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25-degree whiskey to be launched to compete with soju

Posted July. 12, 2016 07:50,   

Updated July. 12, 2016 07:58

한국어
It has been only a year since a whiskey of only 30 alcohol degree was released to the market, and now a new brand of less than that was launched, bringing about a heated debate. The whole industry is concerned whether the whiskey similar to the degree of soju will be a breakthrough for the shanty industry.

The booze industry is largely split after Lotte Liquor launched "Black Joker Mild," a whiskey brand with its alcohol degree at 25. “We decided to take a challenge with whiskey as we see that light liquor became a new trend,” said a member of Lotte Liquor. It is the first whiskey product with such a low alcohol degree launched in Korea.

An industry insider positively commented on the change projecting “consumers who like soft, light liquor will think 25-degree whiskey trendy.” Other experts expected that it may be a one hit wonder, but will not be able to draw sufficient demand in the long term, adding that a 25-degree whiskey will fail to appeal to soju-lovers with its 25-degree alcohol.

There is controversy over whether categorizing a 25-degree ‘whiskey’ similar to soju as ‘whiskey’ is appropriate. In fact, before Jinro introduced a 23-degree soju in 1988, 25 had been the standard for soju. “A term ‘pseudo-whiskey’ is becoming popular within the liquor industry,” said another insider.

Lotte’s competitors are gauging whether to follow suit. There are already enough whiskies around 30-degree alcohol in the market. Since Golden Blue, a domestic whiskey producer, was first successful with a 36.5-degree whiskey, the market saw the likes coming one after another.

Such a trend of lowering the alcohol degree of whiskey is seen as a strategy to broaden the market boundary in the face of recession, which did not spare the industry. The Korea Alcohol & Liquor Industry Association estimated that the volume of sales shrunk to 1.74 million boxes last year from 2.38 million in 2007, while sales of low-alcohol whiskey of 40-degrees and lower, keeps growing, accounting for more than 30 percent of the whiskey market. “There is a chance that 20, 21-degree whiskey will come to the market as more consumers prefer lighter booze,” said an association staff.



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