Besides their authentic food, something you must try and it perhaps will give you a full Korean traditional dining experience is consuming their traditional liquors and wines. So today I want to introduce to you common wines and liquors served in Korean Restaurants.
The most popular traditional Korean liquor has to be Soju which is brewed from grains. This liquor is comparable to vodka but less strong. Besides that there’s also Makgeolli and Dongdongju which is a milky liquor with low alcohol content.
Other than those mention above, are wines and liquor that are known to be healthy such as Darae-ju and Mogwa-ju. These are a fruit wine that enhances stamina, relieves exhaustion, and has analgesic and diuretic effects.
However knowing what liquor and wines served in Korean Restaurant isn’t enough! You must now know the etiquette of drinking Korean liquor. Koreans offer glasses of liquor to each other as a gesture of camaraderie. When someone offers you an empty liquor glass, you are expected to hold it and receive a fill-up, drink it empty, and in likewise fashion return it to the person who offered it to you. This drinking tradition helps promote close ties around a drinking table. It is a rule of courtesy for juniors to pour liquor for their seniors. The juniors have to keep paying attention not to leave a senior’s glass empty. When a senior offers a junior a glass, the junior should receive it with two hands and drink with head turned aside, not facing the senior.
What do you think about all these Korean traditional liquor and wines? Do you think that their drinking etiquettes are too much to handle?
