YOBO SOJU

Soju is Korea’s most popular alcoholic beverage (a distilled beverage containing ethanol and water – some calling it “Korean Vodka”).  Most brands of soju are made in South Korea and traditionally made from rice, wheat, or barley.  Many modern Korean producers replace the rice with other starches (potatoes, sweet potatoes, or tapioca).  It is smooth and clean in taste, which makes it easy to drink in combination with various Korean dishes.  (Its equivalent in Japan would be Shochu), which is also made with similar ingredients. Yobo Soju is made with grapes – in the tradition of our Vintner’s Vodka.  Soju, in Korean, literally means “burned or distilled liquor.”   It is interesting that in the languages where vodka supposedly originated (Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Finnish, and Russian) that vodka also is translated as “to burn.”