Did we need further proof that my fellow Koreans really, really like to drink and has deserved its reputation as the “Irish of the Orient”? Maybe not, but we got it this past week anyway. According to the Millionaires’ Club, a British that ranks alcohol, Korea’s Jinro Soju was the world’s best selling liquor last year.
Some 61.38 million cases of Jinro were sold last year, which is pretty impressive for a product that most people outside of Korea have probably never heard of. Second place finisher Smirnoff Vodka sold “only” 24.70 million cases. And if further proof of Korean dominance was needed, the third spot on the list went to Lotte Liquor Soju.
And lest you think this is an unusual victory, it should be noted that Jinro has topped the list for eleven years in a row, reaching an all-time record high in 2008 when it sold 75.99 million cases.
Finally, if you like your alcohol with a little Korean flavah but aren’t into soju…ladies and gentlemen, I give you kimchi beer:
Go Korea! Hwighting!
I think i need to stage an intervention for my town. I am always steppin in vomit in the train and bus. Old drunk dudes are always tryin to “bang,bang.” That is a problem.
This might actually be a little misleading. Soju is sold primarily in 360-375 ml bottles, and vodka is typically sold in 750 ml bottles. If you compensate for this in terms of volume per case, it would take 2 cases of soju to equal 1 case of vodka (assuming they both have an equal number of bottles, like 12 per case). So, if this is the case, the numbers are not as disparate as the originally seem, because soju outsold vodka with a total sale of about 30.75 million cases. It’s still more than vodka, but not as dramatic a number.
Andrew, did you factor in the populations numbers?
This seems accurate to me, considering that soju in korea costs less than 1USD in grocery stores and less than 3 at restaurants. The alcohol percentage is also half that of hard alcohol like vodka. So it makes sense that it’s sold the most cases, but probably doesn’t make as high a gross total