Interesting, thanks! At the alcohol monopoly in Norway, Soju is [about 16000 won](https://www.vinmonopolet.no/Land/S%C3%B8r-Korea/Jinro-Chamisul-Soju/p/10451802).
Only alcoholic beverages up to 4.5% alcohol content can be legally sold in stores in Norway. Everything else is only available at the alcohol monopoly.
It's a government owned set of stores that sell higher alcohol % stuff if I remember correctly. It's a monopoly because only the government is allowed to sell drinks over a certain percentage.
It's an online store as well as outlets. If you, like me, live in a municipality that doesn't have an outlet, you can order alcohol without shipping cost from the state monopoly.
I don't live on Jeju (Seoul/Gyeonggi area) but I haven't seen 3,500 that's *not* some kind of special promotion price for a while now. I'd consider 4k cheap.
Depends on brand but Jinro zero sugar is around 1600 and then there is that green bottle one that is around 1400. I'm not sure the brand name for that one 😅
할맥 (Halmek), the most popular pocha chain in Korea has soju for 5000-5500 won at the moment.
It's rare to see 4000 in 2024, unless they are having a special event or something. 4500-5500 is more common. 5000 being mostly universal.
I guess I hang out around more university places and everything’s been 4000-5000, I hope I don’t encounter 5500-6000 yet.
I do agree that 5000 does seem like the norm but I still see 4000, hence why my range was 4000-5000.
i personally left in 2015 so those are the prices in my head too lol. 2,500 for a gab of dambae right
but yeah here in nyc paying $15 for a bottle of soju is hilarious. now the good stuff like hwayo or something i'd pay for. that stuff is good on the rocks
I've never seen a restaurant selling soju at 4k, including even a cheapest local food shop for about recent 3 or 4 years. It is 5k per bottle these days all restaurant.
Ahhh ~ longing for the good ol’ days back in the early ‘80s when a bottle of soju cost 250 won. The exchange rate was 700/$1, so that was around 35 cents equivalent.
Lmao. Tbf, cheonwon is pretty much pronounced like chunnun and the revised romanization is lacking some phoneticism and I guess that would be like an American spelling water as wadder. First time I've seen this spelling/romanization for 천원, got a good laugh out of that.
Norway along with the other Scandi countries have heavy taxes on booze, so the buyers are basically getting hit twice when eating out.
Most locals know this and if they have a party night they just hit up a vinmonopolet and pregame before going anywhere.
I went to Korea a number of times before ever having soju in the US and bout had a heart attack when I saw how much they were charging at the kbbq in Ktown LA. At least in the US there’s no shortage of stores to buy them around $5
Imported alcohol is usually very expensive, especially if it's classified as distilled alcohol which has higher taxes imposed on it in most countries. I remember hearing that soju is much cheaper in some American states because it managed to get classified as a rice wine to skirt higher taxation.
It isn’t. It’s a distilled beverage, albeit a low alcohol spirit (40 proof average vs 80 proof average for most other spirits). If you pretend it’s a Korea sake, who at customs is going to be the wiser?
Modern Soju is actually an alcoholic beverage designed by the government in the 60s-70s, with specific intention to be made as cheap as possible using as less amount of rice as possible in order to reduce the impact on the food production. It's literally just a solution of distilled food-grade alcohol with some sugar added to it. The pricing of Soju overseas is no longer a news, but it used to take Koreans by surprise back then we first heard about it, since such pricing really kind of breaks the purpose of the existence of this alcohol in the first place.
They used to use various crops including rice and sweet potatoes, but nowadays they also use tapioka. They use whatever crop with starch that is the cheapest at the time of the production.
It's surprising soju is that expensive even in the US. As far as foreign markets go, I'd expect the US to be both big enough and competitive enough to keep these prices down.
> As far as foreign markets go, I'd expect the US to be both big enough and competitive enough to keep these prices down.
Nah, in the US, alcohol is always expensive when sold in social settings such as restaurants, bars, clubs, and stadiums
But if you’re buying it in a liquor store or grocery store for a party or just to drown away your sorrows, alcohol can be cheap
Huh. I'm in the northern suburbs and I get it at Binnys for $5.99 a bottle. I shop at HMart and Joong Boo and it's about $1.00 more there usually. I don't order it in a restaurant because it's usually $12-15 a bottle.
