Korea Travel Quick Start Guide

Photo by Jungjin Moon on Unsplash Quick Answer Korean traditional spirits — collectively called jeontongju (전통주) — are fermented or distilled beverages brewed with nuruk (누룩), an indigenous grain-based yeast starter, using recipes that predate mass-produced soju by centuries. They range from filtered rice wines at 13% ABV to pot-distilled spirits reaching 53%. The best place to try them in Seoul is The Sool Gallery (전통주갤러리) near Anguk Station — free entry, free monthly tastings, and English tours daily at 2pm and 4pm. The Full Answer Most visitors to Korea encounter one version of the country's drinking culture: green-bottled commercial soju, cold beer, and convenience store makgeolli. These are genuinely part of daily Korean life. But they represent the industrial tier of a far deeper tradition — and that tradition is currently undergoing its most significant revival in over a century. Simply put: jeontongju is to commercial soju what craft whisky is to cheap blended spir...

Photo by Vernon Raineil Cenzon on Unsplash Quick Answer Anju (안주) is food eaten alongside alcohol in Korean culture — and it is not optional. Ordering drinks without food at a Korean bar or hof is considered unusual at best, rude at worst. The most common anju are fried chicken with beer (chimaek, 치맥), pajeon (scallion pancake) with makgeolli, and tteokbokki with soju. Prices range from ₩1,000 per fish cake skewer at a pojangmacha to ₩25,000 for a full fried chicken at a hof bar (as of 2026). The Full Answer One of the things that genuinely surprises first-time visitors to Korea is the expectation — cultural, not legal — that you order food whenever you drink. In Western bar culture, a drink is a drink. In Korean drinking culture, alcohol and food are treated as a unit. The word itself reflects this: anju (安酒) is derived from Chinese characters meaning roughly "that which settles the alcohol" — a companion to the drink, not an afterthought. The practical logic is r...

Photo by foto DIAL on Unsplash Quick Answer Korean drinking games (술게임, sul-geim) are a central part of social drinking culture — played at hof bars, pojangmacha street stalls, and norebang after-parties. The most foreigner-friendly options are Baskin Robbins 31, Titanic, the APT game, and Nunchi, all of which require no Korean language ability. The loser of each round typically drinks a shot of soju or a glass of somaek (soju mixed with beer). The Full Answer If you have spent any time watching K-dramas or K-pop content, you have probably seen groups of people crowded around a table, hands stacked, shouting numbers in unison. That is not a scripted television moment — it is a fairly accurate representation of how Koreans actually drink. Korean drinking games (술게임) serve a social function that goes beyond the alcohol itself. They are used to break the ice at company dinners (hoesik, 회식), to bond at university outings (MT, 엠티), and to keep energy up during the second or third r...

Quick Answer Korean beer (맥주, maekju) ranges from light affordable lagers to a rapidly expanding craft scene with 180+ microbreweries nationwide. The dominant mainstream brands — Cass, Terra, Hite, and Kloud — are crisp adjunct lagers in the 4.3–5.0% ABV range, designed to pair with food rather than stand alone. A 500ml can costs approximately ₩2,500–₩2,800 at any convenience store (as of mid-2025). Seoul's Itaewon, Euljiro, and Hapjeong neighborhoods have taprooms serving IPAs, stouts, and sours worth seeking out. The Full Answer In 2012, The Economist published a jab that stung: "brewing remains just about the only useful activity at which North Korea beats the South." It was a dig at Korea's two-company beer duopoly — Oriental Brewery (OB) and HiteJinro — whose corn and rice adjunct lagers dominated every convenience store, hof bar, and pojangmacha in the country. The criticism catalyzed a national conversation about beer quality, and within two years the gov...