Korean alcoholic drinks

Korean name
Jusageobae (holding a drinking party)
by Hyewon (1758–1813)
Korean name
Hangul
Revised Romanizationsul
McCune–Reischauersul
IPA[sul]
Suffix
Hangul
-술
Revised Romanization-sul
McCune–Reischauer-sul
IPA[sul]
Suffix 2
Hangul
-주
Hanja
Revised Romanization-ju
McCune–Reischauer-chu
IPA[tɕu]

Korean cuisine has a wide variety of traditional alcoholic drinks, known as sul (). Many of these drinks end with the Sino-Korean word -ju (; ), and some end with the native Korean word -sul. The Sino-Korean -ju is not used as an independent noun.

There are an estimated 1,000 or more kinds of alcoholic drinks in Korea. Most are made from rice, and are fermented with the aid of yeast and nuruk (a wheat-based source of the enzyme amylase). Fruits, flowers, herbs, and other natural ingredients have also been used to craft traditional Korean alcoholic drinks. There are six distinct flavors: sweet, sour, pungent, roasted, bitter, and spicy. When the flavors are balanced, the alcohol is considered of good quality.