Soju is cool (spin).

If you’re at all like me, your social feeds are showing you a parade of hipper-than-thou pop idols, mainly from Korea, who are hawking all sorts of wares: designer bags, designer shoes, luxury watches, cosmetics and skin creams, and lots of green bottles of soju.

Soju is the Korean cousin of Chinese baijiu and Japanese shochu, a grain liquor distilled mostly from rice. The abv varies from 12% to a staggering 53%, giving you an idea of the range of styles you can expect. I first encountered soju when I was running the beverage program at a ramen bar; there, I infused a soju (around 80 proof) with honeydew melon and served it on draught. The slightly sweet taste naturally in the soju played well with the fruit of the melon, and made for a great “amuse bouche” for bar guests. The contrast of the sweet soju with the salty umami of the ramen broth was a great pairing.

That was almost 10 years ago, and I did not anticipate the explosion of Korean pop culture in America. One of my coworkers loved to keep us abreast on the exploits of Lisa from Blackpink, we all binged Squid Game during lockdown, and my YouTube and Netflix algorithms began to feed me K-Pop and K-Drama after my mother’s late-night binges during her visits. BTS, arguably the biggest musical group in the world, can move markets when a member orders a particular soju brand at a bar. However, what I recently learned was that I had not been opening my soju bottles properly.

Credit: Ryan McGinley

Apocryphally, the tradition of this whirlpool-creating bottle opening ritual (similar to the theater of classic wine service, but more fun) was to assure that cork sediment was not present in one’s cup, or to better incorporate alkalines (?!) into the soju, but I think that it mainly looks cool. While I may not be bullish on flavored vodkas (see my article, Gin: the Original Flavored Vodka), I have developed a weakness for Chum Churum strawberry soju, especially mixed with lemonade on a hot day—I can see why Koreans are the largest consumers of alcohol in the world. If you are a first timer, I would recommend trying a flavored soju three ways: as a (small) shot, mixed with soda, and in a cocktail.