#Number one spirit in japan how to#

#Number one spirit in japan how to#

But this is a drink embedded in Korean culture since the 14th century, when Mongol invaders taught the locals how to distill, with fermented rice as the traditional starter. In a country with the world's highest per capita alcohol consumption (hey, it can't be easy living next door to North Korea), soju takes a whopping 97% of the spirits market. Psy is just sharing his countrymen's passion. I mean, who hasn't pranced around pretending to ride a horse after a few? On YouTube, the Psy 13 soju shot drinking contest may suggest how the star came up with his Gangnam Style schtick in the first place. In New York, bars hawk apple soju aperitifs and lychee soju slushies to Big Apple hipsters. A pioneering soju outlet at the LA Dodgers baseball arena sold out its supply after three games. 'K-Pop K-Shot' billboards sprouted across America, showing Psy clutching a bottle of Chamisul soju (available via Beers of Europe). Soju now sells in 80 countries, with a rising profile helped by Korean superstar Psy, who not only proclaimed soju his 'best friend' but also lent his dark-glassed visage to various campaigns to get the rest of the world smitten too. That would be three times more than Smirnoff. Jinro Soju – available at Waitrose and Amazon – has topped Drinks International's annual list of best-selling global spirits for years, notching up sales of 65m nine-litre cases in the 2013 list.

The answer is soju, national hooch of South Korea.

Any guesses? If you said vodka, back of the class. There's a brand of one particular spirit that sells more than twice as much as any other in the world.