더덕동동주: The aroma of this unfiltered wine (very similar to makgeolli) carries an earthy aroma disclosing its roots in… roots, specifically of the bonnet bellflower. It is initially unassuming, typically home-brewed and served in glazed earthenware bowls. But the first sip — such elegant sweetness, a tease of carbonation and perfume, with the barest suggestion of grain and malt (and it’ll stay that way if you don’t drink down to the bottom of that bottle). This beverage is your genteel elderly relative, who had, unbeknownst to you, lived a playboy’s life, traveling around the globe and mucking it up with the upper crust, before some political regime took over, leaving him with only a great deal of pride and a wish to retire to the mountainside to read Milton.
OK, real talk: shit is lethal. You can’t taste the booze at all, but it will fuck you up. Three bowls, and I was rocking back and forth inside my head while sitting still. I don’t know where the hell to get this stuff outside of the Taebaek Mountains, so you are shit out of luck in Seoul or wherever the fuck you are, friend.