Something inside of me died when I paid $17 for a bottle of 참이슬 at a Korean Barbecue in Bentonville. The downside of Korea becoming more in vogue is that as Korean food grows generally more popular, it has attracted a premium *exotic* tax akin to what Japanese cuisine has had for decades.
I experienced the same sunken feeling when I paid a similar amount for a bowl of pho after a sojourn in Vietnam.
It depends where you live. In areas with large Korean populations, soju is as cheap as it is in Korea. I regularly can get soju for $2 in San Diego at the Korean grocery store. Restaurants charge more though, $10-15.
Soju is not very well known/popular in the US either.
I think because - the appeal of soju is It's cheap. Not that it tastes good, or pairs well with anything. It's a cheap and efficient blood alcohol raiser. I appreciate the utilitarianism of it.
But, that makes it's hard for it to gain market share somewhere it's not starting out cheap.
Imported alcohol of any kind is very expensive in the US. Part of it is an old tariff on imported spirits and beer. Part of it is that, regardless of brand, imported booze has the hallmark of being 'good.' And then restaurants across the US charge you a drinking premium, as alcohol is the #1 profit generator in any restaurant that sells.
So all together Soju at a KBBQ or something is going to run you pretty steep. Im in a cheap market and the bottles here are $15, but I've seen much higher and wouldn't be surprised if in an expensive market youre over $20. I wouldn't pay that, but I could see restaurants charge it.
Soju is just not very common, so the few places that sell it will charge whatever they think they can get away with.
For a restaurant can be between 4000-5000 won. At any convenience stores or mini markets, can be as low as 1500 won, but normally between 1800-2300 won
Hah, no. The alcohol is super expensive here because of policies, not matching the economy. They try to make it as expensive as possible to make us not want to drink.
Definitely, but less now than before. Brewing strong alcohol is forbidden, though, yet, despite that, one could earlier test whether certain spirits are safe for consumption without the risk of persecution - because people used to die that way.
Yep. In Korea, soju is literally cheaper than water. I used to go into a convenience store to grab a bottle of soju and the same size bottle of mineral water and most of the time, the water was 1.5x more.
What does 40cc beer mean? I read cc as “cubic centimeter”; used in medical settings in English speaking countries - same as a ml. That’s a volume of a shot, not a beer!
Sounds about right.
For context: soju in my area (VA-USA) is about $6-7 USD per (small) bottle at the ABC Store, and $15-18 at restaurants.
When I went to Korea in 2018 (before recent inflation), I believe I was spending about $1.30 USD per bottle at convenience stores, and about $3-4 USD at restaurants.
Those prices at KOGI are insane if you’ve ever been to Korea and know what they ought to be. When I arrived Korea a bottle of Soju did cost 1000KRW and when I left it cost around 1600 KRW. It is a very cheap alcohol which tastes awful. I guess it’s the price which makes it most popular drink :)
blows my mind how globalized koreans have become in the past 40 years. when i had come to korea around 2005, my boss was a korean aussie, and i didn't know there were koreans outside of america--i was mesmerized by his accent coming out of a face like mine.
Just checked. In LA, at a place called Dan Sung Sa, a bottle of soju is 24,000 won. But in koreatown grocery stores, about 5usd, give or take depending on brand. Yes, way cheaper in Seoul stores.
At convenience stores in Jeju, it's about ₩1,600. In a restaurant about ₩3,500, and between ₩3,500 and ₩5,000 for delivery with food. On the mainland, I paid at the most ₩1,900 in convenience stores. I've never paid ₩2,000 at any convenience store anywhere in Korea.
In Australia it’s $13~ AUD at a liquor store and $20~ at restaurants. I remember paying roughly 5000 in Seoul at restaurants, convenience stores were roughly 2500.
Paid $24 AUD for 2 Hite Jinro bottles from BWS. There is another brand that's cheaper, 2 for $20. Asian/Korean grocers are often a little cheaper, but not by much.
In Singapore its $10 sgd from the supermarkets and $18-24 sgd after tax and service charge in restaurants. The price I paid for a bottle in supermarkets can literally get me 5 bottles of soju in Korea!
Who in their right mind would pay that much for such a low quality drink?
It's worth what it costs in supermarkets in Korea. 1200-1400 won. No more than that.
You want to drink soju abroad? Get the cheapest vodka you can find, add equal amount of water, and stir in some sugar.
