If you’re not a fan of neat soju, as the preferred serving style in many of Korea’s drinking dens, you might be at a bit of a loss of how to drink it. If you’re ordering at the bar, and they don’t do cocktails, what can you do? Well, the good news is that soju and Coke is a popular method of drinking Seoul’s favorite spirit – and the ingredients will almost certainly be available anywhere you go.
Although it sounds like a simple drink, in fact there’s various popular ways to create this beverage. In fact, you might be wondering if it even works as a drink at all. Read on to learn more…
Can you mix coke and soju?
The great news is yes, you can mix soju and Coke! So if you’re not a fan of soju straight up, you can add the sugary, caffeinated goodness of America’s favorite soda drink. The Coke won’t react badly with the soju, and will mix together well.
In fact, it’s a very popular cocktail in Korea, with lots of different twists on the base ingredients. We’ve collated some of Korea’s much-loved soju and coke cocktail recipes for your perusal here.
Of course, if you don’t have any Coca-Cola handy, don’t worry – you can always mix your soju with Pepsi…
Our guide continues below….
Our favorite cocktails and recipes
Cojinganmek – soju, coke and beer
Korean cocktail naming conventions love a portmanteau (combining two or more words together). As we learnt with somaek – whose name combines the Korean words for soju and beer – there’s no messing around when it comes to naming their drinks as a combination of their ingredients. They don’t tend to go for obscure names like Old Fashioned or Long Island Iced Tea.
So if you know the language, you might be able to work out what’s in cojinganmek. But interestingly, it also translates to “first the bad things, then the good things follow”.
However, it’s also a mixture of Coke, soju and beer. So in a similar vein to somaek, we can see that the name takes the Co from Coke, and the mek from the beer (‘maekju’). Perhaps the jin from soju may be a nod to one of Korea’s premier soju brands, Jinro, too.
What you’ll need
To make this, you’ll need the following ingredients:
- A shot of Coca-Cola
- A shot of soju
- A bottle of your favorite Korean beer – we recommend Cass or Kloud
In terms of glassware, you’ll need the following for each drink:
- two shot glasses
- one beer glass
You can find our guide to the best shot glasses and other glasses for soju here.
How to make cojinganmek
- Fill the first shot glass with Coke, and place this inside the beer glass.
- Fill the second shot glass with soju, and place this on top of the first shot glass to make a stack.
- Fill the remaining empty space around the two shot glasses with beer, until the glass is full.
- Down the drink in one!
Because the Coke will be the last drink that gets to your tastebuds, this will mask the alcohol taste of the beer and soju. Hence the name – you get the ‘bad’ (that’s subjective – I love soju and beer) first, and then the sugary hit of the Coke to follow.
Whilst this is great if you’re not a fan of the flavors of either of the other ingredients, it also means it can mask the alcohol content of a drink that is pretty much entirely made of alcoholic beverages – so be careful!
If you don’t want to make it quite as alcoholic, you can always reduce the amount of soju in the shot glass. Some recipes call for half a shot each of soju and Coke, but we prefer a full shot, as if you were making somaek and adding Coke.
SoCo – a simple new mixed drink
Okay, okay, I’ll be honest, this isn’t exactly an authentic Korean cocktail. But frankly, I couldn’t miss the opportunity for the abbreviation.
So, how do you make a SoCo? Simply add a shot of soju, then top up the glass with Coke. Call it a Korean twist on a Cuba Libré.
If you want, you can put the soju in a shot glass before you add the Coke, a bit like a soju bomb. Or you can vary the quantity of soju versus the mixer, like in somaek. Given I’ve just invented this, feel free to do whatever you fancy – I certainly won’t judge!
You also know this isn’t a traditional Korean drink, as in most Korean bars, the bartenders will serve you the constituent parts of your drink separately.
You’re unlikely to be served a mixed drink, which means you’ll have to judge the measurements of your soju yourself – and as anyone who’s free-poured during a night of drinking, unless you’re a trained barman, the measures tend to get bigger and bigger as the night wears on.
So for your own safety, you’re probably best off measuring using a soju shot glass or other measure when making this cocktail.
Conclusion
So there we have it: the best ways to mix soju and Coke – or Pepsi, or even that Virgin Cola you have lurking at the back of the cupboard, assuming it’s still in date.
Yes, it’s also normally mixed with beer to make a potent Korean twist on the German drink colabier. (With typical German efficiency, they don’t mess around when it comes to naming their drinks either.)
But if you’re not that into beer, or just don’t have any in the fridge, feel free to just mix soju and coke. It might not be traditional, but we only have one life, so why not just have what you enjoy?
Image credits:
Main image: @s_ing_soo on Instagram
Coca-Cola images: 1. Jeanson Wong and 2. Cody Engel on unsplash.com
Cojinganmek with bottles: @puppypows on Instagram
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