Korean Alcohol: The Complete Guide for Foreigners

Korea has been brewing and distilling for well over a thousand years, but most visitors only ever meet one bottle: the small green one. There is a lot more to drink here — cloudy rice brews, clear ceremonial wines, single-distilled spirits that cost as much as good whisky, and a craft beer scene that barely existed fifteen years ago.

This guide covers what each drink actually is, how strong it is, what it tastes like, how Koreans drink it, and where you can buy it. The Korean word for alcohol is sool (술) — you will see it everywhere.

The three families of Korean alcohol

Almost every traditional Korean drink comes from the same starting point: steamed rice, water, and nuruk (누룩), a wild fermentation starter made from crushed wheat or rice. What you do next decides which family you land in.

• Takju (탁주) — the unfiltered, cloudy family. Makgeolli lives here.
• Yakju / Cheongju (약주 / 청주) — the same brew, strained clear. Lighter, cleaner, often served at ceremonies.
• Soju (소주) — what you get when you distil the above. Traditionally rice; most modern soju is made differently (see below).

Beer (maekju, 맥주) arrived much later and is not part of this lineage, but it is now the drink Koreans buy most.

What is soju?

Soju is Korea's national spirit and the single most visible drink in the country. The standard green bottle holds 360ml and is meant to be shared.

There are really two different drinks using the same name:

Everyday soju (희석식 소주)

This is the green-bottle soju you see in restaurants, convenience stores and almost every K-drama. It is made by diluting highly rectified spirit — usually from tapioca, sweet potato or other starches — with water, then adding a touch of sweetener. It is clean, slightly sweet, and deliberately neutral.

Strength has been falling for decades. Bottles that were well over 20% ABV a generation ago now typically sit in the mid-teens to around 17%. Flavoured versions (peach, grape, yogurt) go lower still, often around 12%.

Traditional distilled soju (증류식 소주)

This is the older thing: rice wine, distilled, nothing added. It is closer in spirit to a fine baijiu or an unaged whisky, usually 25–45% ABV, and priced accordingly. Andong soju is the best-known regional style. If you have only ever had the green bottle, this will not taste like the same category — and that is the point.

Is soju strong?

Compared with vodka or whisky, no — everyday soju is roughly half the strength of most Western spirits. Compared with beer or wine, yes, and this is where visitors get caught out.

The risk is not the percentage, it is the format. Soju is poured into small shot-sized glasses, drunk in rounds, refilled by whoever is sitting next to you, and almost never sipped alone. A 360ml bottle at 17% carries roughly the same alcohol as two large glasses of wine, and in a normal Korean dinner nobody stops at one bottle.

Traditional distilled soju at 40%+ should be treated like whisky, because that is what it is.

What is makgeolli?

Makgeolli (막걸리) is Korea's oldest surviving drink and the one most likely to surprise you. It is milky white, lightly fizzy, and cloudy because it is unfiltered — the rice solids stay in the bottle. Shake or swirl it gently before pouring, or the first glass is water and the last is sludge.

It is around 6% ABV, sweet-tart, slightly yeasty, and served cold in a bowl rather than a glass. Farmers drank it in the fields; for a long time it was considered unfashionable, and it has spent the last decade being rediscovered by small craft breweries doing single-rice and long-fermentation versions.

Regional makgeolli is worth seeking out. Chestnut versions in Gongju, corn in Gangwon, and on Jeju's Udo island a peanut makgeolli that tastes like nothing else in the country.

Makgeolli vs sake: what is the difference?

Both are rice-based, and that is where the similarity ends.

• Filtration. Sake is filtered clear. Makgeolli is left cloudy, with the rice solids still in it.
• Starter. Sake uses koji, a single cultivated mould. Makgeolli uses nuruk, a wild mixed culture — which is why makgeolli is tangier and less predictable.
• Strength. Sake is usually 14–16%. Makgeolli is around 6%.
• Carbonation. Makgeolli is naturally lightly sparkling. Sake normally is not.
• Serving. Sake can be warmed. Makgeolli is drunk cold, always.

If you want the Korean drink closest to sake, it is not makgeolli — it is cheongju.

Cheongju, yakju and ceremonial wines

Cheongju (청주) is what you get when you let the same rice brew settle and draw off the clear liquid on top. It is light, floral and dry-ish, typically 13–18% ABV, and it is the drink used in ancestral rites (jesa). Yakju (약주) is the same thing with herbs or medicinal ingredients added — yak literally means medicine.

Baekseju (백세주) is the yakju most foreigners meet first: a ginseng-and-herb rice wine at around 13%, named for the hundred years it supposedly helps you live. It is sweet, warming, and the usual base for osipseju — half baekseju, half soju.

Fruit and flower wines

Korea makes a lot of fruit liquor (gwasilju, 과실주), usually by steeping fruit in spirit rather than fermenting it.

• Bokbunja (복분자주) — Korean black raspberry. Deep red, sweet, roughly 15–19%. The most commonly gifted of the fruit wines.
• Maesil-ju (매실주) — green plum. Sweet, sour, low-ish strength, often homemade.
• Sansachun, omija — hawthorn and five-flavour berry; tart and medicinal-tasting in a way that grows on you.

