Practical Whisky: Review Data

#370 Jinro Chamjin isulro Soju Other Korean

This cost is what I found the likely shelf price for a 750ml bottle to be, based on an average of costs throughout the USA. Your price may differ significantly. This is not an advertisement of sale, this bottle is likely empty by now anyway Cost

$15⁰⁰

00-09:	Horrid
10-19:	Awful
20-29:	Unpleasant
30-39:	Poor
40-49:	Below Average
50-59:	Average
60-69:	Recommendable
70-79:	Very Good
80-89:	Excellent
90-99:	Fantastic

Taste Score

The whisky's score as weighed against the cost of a bottle. Adj. Score

ABV

20%

Misc:

The capitalization is from the bottle. I've no idea what Chamjin isulro means.

Awards

Tasting # 402: SOJU! (26-OCT-2009)

Notes

In the spirit of inclusiveness, exploration and cool bottles of stuff made from barley, I've found this new =other= category member: Soju. Not all Soju is made with barley, apparently, so this doesn't get it's own category. As if I'm going to track down dozens of bottles of whatever this is.

1^st
Impression

Bottle is wonderfully exotic. Bamboo, Korean script and a little frog (the company brand) all add up to something cool. It's also a completely transparent liquid, which is unusual round these parts.

Smell

Sweet potato, rice wine, corn syrup and a sugary top. Very unusual. Reminds me a lot of other moonshine-inspired beverages, but with more sweet flavor on top.

Taste

Wow. That's simply astonishing. The light nose didn't suggest anything THIS mild. It opens with mineral water and almost nothing else. There is a slight build of a light herbal flavor (anise?) and a dull lime and brackish water flavor. Slippery on top, not quite into oily. Then there's a fade. How it can have a fade is hard to say. The end brings a few alcohol notes, gin more than anything along with more of that flat lime plus a tiny bit of sweetness and, wait! barley! Wow, I say again. This is 20% alcohol? I'm stumped on the overall score. The flavors are slightly odd, but I can't fault subtlety too much and the new flavor notes were fun. The texture is a bit too slick. The construction is odd with all the flavor in the finish, but is that a bad thing? In all, I'm in the 60s for the fun and what flavors I found, but this is just too mild and fast to move past curiosity into contemplation.

Tasting Score

Comments
	Richard 26-Oct-2009 17:13:06 GMT	To the best of my knowledge I've not had this brand of soju, but I've had a couple of others. To me, soju smells and tastes like really low grade sake. My understanding is that in Korea it is traditionally fermented from sweet potato or tapioca (although some lower end brands use whatever cheap source of starch they can get), and it is sold cheap and made potent for the masses to get drunk. And make no mistake, at 20% alcohol drinking a bottle of this will get you there.
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