mouthfeel

The next few days promise to be a glut of work things, so I’ll just leave you with this: summer is officially here. The subways have turned up their air conditioning systems. It is warm, tee-shirt-at-night weather, heady and debilitating. Peep this street stand in the Myeongdong shopping district, serving you mini cocktails on your retail binge for less than a buck. Why the good ol’ USA condemns outdoor drinking, I’ll never know.

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.

바나나맛우유: Binggrae’s very popular banana milk would not be out of place next to the Yoo-hoos at the American supermarket. You might worry that something labeled as such would be overly saccharine or thick, but fear not. Just the merest hint of banana emerges from the perfectly regular consistency of whole milk. In fact, it tastes like the sweetened milk left over after eating a bowl of Cheerios (but not as sugary as something like, say, Lucky Charms).

치즈우유: Cheese-flavored milk (via fatmanseoul)

처음 처럼: Soju brand that translates to “like the first time.” Smooth, virtually no taste; so, a misnomer in one sense. But I suppose it enables you to drink to the point where it feels like that seminal moment.

Mixed with some pineapple yogurt drink — my nightcap. Cheers, ladies and gents.

옥수수 수염차: Chilled corn tea. Ultra light buttered corn taste, refreshing and clean. Available at your supermarket.

아침햇살: “Morning sun” or “morning sunshine” — something to that effect. Slightly sweet, grain-type drink (brown rice?). The very first drink I had upon arrival in Seoul this time around.