Somehow I don't think that makgeolli is going to displace a drink like Patrón as a luxury beverage on the global markets.



State support for traditional Korean liquor

"There’s been a lot of talk about globalizing Korean cuisine lately, but cuisine is more than just food.

Thus the government announced yesterday a project to promote traditional Korean liquor, with the promise of a 133 billion won ($106.7 million) subsidy to the traditional liquor industry over the next five years.

The plan, announced by the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Finance Ministry and the Presidential Council on National Competitiveness, aims for $1 billion in exports of Korean traditional liquor by 2017. Last year, Korea exported $230 million of such alcohol.

“By improving the quality of our liquors and providing more choices, we will be able to boost the popularity of Korean liquors,” said a ministry official who declined to be named.

The government also hopes to resurrect 50 now-extinct traditional liquors by 2012. The food ministry estimates 360 liquors were popular during the Joseon Dynasty but are not produced anymore. To revive them, documents and historical records that detail their creation and consumption will be studied, the ministry said.

The government also plans to introduce a labeling system for liquor, under which manufacturers will have to inform consumers of where their ingredients were produced.

Internet sales, now prohibited for alcohol, will also be allowed for traditional liquors only, the ministry said. The ultimate goal is to develop a “flagship drink” to represent Korea, like wine for France, beer for Germany and sake for Japan, the ministry said. The rice wine makgeolli is one candidate.

But the distilled tippler soju is not - because, the ministry said, it doesn’t count as traditional. The government defines traditional liquor as made by the agriculture industry with locally cultivated ingredients. Most soju products are made from imported or artificial ingredients."




It does invite the question about what precisely are the artificial ingredients in soju. This would explain its similarity to rubbing alcohol and its world-class hangover producing qualities.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Americans don't get riled up to protest. Give away billions in taxpayer money to financial fatcats with no accountability--no worries. Refuse to punish war criminal torturers--no problem. The battle cry is...moo. Koreans, on the other hand, live in a vibrant democracy and their political action is a bit more direct. Here is a striking photo of union protesters in Daejeon using sharpened bamboo spears to attack riot police. (an article about the current state of rioting in Korea, quoting a Sogang professor, is here )
Read more

CHAOS WASHING MACHINES

My apartment comes with a washing machine called, imposingly, a Goldstar Chaos Hi Tech Washing Machine. I thought it was a dryer too but that doesn't seem to be the case. Korean apartments have these alleys between the living areas and the outside wall in which clothes are dried. There are sliding doors between the apartment and the alley, and large windows between the bedrooms and the alley. I thought I wouldn't have to use it but if the washing machine is also a "hi tech" drier I sure can't find the right combination of buttons. Not that I haven't looked. I tried to decipher everything with the help of my dictionary and limited knowledge of the hangul alphabet (which includes only a dim understanding of the actual letter order--still working on that). The word pronounced (I think) "saw" is a simple two letter word. But according to my dictionary, it means, "a cow, a bull, an ox" or "dressing, stuffing," "little, few, ...
Read more
Image
In case you didn't see that county map indicating increased Republican voting between 2004 and 2008 before they took it off of the NYTimes page, here is an image of it: This is a fascinating document that I think will be the focus of many studies. Explaining increases only in these areas in the entire country could be very instructive. Andrew Sullivan notes dryly: "Ah, yes, Appalachia and Arkansas. Obviously concerned about marginal tax rates for those earning over $250,000 a year, I suppose."
Read more