of a black, opaque bottle (well, several of them) when I was in Wales, in Aberystwyth, many years ago. After a large bottle of vodka while watching Cameroon win their world cup match at the B&B.

I don't remember what it was called, but it made me (temporarily) blind. In a nice way.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:55 AM on July 8, 2003

If it is anything at all as advertised, seems to me to be another reason to get US troops out of South Korea toot sweet.
posted by boswell at 1:13 AM on July 8, 2003

tastes like watered-down vodka with watered down lemon in it.
The gindeng product sounds very interesting tho I doubt its for export
posted by Fupped Duck at 1:42 AM on July 8, 2003

tastes like watered-down vodka with watered down lemon in it.

No lemon flavour at all in the regular stuff, although I think they do sell it lemon-flavoured as well, 'for ladies.' No self-respecting Korean man would be caught drinking the Soj anything but straight, in tiny shot glasses, with a wince and intake of breath all out of proportion to the relatively low alcohol content (30%-ish, usually) but in line with the nasty taste.

Ever had Guaro (from Costa Rica, I think)? Very similar.

There are a lot of different liquors here in Korea, most of them quite nasty, like the one that Fupped Duck mentioned (I think - I assume gindeng=ginseng), insam-ju. One that I do love, which is if not unique to Korea but certainly not found outside of Asia, I don't think, is called dong-dong-ju ('ju', as in so-ju, being the particle that means 'booze'). It's a milky, brewed rice wine, that is the traditional equivalent of beer here. When it's just right, with a tiny hint of carbonation ...yum.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 2:01 AM on July 8, 2003

A friend gave me a small bottle of Chamjinisulro last summer.

Now I'm just irritated that I can't find a local importer of the stuff...
posted by Cerebus at 5:20 AM on July 8, 2003

When I was in Korea last May, I had a wonderful wine made from ginseng, pine needles, and chrysthanthemum leaves. I'll take that over nasty soju anyday. Here's an interesting history of distilling in Korea.
posted by MrBaliHai at 5:58 AM on July 8, 2003

And the nastiest stuff I've ever tried was Tic-Tac, the national liquor of El Salvador. It's distilled from sugar cane, but the taste is like ouzo with all the flavor removed, or acetone and glycerin mixed together.
posted by MrBaliHai at 6:02 AM on July 8, 2003

Tic-Tac is Guaro. Or Soju. Made famous by the movie Salvador. One of the touchstones of my early alco-career was when my best friend (since deceased) arrived back from a few weeks in Central America (back in the late 80's, at the University of British Columbia), and I came back from class to a message on my dorm-door whiteboard that read in toto "Rick has Guaro," followed by 3 or 4 question marks; a deliberate and Rick-esque reference to Tic-Tac in that movie, one of our faves.

I went to his place. We drank, wincing.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:12 AM on July 8, 2003

Horrendous, nasty, foul demon piss

I'm with stavros on this one - a friend bought a bottle of jinro at the local korean grocery store because it said "most popular spirit in the world" on the label, and he just HAD to try that. The bottle sat around my house for about 6 months - full except for the 2 sips we had taken off of it.
posted by chrisege at 6:37 AM on July 8, 2003

One that I do love, which is if not unique to Korea but certainly not found outside of Asia, I don't think, is called dong-dong-ju ('ju', as in so-ju, being the particle that means 'booze'). It's a milky, brewed rice wine, that is the traditional equivalent of beer here. When it's just right, with a tiny hint of carbonation ...yum.

I just opened a bottle (box, actually) of that this past weekend. It was sold in the sake aisle at the big new Asian grocery here (DC and environs). I was expecting sake, so I was a bit shocked at the milkiness, which increased when I shook the box as directed. Must be an acquired taste--I tossed the box after a few sips.
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:45 AM on July 8, 2003

Tic-Tac is Guaro. Or Soju

Right, in the sense that every country has some sort of foul, cheap hooch. The best part of Tic-Tac though is the label which reads in part, "Superfiltrado y Multirectado" and "La glicerina agregó para la suavidad adicional" (glycerine added for extra smoothness).

Final words of wisdom: don't ever spit a mouthful of Tic-Tac on a roaring campfire unless you're tired of having eyebrows.
posted by MrBaliHai at 6:59 AM on July 8, 2003

I tossed the box after a few sips.

Yeah, I think it's probably a drink that is only decent when served from the vats out back, into the traditional wooden bowls, by really really old women.

I've never had it packaged, from a shop, but I'm not surprised it doesn't mass-market very well. I have had grocery-storemakkoli, which is similar, and sometimes that's not too bad, bottled. Also, eating dried squid with it might be essential to the process. Not sure on that.

don't ever spit a mouthful of Tic-Tac on a roaring campfire unless you're tired of having eyebrows.

On preview : heh. Good call.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:03 AM on July 8, 2003

Foulest alcohol I ever had was Arak. Thai's and Cambodians love the stuff, though. You can run your car off it, no problem.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:27 AM on July 8, 2003

Heh, stav, I was eating dried squid. And dried, spiced file fish. Ah, well, guess I'm not the multi-culti gastronome I thought I was.
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:37 AM on July 8, 2003

dong-dong-ju

ACK!!

i shared a small cabin with five gamblin', hard drinkin' chinese business men (white shirts, sleeves rolled up to the elbows, wincing while dragging on cheap cigarettes) as we floated down the pre-dam chang jiang. every morning and every evening for a week they drank dong ju and played cards. it smelled like rancid dog poo crossed with fragrant licorice. i bought a bottle in wuhan specifically to give to unsuspecting drunks at parties. i tried it myself, and terrible smell aside, it was VILE. one april fool's day i got up early and filled the kettle with it. my flatmates did not enjoy their tea that morning, especially since i'd swapped the sugar for salt. ah, i live life on the very edge.
stav, do you drink this stuff for pleasure?
posted by nylon at 7:52 AM on July 8, 2003

After reading y'all's comments, I think I'll stick to good ol' Arkansas moonshine. If you put some potatoes in the mash, the stuff tastes like nothing going in, then has a tequila finish.

And it fucks you up really quick, but I've never had a hangover on it. (that reminds me, I've gotta call my supplier...;))
posted by notsnot at 8:26 AM on July 8, 2003

tastes like watered-down vodka with watered down lemon in it.

...which is not necessarily a bad thing. Lemon soju is great with appetizers, when you don't want the drink to overpower the taste of the food.
posted by eddydamascene at 10:00 AM on July 8, 2003

Doesn't cooking any liquid at 1000 degrees Celsius pretty much turn it into a gas?

I think the bamboo was cooked at 1000 degrees celcius to make the charcoal:

"...filtered three times with charcoal made from bamboo, which is cooked at 1,000 degrees celsius."

posted by George_Spiggott at 12:55 PM on July 8, 2003

I just opened a bottle (box, actually) of that this past weekend. It was sold in the sake aisle at the big new Asian grocery here (DC and environs). I was expecting sake, so I was a bit shocked at the milkiness, which increased when I shook the box as directed. Must be an acquired taste--I tossed the box after a few sips.

You guys are right, you're talking about (dong-dong-ju) or, makkoli, which is a rice wine.... not like Saki at all, which is far more clarified. There are more clarified versions of the stuff but, still it is an aquired taste for sure.

If it is anything at all as advertised, seems to me to be another reason to get US troops out of South Korea toot sweet.

You're about 55 years too late for that... It's safe to say that the cat's out of the bag by now. Besides, most of those guys are drinking OB because it doesn't count against your ration card.
posted by Dean_Paxton at 9:34 PM on July 8, 2003