Soju: the everyday spirit
Soju is Korea's default drink — a clear, distilled liquor traditionally made from rice, though most mass-market bottles today are distilled from other starches like sweet potato or tapioca. Mainstream brands like Jinro Chamisul and Chum Churum sit around 16-17% ABV, well down from the roughly 25% standard of a few decades ago, as producers have chased a smoother, easier-to-drink profile. Traditional artisanal sojus, like Andong soju, are a different animal entirely and can run as high as 45-53% ABV.
Price tells you a lot about how soju functions in daily life. A 360ml green bottle costs roughly ₩1,800-2,100 (about $1.30-1.50) at a convenience store like CU, GS25, or 7-Eleven. Order the same bottle at a restaurant and you'll pay ₩5,000-6,000 (about $3.60-4.30) — sometimes ₩7,000-9,000 or more in trendy or upscale neighborhoods like Gangnam. That markup is standard across Korean restaurants and isn't a tourist tax; locals pay it too.
Makgeolli: the farmer's rice wine
Makgeolli is a milky, cloudy, lightly fizzy fermented rice wine, typically 6-8% ABV. The name literally means "roughly filtered," which describes exactly what it looks like. It's one of Korea's oldest alcoholic drinks, with production traced back roughly 2,000 years to the Three Kingdoms period. Historically it was known as nongju, or "farmer's liquor" — the drink of laborers and farmers, while soju was favored by the upper class. It was also part of ceremonial life, offered at ancestral rites and shared at harvest festivals like Chuseok.
Today makgeolli has had a real resurgence, especially among younger drinkers and craft producers experimenting with fruit-infused and small-batch versions. It's traditionally paired with pajeon (savory scallion pancake) and served in bowls or shallow metal cups rather than shot glasses, often at dedicated makgeolli bars or countryside-style taverns.
Beer, hof bars, and chimaek
A hof (호프) is a Korean-style beer pub — an open, table-and-stool setup for drinking draft or bottled beer, distinct from a soju-focused spot. The name likely comes from German beer-hall vocabulary. Hof menus almost always lean toward fried chicken or other shareable meat dishes as anju (food meant to accompany drinking).
That chicken-and-beer combination has its own name: chimaek (a blend of "chicken" and maekju, the Korean word for beer). It became a nationwide social ritual around the 2010 World Cup and is now common enough to appear in Korean dictionaries — a weekday-evening unwind with coworkers or friends built specifically around fried chicken and cold beer.
Pouring etiquette that's still very real
Korean drinking customs carry real Confucian roots around age and seniority, and tourists who ignore them will get noticed (politely) by locals. A few that still apply, especially with an older or more senior drinking partner:
- Never pour your own drink. Pour for others, especially those older or more senior than you, and let them pour for you in return. Refilling your own glass reads as self-serving.
- Watch other people's glasses and top them off as they run low, rather than waiting to be asked.
- Use two hands when pouring for an elder — hold the bottle with your right hand and support your right wrist or forearm with your left. Receive a poured drink the same way, with both hands or with your left hand supporting your right.
- Turn your head or body slightly away when taking a sip in front of someone clearly older or senior to you. It's a small gesture of modesty that's still widely practiced, even among younger Koreans who've relaxed most other formalities.
These rules loosen considerably in groups of friends who are the same age — the formality is really about hierarchy, not drinking in general.
Drinking games you'll actually see
Counting games are the most common icebreaker at a table of soju or beer. 3-6-9 has players count upward, replacing any number containing a 3, 6, or 9 with a clap instead of saying it out loud (double digits like 33 get two claps); mess up the rhythm and you drink. Baskin Robbins 31 has players count upward too, each choosing to say one, two, or three sequential numbers per turn — whoever is forced to say "31" drinks. Both are common across pojangmacha, private dining rooms, and bars nationwide, with 31 especially popular among younger Koreans.
Where to experience it
A pojangmacha ("covered wagon") is a street tent bar — a stall wrapped in orange or red plastic tarps with stools and close, packed seating, serving soju, makgeolli, beer, and anju from evening into the early morning. Seoul's Jongno district, particularly around Gwangjang Market's alleys, has some of the city's densest clusters of these tents.
For nightlife with a younger, creative, budget-friendly crowd, Hongdae (around Hongik University) is Seoul's best-known district — dense with bars and clubs, most with cover charges around ₩10,000-20,000 that often include a complimentary drink. Itaewon has a more international, expat-friendly scene, known for cocktail bars, rooftop terraces, and one of the city's strongest underground electronic-music scenes, alongside its LGBTQ+-friendly nightlife strip.
More: Korea.net: Soju, liquor that offers a 'bittersweet' experience