The Origin of Soju: From Islamic Distillation Through the Mongol Empire to the World’s Best-Selling Spirit

As of 2023, the world’s best-selling distilled spirit brand was neither Scotch whisky nor vodka. It was Jinro Soju — 97.4 million cases sold annually, nearly four times the volume of Smirnoff, the second-place vodka at 25.75 million cases.^[1] Yet the more interesting story is not the sales figure itself. What is truly remarkable is that the drink we now call soju did not actually originate on the Korean Peninsula.

Tracing soju’s roots takes us across the steppes of Central Asia to the alchemical laboratories of the Islamic world. That technology then traveled east on the back of Mongol military campaigns, arriving on the soil of 13th-century Goryeo. Over the following 700 years, soju became a tribute beverage for the Joseon royal court, lost most of its traditional recipes during Japanese colonial rule, and came to be made by an entirely different method in the modern era — all while retaining the name soju. This is a story about the history of a drink, but it is equally a story about how technology moves through empires.

The Burning Drink: Origins Hidden in a Name

Soju (燒酒) is written with two Chinese characters: 燒 (to burn) and 酒 (liquor). “Liquor made by fire,” or “burnt liquor.” The name directly describes the distillation process — fermenting grain wine, boiling it to collect alcohol vapors, then cooling those vapors back into liquid.

The concept of the “burning drink,” however, was first refined in the Islamic world. The Arabic word araq means “sweat” or “distillate,” and Islamic alchemists developed the technique of separating alcohol from fermented liquid using a device called an alembic (from the Arabic al-inbiq) during the 8th and 9th centuries.^[2] Jabir ibn Hayyan perfected the alembic still and laid the foundations of distillation science.^[2]

This technology spread throughout the Islamic civilizational sphere, eventually coming into contact with the nomadic peoples of Central Asia. In the 13th century, the Mongols encountered the Islamic world and acquired the araq distillation technique, which they called arkhi in Mongolian.^[3] When the Mongols pushed into East Asia, the technology moved with them.

The Mongol Invasions and Goryeo: A Technology Transfer

The Mongol invasions of Goryeo, beginning in 1231, continued until 1259. Goryeo ultimately became a vassal state of the Mongol Yuan dynasty, and for approximately 80 years afterward the two maintained a deeply intertwined relationship. It is during this period, when Mongol forces were garrisoned on the Korean Peninsula for extended stretches, that the production technique for arkhi — that is, distilled spirits — is believed to have been transmitted to the local population.^[3]

Particularly noteworthy is the route of transmission. In the late 13th century, Kublai Khan of the Yuan dynasty used Goryeo as a logistical base for two attempted invasions of Japan (1274 and 1281).^[3] In the process, distillation technology was concentrated in the three main Mongol military stations on the peninsula — Gaeseong (Gaegyeong), Andong, and Jeju Island. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture records that these three regions subsequently became the areas where soju brewing techniques were most distinctively developed.^[4]

From the Arabic araq to the Mongolian arkhi, then on the Korean Peninsula first called arak or araegi before gradually settling into the Sino-Korean term soju (燒酒).^[4] The linguistic variation maps the technology’s migration route precisely. The word soju itself is a kind of cartography.

Academically, this transmission route is being established with increasing clarity. Hyunhee Park’s Soju: A Global History, published by Cambridge University Press in 2021, systematically analyzes how Mongol conquest created a hemisphere-wide current of technology transfer across the 13th and 14th centuries, and how soju reached Goryeo in the form of araq.^[10] In the same vein, Mesoamerica’s mezcal and Japan’s shochu (焼酎) are also understood as products of post-Mongol-era technological diffusion.

The Joseon Period: State-Regulated Prohibition and Permission

When Joseon (1392–1910) succeeded Goryeo, soju had thoroughly taken root in Korean food culture. Historical texts from the Joseon era contain abundant records concerning soju.

According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, the Joseon Annals record that ministers recommended soju to King Danjong when his health deteriorated,^[4] and in 1490 (the 21st year of King Seongjong’s reign), a censor named Jo Hyo-dong submitted a memorial arguing: “In the time of King Sejong, it was rare for aristocratic households to use soju, but now it is served even at ordinary banquets at enormous expense — it should be banned.”^[4] This record illustrates how rapidly soju was spreading from luxury item to everyday beverage.

From the mid-Joseon period onward, a culture of gayangjoo (家釀酒) — home-brewed liquor — flourished extensively. Each household brewed its own liquor, and by the late Joseon period virtually every family had its own distinct soju and medicinal liquor recipes. A document from 1894 records that as many as 314,000 households were engaged in home brewing at the time — a significant proportion of all households in the country making their own liquor.^[5] Joseon-era culinary texts such as Gyuhap Chongseo and Eumsik Dimibang contain detailed records of various soju distillation methods.

Joseon soju was made by fermenting grains such as rice, millet, and sorghum, then distilling the result once or multiple times in a traditional still called a sojutgori. Alcohol content typically ranged from 25 to 45 percent, and higher-grade soju underwent multiple rounds of distillation to produce a clearer, smoother flavor. Medicinal soju blended with herbal ingredients was also widely consumed.^[11]

Yet the Joseon government did not unconditionally permit soju. When harvests failed, it repeatedly issued orders temporarily banning soju production to preserve grain, and it also levied liquor taxes to generate revenue. The pattern of prohibition, permission, and renewed prohibition cycled throughout the Joseon era.^[5]

Japanese Colonial Rule: A Break in Tradition and the Birth of Diluted Soju

When Japanese colonial rule began in 1910, Korean liquor culture faced a fundamental rupture. The Japanese Government-General introduced a licensed production system through the Liquor Tax Act promulgated in 1909, reinforced by the strengthened Liquor Tax Ordinance of 1916, which effectively banned home brewing.^[5] The thousands of recipes passed down from household to household were largely lost during this period.

