Monday, June 21, 2010

Jeollanam-do's Ipsaeju wins soju-tasting competiton.


Ipsaeju, with Suncheon's own Kim Ok-bin in 2006.

Ipsaeju (잎새주), written Yipsejoo by the company, was found the best soju in the business at a recent tasting, and the Dong-A Ilbo has the story:
“Ipsaeju,” a type of the traditional Korean spirit soju with an alcohol by volume of 19.5 percent and produced in Bohae in South Jeolla Province, has won a tasting competition for soju.

The tasting event for traditional Korean alcohol was held at the College of Hotel & Tourism Management at Kyung Hee University in Seoul June 5.

Forty-three well-known sommeliers in Korea and representatives from the traditional alcohol industry gathered in a classroom reserved for the event. On each table for two, 11 paper cups and a large cup to be used to spit out the drink after tasting were placed.

Eleven types of soju with high market shares in Korea were contained in the 11 cups with covers on them.

Should say "produced by Bohae in South Jeolla Province," as it's a company not a location, and is headquartered in Mokpo. According to the company's press release, which has a list of how the 11 labels ranked, Daesun's C1 came in last.

5 comments:

Muckefuck said...

Sommelier. First time I heard that word in connection with soju.

Darth Babaganoosh said...

Maybe they actually were sommeliers, strong-armed into judging a soju contest.

3gyupsal said...

Kyung-hee's college of hotels and tourism sounds like an awesome department.

Anonymous said...

Sounds funny to say it,but there really ARE subtle differences between the brands of soju. Not sure I could judge them blindfolded, though ...

Brian said...

Yeah, I'm not qualified to distinguish. It all tastes the same to me. I never even paid attention to what brand restaurants were serving. I guess it was Ipsaeju.