I've posted a lot about food, but I haven't really talked about drinks much on here. I've been on the search for specific things recently, so I might as well write about it.
Alcohol here is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, soju is everywhere and it's pretty inexpensive. On the other hand, have fun finding something stronger than beer that isn't soju. There are fun flavors that are popular right now, but it's like flavored vodka - everyone defaults to the original. I know stores where I can find vodka and Kahlua, but I have yet to find spiced rum. Maybe one day I will find Sailor Jerry on a shelf and do a happy dance in the middle of the store. One day.
Beer is...well, I don't care much for beer, so it probably says something for how tasteless it is that I can drink Korean beer without any problem whatsoever. In most places, you can find Japanese beers and possibly a couple American and German options alongside the Korean ones. Sometimes you'll even see Guinness, but that's much less common.
Cider is starting to pick up in popularity, albeit very slowly. I've seen Strongbow and Somersby's in a couple marts and convenience stores, but very few. I've been missing Angry Orchard like mad and thought it would a long time before I could have it again, but apparently Korea started importing it in August. I never would have known if a friend of a friend hadn't stumbled across it. My friend remembered the name because I've been constantly mentioning how much I miss it, so she immediately told me.
What did I do? I went out on an adventure with nothing but vague directions, high hopes, and a picture of the bottle my friend had received from her friends and passed on to me. (I drank it before leaving. I couldn't resist. Who cares if it's 2 p.m. here? It's midnight back in Ohio.)
I had two destinations in mind. The first was an import beer shop in Hongdae that I found on Naver, which is basically Korean Google. I didn't know if they would have what I wanted, but since it was waaaay closer than the other one, it was worth a shot. The second was an unnamed craft beer/import beer shop somewhere in the French area of Seoul. I didn't even know there was a French area of Seoul.
The Hongdae shop was pretty easy to find, but it was tiny. Itty bitty. They had individual bottles for sale of various different beers, and I was surprised how many I actually recognized. They only had one cider, but it was the one I was looking for. Victory!
On to the mystery shop. The people who originally found the cider remembered the area of town the shop was in, but nothing beyond that. Luckily for me, it's not a huge area. I didn't even have to walk down the main street for very long before I caught sight of a sign for craft beer, and it turned out to have exactly what I was looking for. This was a combination bar/shop, and the shop area wasn't much bigger than the one in Hongdae. They also only sold by the bottle, but they had a lot more variety (and a lot more of each). Their Angry Orchard was slightly more expensive than the Hongdae shop, so I picked up a couple ciders that I haven't tried before instead. I had no idea if it was good or not, but there was a deal where I got a free glass if I bought two bottles of it, so I figured I might as well.
So, all in all, it was a productive adventure!
(One of these days I'm going to remember to start taking pictures of everywhere I go so I don't have gigantic boring chunks of text on my blog. One day. Maybe. Possibly.)
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