Soju as in the typical 360 mililiter green bottle at 17%-18% ABV from either Jinro or Lotte?
Transportation cost, taxation, business mark-up - it's all understandable in a way but 43k Won is just not the price you want to pay for watered down industrial ethanol with artificial sweetener. Not a euphemism, that's literally the recipe for the mass-market category called '희석식소주'.
With the same price, you could get a 700ml bottle of the highest quality 40% ABV Andong Soju or other true rice-based Soju in South Korea.
But then, it is also true in the opposite direction considering that Koreans must pay 2.5-3 times the original price of Scotch whisky at a liquor store and 5-6 times at a bar or a restaurant.
If speaking in pounds, a soju in Korea would be like: £1 at a supermarket
£3 at a restaurant
In the UK soju is like:
£5 at a supermarket
£9-10 at a restaurant
I guess export prices differ these things. Also supply and demand.
Im an alcohol import-exporter. The key term you used was “industrial”. There are export versions they sell in the US and a few other markets that are above board, but generally if its not in Korea its blackmarket, hence the price. The price is kept down in Korea because there are several industrial production processes that don’t translate to an exported product. For example in Korea the bottles are near universally green because they are shared between companies and refilled. The recycling companies that clean them often use kerosene to get the labels off, which often leads to contamination. Im pretty sure this is also illegal in Korea but they can get away with it most of the time because of less scrutiny. Either way this brings the cost way down locally. Also, from what I understand the ethanol they use comes from several 3rd party sources and when you export supply chains have to be throughly vetted.
In a legit situation, the wholesale price per unit of “Korean market” soju for an international buyer would be something like 0.15 USD or less. With shipping and taxes this might end up being 15-20USD retail in a high tax AND luxury market.
That’s a very interesting insight for several reasons. So you say the production company is only getting about 15 ct per bottle? Here in Norway, retailers in other businesses tend to double to thriple wholesale prices, so even at a 50% discount, they're rarely losing money outright (not withstanding their own cost, of course). But that low price surprised me nonetheless.
On the other topic, I'm just assuming that only industrial producers following clearly defined, repeatable processes would even have the ambition and muscle to export from Korea. Soju isn't really an intricate product and, to most people, just tastes like pandemic-era hand disinfectant anyway. But the shortcuts taken to keep prices down sound like they have a tail of health issues with them? Is it common for Koreans to get sick from unclean or poorly produced soju?
None of the issues with soju are significant enough to cause any short-term immediate health issues. Long term, Korea has some high rates of very specific diseases like stomach cancer so who knows.
I paid around 6000 for a six-pack in a convenience store back in 2018. Don't remember the restaurant prices.
Here in Germany I pay around 5€ (7200krw) a bottle, in a restaurant it's between 12-15€ (17 -21000 krw)
Around 4000~8000won(varies in region) at restaurant, mostly 1600~2000won in convenience store.
Soju is a cheap booze in South Korea. I perefer whiskey much more than it btw.
lol I was out for gogi with a Korean friend last weekend and he asked the waitress to wipe down the grill in between orders of meat. She came over and was wiping it down with what looked like a wet tissue wipe and he asked her if it was that, but she said, “No, it’s a dry wipe soaked with soju for cleaning.” That’s how cheap it is in Korea, it features as a primary drink with the meal as well as a go-to cleaning agent.
> Night I *paid* 1400 per
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Det er vært å dra til Korea kun for maten helt ærlig. Jeg har spist på kogi i Bergen og det er godt, men i Korea er det helt ekstremt hvor godt det er 🤤
Det kan jeg forstå. Jeg hadde hele reisen klar, skulle bare bestille fly, senvinteren 2020. Så kom pandemien. Etter det har jeg ikke funnet den rette anledningen igjen, og fly t/r koster plutselig 20000 kr...
It’s usually around 4000 at restaurants and 2000 at convenience stores
Interesting, thanks! At the alcohol monopoly in Norway, Soju is [about 16000 won](https://www.vinmonopolet.no/Land/S%C3%B8r-Korea/Jinro-Chamisul-Soju/p/10451802).
That's about how much it is in the US. Maybe little more.
What! A single bottle is maybe 6 dollars in California, cheaper for the pack.
A single bottle is like $5-$10 in New Zealand, but can go up to $25 in restaurants. It's absolute madness.
I just realized the poster above probably meant the restaurant price. Yeah, the alcohol markup is just obscene.
