Korean rivals to Japanese chuhai

Chamiboru

Brand: Jinro

Price: 168 yen

Place of purchase: 7-11 Convenience store

Rating:

Ever curious about Japan's neighbor country, music powerhouse, and origin of volcanically spicy foods, I had to have a go at Chamiboru, a drink produced by Jinro. Jinro's famed for its soju, a rice alcohol that is something like vodka for its potency. I tried two versions of the drinks. The katakana is rendered Chamiboru in Japanese, derived from the Korean name Chamisul. The two drinks are fresh lemon and muscat. The fresh lemon was as promised. It makes you pucker up. The muscat is hard to describe. More on that in the negative features part...

I drank this so you didn't have to. Seriously, these are potent, but nothing special. They're about 50-60 yen more than Japanese domestic brands of ready-to-drink shochu highballs. The fresh lemon version is about the same and nothing different from comparable Japanese citrus-flavored chuhai. The soju, Korean rice-based alcohol, is really clean, clear, and has not much to distinguish it. The muscat, meh. I found the flavor acrid and weird with really strong tannins. It tastes like tea that's been steeped too long.