Korean beer and craft beer

For decades Korean beer meant two large brewers and a light lager built to be drunk very cold with fried chicken. That pairing — chimaek (치맥), chicken plus beer — is still one of the best things about the country.

What changed is everything around it. A 2014 change in brewing rules let small producers sell properly, and Seoul now has a dense craft scene: IPAs, sours, stouts, and an increasing number of beers brewed with Korean ingredients like omija, yuzu and roasted barley tea. Look for taprooms in Itaewon, Mangwon, Euljiro and Seongsu.

Somaek and other mixes

Somaek (소맥) is soju poured into beer. It is not a cocktail so much as a social ritual: roughly three parts soju to seven parts beer, stirred or spun with a chopstick, drunk immediately. It goes down far more easily than it should.

Other combinations you will be offered:

• Poktanju (폭탄주) — "bomb shot": a shot glass of soju dropped into a beer glass.
• Yogurt soju — soju with Korean drinking yogurt. Tastes like dessert, hits like soju.
• Highballs — whisky or soju with soda and lemon, currently the fastest-growing drink category in Korean convenience stores.

Korean drinking etiquette

Korean drinking is governed by age and seniority, and the rules are simple enough to learn in five minutes. Following them will be noticed.

• Never pour your own drink. Pour for others; someone will pour for you. An empty glass in front of you is a hint.
• Two hands. When pouring for or receiving from someone older or more senior, use both hands — or your right hand with your left touching your forearm.
• Turn away to drink. With a much older person, turn your head slightly away from them as you drink the first glass.
• Wait for the first toast. Geonbae! (건배) is the Korean "cheers".
• Hold your glass lower. When clinking with someone senior, let the rim of your glass sit below theirs.
• You can decline. Politely refusing is increasingly normal. Turning your glass over or leaving it full is understood.

What to drink with Korean food

• Korean BBQ (samgyeopsal, galbi) — soju. The neutral, slightly sweet spirit cuts through pork fat, which is exactly the job it evolved to do.
• Fried chicken — beer. This is not negotiable.
• Pajeon and other savoury pancakes — makgeolli, especially on a rainy day. Koreans will tell you the rain is part of it.
• Raw fish (hoe) — cheongju or a clean soju.
• Stews (jjigae), spicy dishes — beer or somaek.
• Ceremonial or formal meals — cheongju.

Where to buy alcohol in Seoul

Alcohol is sold everywhere and at almost all hours. There is no late-night sales ban.

• Convenience stores (CU, GS25, 7-Eleven, Emart24) — open 24 hours, cheapest soju and beer, and the best place to find limited-edition highballs and flavoured soju.
• Supermarkets (Emart, Homeplus, Lotte Mart) — wider range, better prices on bulk, decent wine sections.
• Traditional liquor shops — for craft makgeolli and distilled soju. Seoul Yangjo Jang, Sool Gallery near Insadong and the bottle shops around Euljiro are good starting points.
• Duty free — best for premium distilled soju as a gift.

The legal drinking age is 19 in Korean age reckoning, which means the year you turn 19. Carry ID.

Korean alcohol in K-dramas and K-pop

If you arrived here through a screen, you are not alone. The green soju bottle is one of Korea's most exported images — it appears in almost every drama dinner scene, and the bottle in Squid Game sent a generation of new drinkers looking for the brand.

K-pop has done the same on the advertising side. Soju brands have used the country's biggest idols as models for decades, and global campaigns have pushed Korean spirits into markets that had never stocked them.

What the screen does not show is the range. The bottle in the drama is the cheapest, most industrial version of a category that also contains forty-percent single-distilled rice spirits aged in oak. That gap is most of what makes Korean drinking worth exploring.

Frequently asked questions

What does soju taste like?

Clean and slightly sweet, with a faint burn. Everyday soju is deliberately neutral — it is designed to sit behind food rather than compete with it. Traditional distilled soju tastes completely different: grainy, floral, and much closer to an unaged whisky.

How much alcohol is in soju?

Everyday green-bottle soju is usually in the mid-teens to around 17% ABV. Flavoured versions are lower, around 12%. Traditional distilled soju runs from about 25% up to 45%.

Is makgeolli healthy?

It is unfiltered and unpasteurised in its fresh form, so it contains live yeast, lactic acid bacteria and dietary fibre. It is also alcohol and usually contains added sugar, so the honest answer is that it is better than most alternatives and still not health food.

Can I drink alcohol in public in Korea?

Yes. Drinking in parks and by the Han River is normal and legal, and delivery chicken plus convenience-store beer on the riverbank is close to a national pastime. Public drunkenness that causes a disturbance is still an offence.

What is the Korean word for cheers?

Geonbae (건배). Jjan (짠) is the casual version among friends.

Is Korean soju gluten free?

Most mass-market soju is distilled from starches such as tapioca and sweet potato rather than wheat or barley, and distillation removes gluten protein in any case. Traditional rice-based soju is also naturally gluten free. Drinks made with nuruk, which is usually wheat-based, are a different matter — check the label if you are coeliac.

What should I try first?

Order makgeolli with a seafood pancake, then a bottle of standard soju with grilled pork. That is the honest introduction. Once you know what those taste like, spend the money on a bottle of traditional distilled soju and taste the difference.