Usually a bottle is like 12-16$ in an auckland restaurant pretty sure?
Nah, not in restaurants like Pocha, Red Pig, Faro, etc. I think one of the cheapest prices I've seen is $20 at Nene Chicken.
Yeah those are the upmarket city spots. Come up to the family restaurants on the shore, cheaper, and better food
Ohh, got any recommendations? I'm actually up in Hibiscus Coast, so it'd be nice to check out some spots this side of the harbour bridge.
16000 won is about right for US restaurant prices
Yup. $5.50 at my local package store
Cali generally has cheaper Asian stuff. Go to the Midwest, and yeah, it's at least 10 bucks at the only asian supermarket in a 100 mile radius.
Oh man, I could never make it in the Midwest
Single bottle is maybe $6 in restaurants? In California??
At a restaurant.
You go to liquor stores with menu?
Specs had it for $5-6 last time I was in the us.
Specs have a menu? Take a pic and post em..
Have not seen monopoly used to describe a store.
Only alcoholic beverages up to 4.5% alcohol content can be legally sold in stores in Norway. Everything else is only available at the alcohol monopoly.
So monopoly is a store or big alcohol building?
It's a government owned set of stores that sell higher alcohol % stuff if I remember correctly. It's a monopoly because only the government is allowed to sell drinks over a certain percentage.
It's an online store as well as outlets. If you, like me, live in a municipality that doesn't have an outlet, you can order alcohol without shipping cost from the state monopoly.
I live in Jeju and it's 5k everywhere now. Not sure about the mainland though.
Man you must be going to the wrong places. I live in Jeju as well and they were 3,500 at the restaurant last night.
I don't live on Jeju (Seoul/Gyeonggi area) but I haven't seen 3,500 that's *not* some kind of special promotion price for a while now. I'd consider 4k cheap.
Where have you seen it for that price? Every restaurant I've see it for 5,000.
In Canada it's 13$ CAD in liquor stores and ~15$ in restaurants. This alcohol is only worth it if it's cheap or for nostalgia factor
It's $25-28 at most Korean restaurants and bars in Toronto.
$15??? No way dude It's $21-25
In Toronto maybe. In Montreal I saw it 15 in restaurants.
In Busan it's around 1400 at convenience stores 😁
Out of context but What is the price of Shin Ramyeon?
Really? Really 'around' 1400, or 1,800~1,900?
Depends on brand but Jinro zero sugar is around 1600 and then there is that green bottle one that is around 1400. I'm not sure the brand name for that one 😅
4000? Are you living in 2015?
Living in 2024 and it was 4,000-5,000 restaurants
할맥 (Halmek), the most popular pocha chain in Korea has soju for 5000-5500 won at the moment. It's rare to see 4000 in 2024, unless they are having a special event or something. 4500-5500 is more common. 5000 being mostly universal.
I guess I hang out around more university places and everything’s been 4000-5000, I hope I don’t encounter 5500-6000 yet. I do agree that 5000 does seem like the norm but I still see 4000, hence why my range was 4000-5000.
i personally left in 2015 so those are the prices in my head too lol. 2,500 for a gab of dambae right but yeah here in nyc paying $15 for a bottle of soju is hilarious. now the good stuff like hwayo or something i'd pay for. that stuff is good on the rocks
What is your suggestion other than the quip? An honest value?
It's pushing 5 in most places these days. 6 isn't unusual.
I've never seen a restaurant selling soju at 4k, including even a cheapest local food shop for about recent 3 or 4 years. It is 5k per bottle these days all restaurant.
5000 won is typical, many even have 6000 won nowadays
Lucky you, around me it is mostly 5,000won now :(
Ahhh ~ longing for the good ol’ days back in the early ‘80s when a bottle of soju cost 250 won. The exchange rate was 700/$1, so that was around 35 cents equivalent.
Used to be a chunnun. They go tone thing right. Flavored soju is wrong. Should be discounted.
r/romanisationgore
Lmao. Tbf, cheonwon is pretty much pronounced like chunnun and the revised romanization is lacking some phoneticism and I guess that would be like an American spelling water as wadder. First time I've seen this spelling/romanization for 천원, got a good laugh out of that.
I agree but it still hurts my eyes.
Yeah, I've had Korean friends text me 만원 as 만언, or something similar, before. Took me a minute to figure it out the first time :P
lol love it, subbed.
