“High End” Soju (Korea): Hwayo 25 & 41.

Having previously only tried the now ubiquitous cheap Jinro sojus, I always figured soju isn’t for me (too cloying/sweet, couldn’t drink the stuff); that is, until a Korean friend made try Hwayo 25 & 41 - very clean, appetisingly dry and pure, pretty nice with the Hanwoo 1++ grade beef said friend features at her restaurant. This stuff, I like.

Nb., I put “high end” in quotation marks because, though Hwayo’s sojus cost materially more than big production sojus, in gross price terms, they aren’t expensive at all.
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25 on the left; 41 on the right, the numbers also indicating %abv.
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Had the subject sojus with some Hanwoo 1++ cote deungsim (ribeye)…
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…and hanjeongsal (pork jowl). Good stuff.

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I’m not sure if there is any affiliation with https://www.woorisoul.com/ but you are correct. There is very little high quality soju in the US. It’s usually just marketed towards younger people used as somaek or flavored.

Same situation here in Manila.