Hello everyone meet my new friend.... His name is Soju.

Yesterday some people from work and I went to hike Mount Jirisan, the tallest mountain in Korea. From bottom to top the trek was over 20  kilometers and took nearly the entire day. Naturally after a long hike your stomach starts to grumble, and you want to eat as much as physically possible. (for me that is allot). Luckily, we found a wonderful traditional Korean restaurant nearby that had an unlimited crab dinner. The crab was a local freshwater Korean king crab. (which is delicious ) After eating plate after plate of crab, we ordered a round of soju bottles for the table. Soju has become one of my favorite drinks here in Korea and after several rounds ordered, I got the thought to write about the Korean traditional alcohol drink.

Soju is 20%~45% alcoholic drink which looks and tastes like vodka but sweeter. It is made from rice, potato, wheat, barley or sweet potato. The bottle that it is in is almost always green. It is the cheapest alcohol drink in South Korea, it costs about 2,000 Wan (2$). You may read about soju history and brands here, but I want to teach you how to drink soju properly.

Koreans usually go to drink with their friends, colleagues, relatives, even with teachers. It is very common for students to have dinner and drink soju with their seniors and professors. Drinking with them you show your respect.

Korean etiquette in drinking soju:

1. You can not fill your glass yourself. It's a bad manner and also makes Soju a very social (and socially responsible drink... well sort of)

2. When someone elder is going to fill your glass you should keep your glass with two hands. If someone younger is doing that, one hand is enough (pic1).

3. When you are going to fill someone elder's glass it's polite to keep a bottle with two hands (pic2).

4. Before drinking people usually clink glasses (pic3).

5. If you are a woman it is polite to turn side and drink (pic4).

6. Usually when Koreans drink they say "one shot" that means "bottoms up".

Some soju sexy posters :)

Drinking soju is a very common tradition in Korea, and drinking in the traditional way will always help you to make a lot of friends.