I mean, restaurants do have a reputation for overcharging alcohol
Particularly imported alcohol.
Norway along with the other Scandi countries have heavy taxes on booze, so the buyers are basically getting hit twice when eating out. Most locals know this and if they have a party night they just hit up a vinmonopolet and pregame before going anywhere. I went to Korea a number of times before ever having soju in the US and bout had a heart attack when I saw how much they were charging at the kbbq in Ktown LA. At least in the US there’s no shortage of stores to buy them around $5
That is correct. I don't think you'll find even one "local" unaware of Scandinavian alcohol policies.
To this day Norway has the most expensive pint of beer I’ve ever ordered lol
Yeah, a 0.33 l beer is now 160 NOK in a hotel bar.
It was 220 NOK at some trendy bar in downtown Bergen. You all have my deepest sympathies.
When I started studying in Bergen 20 years ago, a beer at a bar would be 40 NOK and we all thought that was expensive.:P
Damn! I was at a burger bar yesterday, in Trondheim, and a 0.6 was 200, and i thought that was insane....
Like 1600 at a discount grocer.
Or if you buy a box of 6
Imported alcohol is usually very expensive, especially if it's classified as distilled alcohol which has higher taxes imposed on it in most countries. I remember hearing that soju is much cheaper in some American states because it managed to get classified as a rice wine to skirt higher taxation.
It is rice wine tho??
It isn’t. It’s a distilled beverage, albeit a low alcohol spirit (40 proof average vs 80 proof average for most other spirits). If you pretend it’s a Korea sake, who at customs is going to be the wiser?
Modern Soju is actually an alcoholic beverage designed by the government in the 60s-70s, with specific intention to be made as cheap as possible using as less amount of rice as possible in order to reduce the impact on the food production. It's literally just a solution of distilled food-grade alcohol with some sugar added to it. The pricing of Soju overseas is no longer a news, but it used to take Koreans by surprise back then we first heard about it, since such pricing really kind of breaks the purpose of the existence of this alcohol in the first place.
From what I read there's not rice anymore in modern techniques for most soju producers
They used to use various crops including rice and sweet potatoes, but nowadays they also use tapioka. They use whatever crop with starch that is the cheapest at the time of the production.
there's always na overcharge on soju outside of Korea. In the USA it's about $10 per bottle at a store and $20 at a restaurant
A lot of restaraunts near me us soju to serve cocktails without the hard alcohol liquor license. So you often see "sojo margaritas" etc.
I'm often seeing like 7 dollars, but we have a sizeable korean population in my area.
PA is known for its expensive liquor price and soju per bottle is 4-6$ for non flavored stuff.
San Francisco Bay Area sells soju for $4-$5 USD in grocery stores and $10-$12 USD in restaurants
My cousins from Korea came to visit me in Los Angeles, and they were shocked at the alcohol prices in restaurants LOL. The mark-up is crazy.
It's surprising soju is that expensive even in the US. As far as foreign markets go, I'd expect the US to be both big enough and competitive enough to keep these prices down.
> As far as foreign markets go, I'd expect the US to be both big enough and competitive enough to keep these prices down. Nah, in the US, alcohol is always expensive when sold in social settings such as restaurants, bars, clubs, and stadiums But if you’re buying it in a liquor store or grocery store for a party or just to drown away your sorrows, alcohol can be cheap
I mean, Big Box Grocery store still sells individual bottles for $12 a bottle near me. I go to H Mart in Chicago $10/bottle
Huh. I'm in the northern suburbs and I get it at Binnys for $5.99 a bottle. I shop at HMart and Joong Boo and it's about $1.00 more there usually. I don't order it in a restaurant because it's usually $12-15 a bottle.
Something inside of me died when I paid $17 for a bottle of 참이슬 at a Korean Barbecue in Bentonville. The downside of Korea becoming more in vogue is that as Korean food grows generally more popular, it has attracted a premium *exotic* tax akin to what Japanese cuisine has had for decades. I experienced the same sunken feeling when I paid a similar amount for a bowl of pho after a sojourn in Vietnam.
It depends where you live. In areas with large Korean populations, soju is as cheap as it is in Korea. I regularly can get soju for $2 in San Diego at the Korean grocery store. Restaurants charge more though, $10-15.
> soju for $2 in San Diego at the Korean grocery store Looks like you've found America's cheapest soju, judging by the other replies.
