Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Seoul - Alcohol Consumption on the rise!


Koreans are drinking more alcohol - Today, it was reported that Koreans drank 80 million litres more alcoholic beverages last year compared to 2005. I know they are good drinkers but wow! 80 million litres - that is a lot of alcoholic beverages.

Each adult drank an aveage 80 bottles of beer, 72 bottles of soju and 1.7 bottles of whiskey according to the Korean National Tax Service. The volume of alcoholic beverages produced last year amounted to 3.16 billion litres, rising by 80 million liters from 2005. Also alcohol production in Korea is on the rise since 2002 except in 2005 when it fell by 92 million litres from the previous year.

It was stated that the increase in alcohol production is partly attributed to the rising number of female drinkers and the increasing number of beverages with low alcohol content being introduced to the market.


What is Soju?

Soju (소주) is an alcoholic beverage with origins in Korea. The main ingredient is rice, almost always in combination with other ingredients such as wheat, barley, sweet potato, or tapioca (called dangmil in Korean). Soju is clear in color and typically varies in alcohol content from about 20% to about 45% alcohol by volume (ABV), with 20% ABV being most common.



If you get a good bottle of Soju it taste very nice and sweet but the 'kick' will come after a number of shots. You don't realise that the alcohol content is around 20-40% much more than drinking beer. You need to pace yourself when drinking with the Koreans because Soju to them is like 'water', otherwise you will find yourself literally under the table. A good brand is Jinro brand of Soju. Most Koreans will knock it down straight either cold or warm.

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