A Guide to Soju and Korean Spirits

Soju has become familiar enough internationally, largely through Korean pop culture and the spread of Korean barbecue restaurants, that many drinkers assume they already understand it. What most have actually encountered is a narrow, mass-market slice of a much broader category — a diluted, often flavoured spirit closer to 16-20% alcohol, mixed and bottled cheaply for high-volume consumption. Traditional soju, distilled properly rather than diluted from industrial ethanol, is a genuinely different drink, and understanding the difference opens up a considerably more interesting category than the green bottles found in every Korean restaurant fridge suggest.

Diluted Versus Distilled Soju

The soju most widely available internationally is produced by diluting neutral ethanol, typically made from starches like tapioca, with water and a small amount of flavouring, a production method developed largely out of post-war scarcity when traditional rice-based distillation became impractical at scale. This style is inexpensive, mild, and designed for easy, rapid drinking — often served ice-cold in small shots alongside food, refilled continuously through a meal rather than sipped slowly. Traditional distilled soju, by contrast, is made through actual pot-still distillation of fermented rice, wheat or barley, producing a spirit with genuine character, higher alcohol content, and a texture and aroma considerably closer to a fine shochu or even a light whisky than to the diluted mass-market version most drinkers have tried. Sri Lanka offers its own distinctive distilling tradition, explored in our guide to arrack and Ceylon spirits, for the curious drinker.

How to Choose a Bottle

• Check the production method on the label, where available — terms indicating traditional distillation signal a genuinely different, more serious product than standard diluted soju.
• Alcohol percentage is a useful shortcut: mass-market diluted soju typically sits around 16-20%, while traditional distilled versions often run considerably higher, sometimes above 40%.
• Grain base matters, much as it does with whisky — rice-based versions tend toward a cleaner, slightly sweet profile, while barley or wheat-based versions can carry more depth and texture.
• Price is a rough but reliable indicator; genuine distilled soju simply costs more to produce than diluted ethanol, and a bottle priced identically to the mass-market standard is very unlikely to be the traditional version.

Beyond Soju: Korea’s Wider Spirits Tradition

Soju is only one part of a considerably broader Korean spirits landscape that includes makgeolli, an unfiltered, milky rice wine with a light natural fizz and gentle sweetness, and cheongju, a clearer, more refined rice wine often considered the more formal counterpart to makgeolli’s rustic character. There is also a small but growing category of Korean craft gin and whisky, produced by a newer generation of distillers applying traditional grain and fermentation knowledge to formats more familiar to a Western drinking audience. A bartender specialising in Korean spirits, asked why so many drinkers stop at soju without exploring further, offered a fair diagnosis: “Soju is the gateway, but it’s not the whole house. There’s a lot more going on if people bother to look.” It is advice worth taking for any drinker whose only reference point remains the diluted bottle served alongside grilled meat.

Pairing Soju With Food

Soju’s traditional role is as a food companion rather than a sipping spirit on its own, and it is served this way for good reason: its clean, relatively neutral character cuts through the richness of grilled and fatty meats without competing against the seasoning the way a heavier spirit or a tannic wine might. It is a natural match for the city’s Korean barbecue restaurants, refilled steadily through a meal in the traditional style, poured for others rather than for oneself as a mark of hospitality. Traditional distilled soju, with its greater depth, holds up equally well alongside more refined Korean cooking, including the kind of dishes found at the city’s more contemporary Korean fine dining rooms, where a considered spirits list increasingly makes room for it alongside wine and sake.

An Evolving Category Worth Exploring

Korean spirits generally, and soju in particular, are undergoing a genuine reappraisal both within Korea and among drinkers abroad, with a new generation of producers reviving traditional distillation methods that had nearly disappeared under decades of mass-market dominance. Diners keen to explore the category properly, rather than settling for whatever green bottle happens to be on a restaurant’s table, would do well to look past the city’s modern Korean restaurants generally toward the smaller number specifically stocking traditional distilled soju and rice wines, and to approach the category with the same curiosity they might bring to a lesser-known European aperitif tradition — genuinely rewarding once given proper attention rather than dismissed as a single, familiar shot. For the wider landscape of the city’s drinks culture, our Dining & Drinks section continues to track where these traditions are being taken seriously.

Drinking Etiquette Worth Knowing

Soju carries its own set of social customs, rooted in Korean drinking culture’s emphasis on hierarchy and hospitality, that are worth understanding even for a casual visit to a Korean restaurant. Traditionally, one never pours their own glass — pouring is an act performed for others, and a drinker’s glass is refilled by a companion rather than by themselves, with an empty glass often serving as a subtle cue for a dining partner to offer a refill. When receiving a pour, especially from someone older or more senior, holding the glass with both hands, or supporting the pouring wrist with the free hand, is considered a small mark of respect that is generally appreciated even when performed slightly imperfectly by a visitor unfamiliar with the custom. When drinking with someone significantly senior, it is traditional to turn slightly away from them while taking the sip, a gesture with roots in older Confucian etiquette that has softened considerably in casual modern settings but is still observed, at least loosely, in more formal ones. None of these customs are strictly necessary for an outsider to master perfectly, but a basic awareness of them adds genuine context to what might otherwise look like simply another round of shots, and most Korean dining companions will notice and appreciate the effort regardless of how precisely it is executed. Other national spirits carry their own customs and character, as our guide to cachaça and Brazilian spirits explores.