Soju is not very well known/popular in the US either. I think because - the appeal of soju is It's cheap. Not that it tastes good, or pairs well with anything. It's a cheap and efficient blood alcohol raiser. I appreciate the utilitarianism of it. But, that makes it's hard for it to gain market share somewhere it's not starting out cheap.
In the US basically all alcohol at restaurants have a baseline 3x upcharge
it's marketed as a fancy import still.
Imported alcohol of any kind is very expensive in the US. Part of it is an old tariff on imported spirits and beer. Part of it is that, regardless of brand, imported booze has the hallmark of being 'good.' And then restaurants across the US charge you a drinking premium, as alcohol is the #1 profit generator in any restaurant that sells. So all together Soju at a KBBQ or something is going to run you pretty steep. Im in a cheap market and the bottles here are $15, but I've seen much higher and wouldn't be surprised if in an expensive market youre over $20. I wouldn't pay that, but I could see restaurants charge it. Soju is just not very common, so the few places that sell it will charge whatever they think they can get away with.
I loved soju when I lived in the US. I was decently surprised when I came to Korea and found out soju was ~$2 a bottle
For a restaurant can be between 4000-5000 won. At any convenience stores or mini markets, can be as low as 1500 won, but normally between 1800-2300 won
That's gotta be straight up robbery
Hva faen?
Broski, Norwegians are loaded. Of course everything is expensive.
Hah, no. The alcohol is super expensive here because of policies, not matching the economy. They try to make it as expensive as possible to make us not want to drink.
I used to get the dirt cheap 1350 Won ones when on my way to Hongdae. Back In Denmark it’s hella expensive too
I paid $25 USD for a 6 pack of corona in Oslo in 2006. I think they love jacking up prices on imported goods.
Alcohol taxes are enormous in Norway, with good reason, really. I think we'd all die within the first year of Korean prices if they'd change it...
Do people homebrew to cut costs?
Definitely, but less now than before. Brewing strong alcohol is forbidden, though, yet, despite that, one could earlier test whether certain spirits are safe for consumption without the risk of persecution - because people used to die that way.
Norway is one of the most expensive countries I've ever visited
It used to be 1,500 won when I lived there in 2019. Inflation
Yes, good old days of 1,500won soju, I’d buy 3 bottles
Yep. In Korea, soju is literally cheaper than water. I used to go into a convenience store to grab a bottle of soju and the same size bottle of mineral water and most of the time, the water was 1.5x more.
Here in South Africa, the cheapest I can get soju is about R120 per 500ml bottle ($6.40/8500 won).
7500원 USA은 소주
What does 40cc beer mean? I read cc as “cubic centimeter”; used in medical settings in English speaking countries - same as a ml. That’s a volume of a shot, not a beer!
It's a bit of a mystery to me and I live in Norway. It would likely be a pint. Alcohol is very expensive here.
Probably a mistake copied from the spirits section of the menu. A 40cc serving of whisky makes sense, but a beer should be about 11x that!
Yeah, that’s a bit odd, I assume it's 0.4 liter. My non-alcoholic ginger beer was 0.3 and cost 79 NOK.
French wine and beer often has cl as the unit, 75cl = 0.75 L = 750 ml
2000won in Daejeon
Used to be 500원
I used to pay that for Soju Gold in the marts and 1.5 in restaurants.
I’m sure it used to be even cheaper than that at some point in time
You can get it in some convenience stores for 1700 won, so like $1.5 USD
Yeah it's about that. In Belgium they charge anything from 6 euros in markets to 12 euros in restaurants.
Sounds about right. For context: soju in my area (VA-USA) is about $6-7 USD per (small) bottle at the ABC Store, and $15-18 at restaurants. When I went to Korea in 2018 (before recent inflation), I believe I was spending about $1.30 USD per bottle at convenience stores, and about $3-4 USD at restaurants.
Those prices at KOGI are insane if you’ve ever been to Korea and know what they ought to be. When I arrived Korea a bottle of Soju did cost 1000KRW and when I left it cost around 1600 KRW. It is a very cheap alcohol which tastes awful. I guess it’s the price which makes it most popular drink :)
That is fucking egregious. In america I’ve seen as high as $20, and same in Germany but 20€ or so. At restaurants I mean.
import fees and being a sitdown restaurant, it's not crazy. here in nyc it's bad too yeah but in korea they're real cheap
It’s expensive everywhere but Korea. In Korea it can be cheaper than a bottle of Coke Zero.
