It’s a bit jarring when the last article posted to takjoo journals points to a poll where Korean sool gets slammed in a foreigners’ only poll and the very next article suggest this is the year where makgeolli breaks through to a foreign audience. My inner idealist very much dreams of the latter. But, until…
Struggling to catch up on makgeolli news, you get two articles in one and both from Forbes, no less. The first is an around-the-world type article from Amber Gibson who has the envious bio line of “I write about luxury travel, food and wine.” Among other delicacies, she spotlights makgeolli as delivered by New York…
WaPo offshoot By the Way featured three DC establishments talking about their favorite, lesser-known brews from Korea, Georgia, & Bolivia. Excerpts from the By the Way article: The first stop on our D.C. moonshine world tour is Anju, where customers can drink makgeolli, South Korea’s oldest liquor. Once a preferred beverage for farmers, it was often made at home…
Ignoring the Los Angeles Times’ clickbaity title, Sonja Swanson’s article is the sort of groundswell piece the sool world needs to make the English-speaking world take notice of the best aspect of Korean culture that no one is talking about. First off, it goes beyond the fluff of makgeolli: we’ve got our golden boy, sure,…
Usually I come upon sool news that is at best mildly interesting and at worst fluff pieces that are thinly veiled advertisements. This may well be an advertisement but it also happens to possibly be the most exciting bit of news to ever grace the site—and it comes from a site called Real Estate Weekly…
Looking back on 2017, I realized that jiok must have frozen over because I didn’t read one article on how makgeolli exports were faring. Last we had a report on this topic, it was back in the heady days of July 2016 when the Chosun Ilbo reported that mak was on the rise abroad thanks to…
Hello, again! It’s been a fairly long hiatus since the last post but there was not much newsworthy to report. Until, that is, the recent article on Korean sool in… Esquire?! Is this the tipping point? Has sool arrived in the US? Until Korean alcohol brewing parallels the kimchi-making craze that stormed places with such urbane…
Another glowing write up on Seattle’s Girin restaurant and its brewer’s exploration into the world of sool brewing. But, unlike previous fluff pieces, this Thrillist article gives us a peak behind the curtains about the red tape in getting a liquor license to distribute makgeolli. And another kernel of goodness? You can find out something even your…
If you’re in or visiting the U.S., there are few places where you can try some decent makgeolli. But things are changing for the better with the help of Girin. This Seattle restaurant is brewing up some homemade sool and the faithful have heard. From the Eater Seattle article: The Girin team works Pacific Northwest ingredients into…
It was only last summer we saw the first article about Girin, Seattle’s newest Korean restaurant, and their forays into the world of makgeolli brewing. (Before you start reading, see if you can guess where the staff of Girin learned their makgeolli recipe.) A new article by the improbably named Providence Cicero outlines how things are…
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