Travel with Angela Lansbury: Bright Red Rice Wine From Korea

Korea's toe in the far south has an area called Jindo where they have been making a folk liquor for 1,200 years. The red colour of this rice wine is attractive, but what is it. A bit like sake, the alcohol comes from distilling rice. But what is the origin of the colour, and the distinguishing feature. It is made with the added ingredient of a local perennial, herbacious plant which grows wild in the mountainous area. It is bottled in a curvy, stout, broad-shouldered bottle, transparent so that you can appreciate the colour.

Cheongju (청주; 淸酒; literally "clear wine"), sometimes romanized as Chungju, is a clear, refined rice wine of Korean origin.

Names

The word cheongju (청주; 淸酒) consists of two characters: cheong (청; 淸) meaning "clear" and ju (주; 酒) meaning "alcoholic drink".

It is bottled in several sizes. The smallest is 200 ml, whilst the largest is 700 ml. Most of the bottles are clear glass. The red colour of the contents attracts the eyes.

However, equally intriguing are the black, or white, porcelain bottles. The bottles are teardrop shape, or you might say pear shape.

How do you drink this charming drink? In a clear tumbler glass which curves out slightly, gently at the top.

The density of the drink enables you to create and sunrise, (or sunset )contrast by pouring the red rice wine, ever so slowly, on top of yellow beer or yellow cider.

Andong Soju

Another Korean use of white porcelain bottles, and one style a lady's face and a man's face, is Andong Soju. However, equally attractive are the opaque white porcelain bottles of the Andong Soju. I especially liked the ones with the lady's face. The one with the man's face is a bit scary.

More details below.