Simultaneously, a new method of producing soju developed in Japan was introduced to the Korean Peninsula. In 1919, Japanese businessmen established modern factories in Pyongyang and Incheon and began mass-producing diluted soju.^[5] Diluted soju is fundamentally different from the traditional distillation method. Cheap ingredients such as sweet potatoes, molasses, and tapioca are processed in a continuous distillation apparatus to produce high-purity ethyl alcohol reaching 95 percent, which is then diluted with water and sweetened.^[6]

Armed with its low price, diluted soju rapidly captured the market from traditional pot-distilled soju. In economically impoverished times, the price advantage was overwhelming. Even after liberation in 1945, this structure persisted, and in 1965, the Park Chung-hee government banned the distillation of grain-based soju outright, citing food shortages — at which point traditional pot-distilled soju effectively retreated into history.^[6] From this period onward, what Koreans came to call “soju” was in practice diluted soju: ethyl alcohol mixed with water and sweeteners.

Modern Soju: The Fork in the Road

The 1965 grain ban sent Korean soju down a path from which it has been difficult to return. Major producers including Jinro (now HiteJinro), which came to dominate the Korean market, established the diluted method as standard, and alcohol content was progressively reduced — from around 30 percent in the 1970s to 25 percent in the 1990s, and 16–17 percent after the 2000s.^[7]

The reasons for falling alcohol content are multifaceted: stricter enforcement of drunk-driving laws, growing health consciousness, an expanding female consumer base. From 2006 onward in particular, low-alcohol soju became the dominant market trend.^[7] As a result, today’s Korean soju is a beverage entirely different from the pot-distilled soju of the past in taste, composition, and method of production.

On the other side, however, a quiet movement toward traditional revival has continued. Regional traditional spirits such as Andong Soju, Leegangju, and Munbaeju maintained their lineage by receiving cultural heritage designations,^[8] and from the 2000s onward, premium pot-distilled soju brands began to emerge anew. Hwayo (花堯) and Ilpum Jinro released traditional-method rice soju at premium prices, leading the way in the revival of distilled soju.

Andong Soju is the emblematic case of this divergence. It was in Andong — the 13th-century Mongol military base used for the Japan campaigns — that the arkhi technique brought by the Mongols combined with local methods and evolved into something distinctly regional. A 17th-century culinary text records the method in detail: 18 liters of rice, 9 liters of nuruk (fermentation starter), and 36 liters of water are combined and fermented for seven days, then distilled in a sojutgori.^[8] Today Andong Soju is designated as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of North Gyeongsang Province, maintaining its traditional 45-percent alcohol content.

Global Soju: Spreading Worldwide with the Korean Wave

Soju’s modern expansion took off in earnest alongside the Korean Wave (hallyu, 韓流) of the 2000s. As soju gained exposure through Korean dramas and K-pop, consumption surged in cities where Korean restaurants proliferated — Tokyo, New York, London, Sydney, Bangkok.

Yet the reason soju sells more than any other spirit globally is not necessarily “global expansion” alone. The key to the sales statistics is domestic Korean consumption. For a country of 50 million people to consume 97.4 million cases annually implies an overwhelmingly high per capita consumption.^[1] Particularly since the 2010s, the appearance of somaek (soju mixed with beer) and flavored fruit soju has rapidly penetrated younger and international consumers.

Jinro has maintained its title as the world’s top-selling distilled spirit brand for 24 consecutive years as of 2024.^[1] Yet this global soju shares only a name with the soju drunk in medieval Goryeo — it is, in practical terms, a different beverage. It is not distilled from rice and nuruk in a sojutgori, nor does it maintain a direct manufacturing lineage with araq. The reality that a low-alcohol, flavored, diluted ethyl alcohol drink is tallied as the world’s best-selling “distilled spirit” is simultaneously a statistical fact and a strange irony.^[9]

The Same Technology, Different Outcomes

Viewing the soju story from a wider perspective reveals an interesting comparison noted by Professor Hyunhee Park.^[10] The araq distillation technology the Mongols spread influenced not only East Asia, but also Japan’s shochu (焼酎) and the Ryukyu Kingdom’s awamori (泡盛). Meanwhile, the distillation technology transmitted from the Islamic world to Europe became the basis for whisky, brandy, vodka, and gin.^[2] A single ancestral technology — araq — combined with each region’s climate, ingredients, and culture to produce entirely distinct beverages.

Within this lineage, the position occupied by Korean soju is distinctive. While Japan’s shochu still maintains its identity as a distilled spirit made from sweet potatoes, barley, or rice, modern Korean soju took the independent path of dilution. This divergence is no accident — it is a historical product of the technological introduction during Japanese colonial rule, the 1965 grain prohibition policy, and the mass consumption structure of Korea’s high-growth era.^[6]

The Question Soju Leaves Behind

Over 700 years, soju became a different drink many times over. The araq of the Perso-Islamic world became the Mongolian arkhi, then the Goryeo arak, then the Joseon soju, then — passing through Japanese colonial rule — a diluted ethyl alcohol beverage. At each stage, the name was retained in roughly similar form while the contents changed.

The force driving most of those changes was external pressure — imperial invasion, colonial policy, state management of food supply. Traditional pot-distilled soju survived in places like Andong, Jeju, and Gaeseong, where local memory held on tenaciously.^[4] The fact that the world’s best-selling name today is “soju” is itself a summation of all the transformations that name has carried. Once you know the history of the bottle, what is inside looks different.