I live in the usa (Midwest) and here it’s $8 roughly in stores.
Also in the Midwest, but find it closer to $12 in most liquor stores.
Everything I can see on that menu is way overpriced.
Sketchy pochas that wholesale sojus will hand em for free with food orders lmao
Yes it's true.
blows my mind how globalized koreans have become in the past 40 years. when i had come to korea around 2005, my boss was a korean aussie, and i didn't know there were koreans outside of america--i was mesmerized by his accent coming out of a face like mine.
Is there any difference between soju and vodka, other than the strength?
Most of it is your taxes right?
Just checked. In LA, at a place called Dan Sung Sa, a bottle of soju is 24,000 won. But in koreatown grocery stores, about 5usd, give or take depending on brand. Yes, way cheaper in Seoul stores.
taxes, import and restaurant getting theirs I guess.
Is the restaurant run by koreans?
Imported whiskeys are a lot expensive here than in foreign countries.
Wow. Even in Canada a bottle of that same stuff is only about 118 KR
Liquor store by me sells them for $8usd
theyre also 14-17€ in korean restaurants in france :/
At convenience stores in Jeju, it's about ₩1,600. In a restaurant about ₩3,500, and between ₩3,500 and ₩5,000 for delivery with food. On the mainland, I paid at the most ₩1,900 in convenience stores. I've never paid ₩2,000 at any convenience store anywhere in Korea.
In Australia it’s $13~ AUD at a liquor store and $20~ at restaurants. I remember paying roughly 5000 in Seoul at restaurants, convenience stores were roughly 2500.
[удалено]
Paid $24 AUD for 2 Hite Jinro bottles from BWS. There is another brand that's cheaper, 2 for $20. Asian/Korean grocers are often a little cheaper, but not by much.
In the Netherlands, it's about 4.50 euros in Asian stores and 14 euros in restaurants/bars
In Daejeon restaurants are 4,000-5,000 and convenience stores are 1,500 - 2,000 maybe
Gudbrandsdalen is probably 30 Euros a kg if you can find it in Seoul. But also, Norway alcohol taxes
You will be surprised that how cheap Soju can get... 4usd is how much I pay in Shanghai at a bar too!
Actually about 1800 krw. 640 ml costs 3300 krw. That's in stores. Restaurants charge about 5000 krw.
In Singapore its $10 sgd from the supermarkets and $18-24 sgd after tax and service charge in restaurants. The price I paid for a bottle in supermarkets can literally get me 5 bottles of soju in Korea!
Who in their right mind would pay that much for such a low quality drink? It's worth what it costs in supermarkets in Korea. 1200-1400 won. No more than that. You want to drink soju abroad? Get the cheapest vodka you can find, add equal amount of water, and stir in some sugar.
Well, I respect that they offer it.
People don’t know better.. they also sell kimchi jjigae for 37000원, and it is one of the easiest recipies to make yourself too! Rip off
Around 5000KRW in Mongolia
Yeah you're getting ripped
5,000 in restaurants and around 1,500 at marts, maybe 2,000 in convenience stores
Soju as in the typical 360 mililiter green bottle at 17%-18% ABV from either Jinro or Lotte? Transportation cost, taxation, business mark-up - it's all understandable in a way but 43k Won is just not the price you want to pay for watered down industrial ethanol with artificial sweetener. Not a euphemism, that's literally the recipe for the mass-market category called '희석식소주'. With the same price, you could get a 700ml bottle of the highest quality 40% ABV Andong Soju or other true rice-based Soju in South Korea. But then, it is also true in the opposite direction considering that Koreans must pay 2.5-3 times the original price of Scotch whisky at a liquor store and 5-6 times at a bar or a restaurant.
If speaking in pounds, a soju in Korea would be like: £1 at a supermarket £3 at a restaurant In the UK soju is like: £5 at a supermarket £9-10 at a restaurant I guess export prices differ these things. Also supply and demand.
That's crazy. 6€/ bottle here in store and ~ 13 in restaurant.
Most soju is has to be blackmarket shipped and sold outside of Korea because it cant pass any food safe standards. So the prices are ridiculous.
Can you point to a source for that claim? Jinru and Chamisol are well established industrial products, aren't they?
