Welcome to will.mx!
// January 31st, 2010 // No Comments » // korea
I’ve taken what used to be Space Gazelle and turned it into http://will.mx/wow. I wanted a simple name with a simple look. The old site wasn’t complicated at all, but I really wanted to create an essence of simplicity with this new theme. I took the WordPress theme Aether and redesigned it with a white background, some color swaps, and a different header.
I’m going to make an effort to blog more so you actually know what’s going on with me in Korea!
I went to the Kooksoondang facility yesterday. They are one of the largest, if not the largest, Korean liquor manufacturer. The tour was wonderfully sponsored by TheYeogiyo.com, a fantastic resource and social group for foreigners living in or near Seoul. TheYeogiyo.com arranged for two buses of foreigners, one from Seoul, the other from Bundang, to make the three hour trip east to Gangwon-do.
We ate lunch at a restaurant above this interesting business
The first half of the tour introduced the history and functions of the facility. There were many artifacts from decades or centuries-old methods of making makeolli, soju, and baekseju, the three liquors produced in Korea. Rice is to soju what potatoes are to vodka. Makeolli is a milky, white rice wine. And Baekseju, a golden substance, looks more like the white wines we are familiar with in the western world.
Father and son
The sitting, young looking father is chastising his standing, old looking son. The father looks so young because he drank Kooksoondang liquor, but the son drank some other company’s liquor and aged at a much faster pace.
Assorted bottles arranged decoratively
Where we would later be sampling alcohol
We got to see (through glass panels) the laboratory where they create new wines, the production facility where the wine is bottled and boxed, and shelves upon shelves of all the different bottles and wines that Kooksoondang has made since its foundation in 1952. There was even a part of the tour where we could scoop of handfuls to smell all the different spices and herbs that ferment in the wines.
One of the hallways
The Laboratory
Employees happily checking the bottles
Production Area
Shelves of bottles
This guy/technician was happy to pose for us
The second half was the “stand around and drink for free an unlimited supply of many kinds of wine” part of the tour. My favorite was Bookjookbe, a very sweet, berry wine. I probably butchered the name. I got rather tipsy within the first half hour so I slowed my intake down to about a tablespoon every fifteen minutes. We had entirely too much time to drink all this alcohol, so the bus ride back started off pretty rowdy. Eventually people either fell asleep, became hungover, or shouted, “Stop the bus!” when they had to urinate.
Sampling
All in all, it was a great trip. I look forward to more adventures from TheYeogiyo.com!
Just a select few of the bottles we emptied
