How makgeolli, a rice wine made by farmers, became cool again in South Korea

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This ancient brew has become a cosmopolitan sensation over the past decade. The buzz grew during COVID-19 lockdowns.

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Jeong Mi-hee, a South Korean businessperson, used to buy a lot of whisky in airports. When the coronavirus pandemic brought her travels to halt, she started paying more attention to local booze she had overlooked.

South Korea’s craft makgeolli revival has been underway for at least a decade, but the drink’s popularity took on new dimensions during COVID-19 lockdowns as people ordered small-batch labels online and swapped brewing recipes on social media. In the 1950s, officials urged producers to use potatoes, not rice, to make soju, another type of traditional Korean liquor, according to a recent book on soju by Hyunhee Park, a history professor at the City University of New York. In 1965, they banned grain-based alcohol entirely, further suppressing traditional distillation methods.

“It’s not that we’re taking a new approach to things,” she said of her brand and the makgeolli startups that are proliferating in South Korea. “It’s that we’re appreciating the traditional things and calling attention to them in the world of the internet and social media and brands.”South Korea had 961 registered makgeolli businesses in 2020, up from 931 the year before and 898 in 2018.

South Korea’s makgeolli boom is not just happening in Seoul, the capital. Geumjeong Sanseong Makgeolli, one of the country’s best-known makgeolli breweries, lies near an 18th-century fortress in the southern city of Busan.

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