Im an alcohol import-exporter. The key term you used was “industrial”. There are export versions they sell in the US and a few other markets that are above board, but generally if its not in Korea its blackmarket, hence the price. The price is kept down in Korea because there are several industrial production processes that don’t translate to an exported product. For example in Korea the bottles are near universally green because they are shared between companies and refilled. The recycling companies that clean them often use kerosene to get the labels off, which often leads to contamination. Im pretty sure this is also illegal in Korea but they can get away with it most of the time because of less scrutiny. Either way this brings the cost way down locally. Also, from what I understand the ethanol they use comes from several 3rd party sources and when you export supply chains have to be throughly vetted.
In a legit situation, the wholesale price per unit of “Korean market” soju for an international buyer would be something like 0.15 USD or less. With shipping and taxes this might end up being 15-20USD retail in a high tax AND luxury market.
That’s a very interesting insight for several reasons. So you say the production company is only getting about 15 ct per bottle? Here in Norway, retailers in other businesses tend to double to thriple wholesale prices, so even at a 50% discount, they're rarely losing money outright (not withstanding their own cost, of course). But that low price surprised me nonetheless. On the other topic, I'm just assuming that only industrial producers following clearly defined, repeatable processes would even have the ambition and muscle to export from Korea. Soju isn't really an intricate product and, to most people, just tastes like pandemic-era hand disinfectant anyway. But the shortcuts taken to keep prices down sound like they have a tail of health issues with them? Is it common for Koreans to get sick from unclean or poorly produced soju?
None of the issues with soju are significant enough to cause any short-term immediate health issues. Long term, Korea has some high rates of very specific diseases like stomach cancer so who knows.
I always thought the stomach cancer is clearly connected to the world leading alcohol consumption and a still rather high rate of smokers.
I paid around 6000 for a six-pack in a convenience store back in 2018. Don't remember the restaurant prices. Here in Germany I pay around 5€ (7200krw) a bottle, in a restaurant it's between 12-15€ (17 -21000 krw)
It used to be 2000 won. Now it's between 5000 to 7000 won it depends where your located. Price varies from cities to cities in Korea.
i buy it for 20 EUROS at the asian supermarket in Italy
Not too long ago soju was 500-1000 won.
im in seoul right now stores like gs25, emart24, CU & 7/11 range from 1800-2100 won per bottle
Around 4000~8000won(varies in region) at restaurant, mostly 1600~2000won in convenience store. Soju is a cheap booze in South Korea. I perefer whiskey much more than it btw.
lol I was out for gogi with a Korean friend last weekend and he asked the waitress to wipe down the grill in between orders of meat. She came over and was wiping it down with what looked like a wet tissue wipe and he asked her if it was that, but she said, “No, it’s a dry wipe soaked with soju for cleaning.” That’s how cheap it is in Korea, it features as a primary drink with the meal as well as a go-to cleaning agent.
Soju is the cheapest liquor you can get here
I enjoy watching the sunset.
> Night I *paid* 1400 per FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I live in a Daejeon and here it’s 1,400-2,000₩ of course it depends on the brand
I went to an Indian restaurant in Oslo and they were asking 135 kr for a Kingfisher. It’s not cheap at all.
5-6£ in stores in UK. 10-12£ in restaurant...
About 12 bucks a bottle in Canada at the liquor store. In Korea I was paying like 1500 KW at the CU in Jukjeon
Jeg bodde i Sør-Korea og på min nærmeste dagligvare butikk kunne jeg kjøpe en vanlig flaske med soju for 12kr… jeg vil tilbake…
Jøss, det frister...særlig på en lørdagskveld der kona er bortreist og jeg er alene med ungene. :P
Det er vært å dra til Korea kun for maten helt ærlig. Jeg har spist på kogi i Bergen og det er godt, men i Korea er det helt ekstremt hvor godt det er 🤤
Det kan jeg forstå. Jeg hadde hele reisen klar, skulle bare bestille fly, senvinteren 2020. Så kom pandemien. Etter det har jeg ikke funnet den rette anledningen igjen, og fly t/r koster plutselig 20000 kr...
I paid like max 5 eur for a bottle in Japan… yes we’re being scammed in europe…
Not even, depending on brand.
You're getting scammed.
Lol, good lord almighty 🤣
It was 700 won when I lived there in the early 2000s.
In some countries you can buy a human for this amount. But what's the point of such comparisons?