If you’ve spent any time drinking in Korea, you’ll know the subject of soju is a sensitive one. While some of us will readily admit that they don’t enjoy the taste, others will insist that soju tastes fantastic. But who is correct?
Of course, as with most drinks, it’s a matter of taste. But if you haven’t tried soju before, the only way of knowing you’ll enjoy it before you drink it is by finding out what it tastes like.
What does soju taste like?
Many people describe soju as being sweeter than a typical vodka. This is partly due to the alcohol content. At a typical strength of about 20% – though this is normally lower in Fresh varieties – there is less of the burning sensation associated with 40% proof vodkas.
Indeed in many ways, soju is like vodka, in that the more expensive the bottle you buy, the better it generally tastes. As soju is mainly drunk neat, you might want to avoid the cheaper bottles if your tastebuds are particularly averse to strong flavours. You can find our guide to why soju is available so cheaply in Korea here.
Additionally, soju is distilled using rice or tapioca and yeast. As well as this, it often has flavourings, acidity regulators and stabilisers added as part of the bottling process. All of these things help to give it a smoother and sweeter taste than you might expect.
How does flavored soju taste?
There’s now also a wide variety of flavoured soju available. Unsurprisingly, these different types of soju are designed to taste more like the various fruits, or yoghurt or coffee, that they’re flavoured with.
Whilst these options won’t be quite as flavoursome as drinking a fruit juice or soda, for the casual soju drinker, this might be a good place to start. You can find out more about the different types of flavoured soju here, if that sounds like something you’re interested in trying.
There are even an assortment of canned, ready-to-drink sparkling soju mixers available. These are significantly less alcoholic than standard soju at 3 – 4%, and are designed to taste much more like a regular fruit soda.
Of course, flavoured soju smells a lot more like the fruit it’s flavoured with, too. But what does regular soju smell like? Read on to find out more below. But first…
Why does soju taste like rubbing alcohol?
The reason that some people say soju tastes like rubbing alcohol is two-fold. Firstly, the amount of alcohol in the drink compared to something like beer, and secondly, the lack of additional flavouring added to it.
Personally, I think this is a bit of an unfair comparison. Though I’ve never drunk rubbing alcohol, I’m sure soju has much more depth of flavour.
But it’s understandable that the comparison has been made. After all, Classic and Fresh varieties of soju are a clear spirit too.
We feel obliged to place a warning here. Please never drink rubbing alcohol. It’s not designed for human consumption. Don’t try and do a taste test on this one.
But if you want to do a sniff test, read on…
What does soju smell like?
Soju undoubtedly has a strong alcohol smell. If you sniff a bottle of soju, you’ll get a bitter scent at the back of your nose, a little bit like rubbing alcohol. You might even get a slight burn depending on how deeply you’ve inhaled it.
Overall, though, the smell is relatively neutral. Given the nature of distilling the beverage that we’ve talked about above, with rice or tapioca as the base ingredient, there are no strong smelling ingredients or additives in regular soju to significantly modify the smell.
So whilst the taste is slightly sweet, this doesn’t translate to the smell.
Does soju taste like sake?
If you haven’t heard of or tried sake, the traditional Japanese rice wine, the first thing to know is that there are a lot of similarities to soju.
Given that I’ve just described it as a rice wine, the main ingredient is obviously a key similarity! Though, as we’ve discussed above, soju can be distilled with other ingredients in place of the rice, which isn’t the case for sake.
As a result, the taste of sake is not too far away from that of soju. However, there are a greater range of flavour profiles across different varieties of sake.
Sake can often have a ‘dryer’ taste compared to soju which, as we’ve seen, can be a little sweeter. This is why sake is often used as a palate cleanser between food courses, whereas soju is drunk alongside a meal.
Does soju taste like gin?
This one is pretty straightforward – not really.
Gin is heavily flavoured with juniper berries. This has led some people to describe it as tasting like pine, or pine needles. I’m not sure how they know that, though…
But regardless of whether those people have had a good munch on a bit of wood or not, one thing’s for certain. Gin doesn’t taste like soju.
For starters, gin is much more bitter. This is why people usually add a mixer to it, like tonic water, or fruit juice (particularly if you’re Snoop Dogg).
Gin connoisseurs would also argue that there is much more of a range and depth of flavours of gin. Here at DrinkPirate.com, we love both gin and soju. Picking one over the other would be like picking a favourite child, so we’re not going to agree or disagree!
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