South Korea has spent the last decade conquering the world with music, drama, beauty and fashion. Now he’s doing the same thing with alcohol. But not with convenience store green soju that has become a global pop phenomenon thanks to K-dramas. The new terrain of the Korean gastronomic wave is much more sophisticated: yakju, cheongju, premium makgeolli and artisanal spirits are entering the language of international fine dining.
And above all they are changing status. Because the point is no longer to simply export “traditional Korean drinks”. The point is to transform sool — the umbrella term for traditional spirits in Korea — into a premium cultural language, built on terroir, fermentation, heritage, design and fine dining.
In Seoul the change is clearly visible. In high-end restaurants, the classic Western wine pairing is increasingly starting to give way to tastings built around artisanal yakju, cheongju and makgeolli. No longer traditional tavern folklore, but bottles designed like a great gastronomic wine.
The numbers of the new Korean alcoholic luxury
The transformation of the sun is not just cultural. It’s also economical. In 2023, the total value of shipments of the South Korean alcohol industry reached about 10.07 trillion won, an all-time high. Within this system, the category of traditional and related spirits was worth 1.346 trillion won, while the narrower segment of jeontongju, or authentic traditional spirits, was worth 147.5 billion won.
The data becomes even more interesting if read in perspective. In 2019, the sector was worth just 53.1 billion won. In 2022 it had already risen to 162.9 billion, with growth of more than 70% compared to the previous year. It is the clearest sign of how Korea is transforming products historically perceived as regional or popular into premium cultural assets with high added value.
Exports also show the same trajectory. Soju remains the industrial and cultural giant of the sector: in 2024 exports exceeded 200 million dollars for the first time, reaching approximately 124,000 tonnes exported worldwide, equivalent to over 340 million 360 ml bottles.
But the most interesting part isn’t about the volume. It’s about positioning.
Makgeolli, while remaining much smaller than soju, is becoming the symbolic product of Korean premiumization. In 2024, exports exceeded 14,700 tons, while the United States became the second largest foreign market after Japan. Here, makgeolli is no longer perceived only as a traditional drink for Korean communities abroad, but as part of the global boom in K-food, contemporary fermentation and Asian fine dining.
The gastronomic context completes the picture. The Michelin Guide Seoul & Busan 2026 has 233 selected restaurants and 46 starred restaurants. It is within this new architecture of Korean haute cuisine that yakju, cheongju, premium makgeolli and artisanal soju are finding their natural space: no longer as a folklore accompaniment, but as an identity, technical and cultural pairing.
Seoul is building its own language of gastronomic luxury
The most important transformation, however, does not only concern the market. It’s about cultural positioning.
For years, South Korea has looked to French wine and Western spirits as symbols of international gastronomic luxury. Today the situation is different. Contemporary Korean fine dining is starting to use traditional sool as an element of identity, exactly as Japan did with sake.
The most emblematic case is probably that of Mr. Ahn’s Craft Makgeolli in Seoul, which entered the Michelin radar by transforming makgeolli into a sophisticated gastronomic experience. Here pairing is no longer an ethnic or tourist exercise: it becomes a technical story built on acidity, fermentation, consistency, temperature and aromatic structure.
And it is precisely here that the premium makgeolli completely changes its skin.
From the farmers’ drink to the couture makgeolli
For decades makgeolli has been associated with an almost rural image: a cheap, popular drink, consumed in markets or traditional trattorias. Today some Korean breweries are doing the opposite.
Long fermentations, use of traditional nuruk, single-batch processing, designer bottles, limited production, aging in wood and recovery of historical recipes are transforming makgeolli into a tasting product.
It’s a very similar process to that experienced by Japanese premium sake or European natural wine. But with one important difference: Korea is building this evolution in the midst of the global explosion of the Korean Wave.
The result is that sool is no longer perceived just as alcohol, but as an extension of Korean soft power.
The global soju boom and the birth of Korean craft
At the same time, the growth of international soju continues.
On the one hand, industrial pop soju remains, the one that has gone viral thanks to dramas and mainstream culture. On the other hand, a premium and craft soju ecosystem is growing that focuses on traditional distillation, local ingredients, territorial storytelling and luxury bottles.
It’s the same dynamic that transformed Japanese whiskey from a regional curiosity to an international status symbol.
More and more Korean producers are working on building precise territorial identities: local rice, spring water, natural fermentation, nuruk varieties, recovered historical techniques and contemporary bottle design. Korea is starting to build its own idea of alcoholic terroir.
The Cheongmyeongju case and the new prestige of yakju
Among the symbolic products of this new alcoholic Korea is Cheongmyeongju, one of the most respected yakju in the country.
The work of Han Young-seok and his fermentation institute perfectly represents the direction taken by the sector: recovery of historical techniques, centrality of the fermentation process, almost obsessive attention to raw materials and construction of a deeply Korean premium imagery.
Cheongmyeongju is no longer presented as a simple traditional liqueur, but as a gastronomic tasting product, with an elegant aromatic profile and a strong connection with Korean cultural heritage.
It is not a detail that some premium versions reach prices above 50,000 won per bottle. It is no longer about daily consumption. It’s about cultural luxury.
The role of the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Milan in peace diplomacy
Behind this transformation there are not only chefs, breweries and gastronomic trends. There is also increasingly structured institutional work. In Italy, one of the most active actors in promoting traditional Korean sool is the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Milan, which in recent years has started using yakju, cheongju and other traditional spirits as tools of cultural diplomacy.
The goal is not simply to present Korean products during official events, but to build a cultural ecosystem around Korean premium beverage, creating connections between importers, distributors, restaurants and the Italian cultural world.
A significant example was the use of Cheongmyeongju during the inaugural dinner of the Far East Film Festival in Udine, where the traditional Korean liquor was presented not as an ethnic curiosity, but as an integral part of a sophisticated gastronomic narrative linked to contemporary Korea. A choice that perfectly reflects the new Korean cultural strategy: transforming heritage, fermentation and tradition into the international language of luxury.
The Consulate’s work in fact moves on several levels: from cultural promotion to institutional events, up to the search for commercial partners capable of bringing high-end products to Italy that are still almost unknown to the general European public. In this sense, yakju and cheongju are starting to occupy a space very similar to the one that premium Japanese sake has conquered in Western fine dining in recent years.
South Korea no longer wants to imitate the West
And this is perhaps the real point of the transformation.
The new Korean haute cuisine isn’t trying to imitate France or Japan. It is building its own complete cultural system, where cuisine, fermentation, design, heritage and beverage speak the same language.
In this scenario yakju, premium makgeolli, cheongju and craft soju become much more than drinks. They become international positioning tools.
Just as K-beauty transformed skincare into soft power and K-pop transformed music into a global cultural industry, Korean sool is starting to do the same with gastronomic luxury.
And Seoul seems increasingly intent on not leaving this space to anyone else.
