Korean food
Soju bomb (somaek): the ratio, the beer and how strong it gets
소맥
Soju mixed into beer, usually one part to three. The ratio, the beer to use, the named ways of mixing it, and the arithmetic behind a glass that looks like lager but is about 60 per cent stronger.
A soju bomb, or somaek (소맥), is soju mixed into beer; the name joins soju and maekju, the Korean word for beer. HiteJinro’s own drinking guide gives the ratio as one part soju to three parts beer. With 15.7 per cent soju and a 4.6 per cent lager, that glass comes out at about 7.4 per cent.
Somaek recipe and ratio
The one-to-three figure comes from a consumer guide HiteJinro published in 2012 on serving temperatures and mixing. The other ratio you will hear in Korea is 3:7, and people move anywhere between about 2:8 and 5:5 to suit themselves.
- 50 ml plain soju
- 150 ml cold Korean lager
- A beer glass, plus a spoon or a pair of chopsticks for mixing
- Put the soju and the beer in the same glass, one part to three.
- Stir gently, or use one of the named mixing methods.
- Drink it at the pace of a strong drink, which is what it is.
- In Korean
- 소맥 (so-maek)
- Name from
- Soju plus maekju, the Korean word for beer
- Standard ratio
- 1 part soju to 3 parts beer (HiteJinro guide, 2012)
- Other common ratio
- 3:7
- Strength at 1:3
- About 7.4% with 15.7% soju and 4.6% lager
- Family
- Poktanju (폭탄주), bomb liquor
- Usual beer
- Korean pale lager
How strong is a soju bomb?
The arithmetic uses the makers’ own figures: Chamisul Fresh at 15.7 per cent in Korea (the soju guide covers why that number keeps falling), Chamisul Original at 20.1 and Terra lager at 4.6.
| Soju : beer | Soju used | Beer used | Glass comes out at |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 : 3 | 15.7% | 4.6% | about 7.4% |
| 3 : 7 | 15.7% | 4.6% | about 7.9% |
| 1 : 3 | 20.1% | 4.6% | about 8.5% |
| Beer on its own | none | 4.6% | 4.6% |
So a standard somaek is about 60 per cent stronger than the lager it looks like, and it comes in the same kind of glass. That gap is the thing to keep in mind over several rounds.
Best beer for somaek
The standard mix is diluted green-bottle soju with a Korean pale lager such as Cass, Terra or Hite. Particular pairings even have nicknames in Korean: Terra with Chamisul is Tesla (테슬라), and Terra with Jinro is Tejina (테진아).
How to drink a soju bomb
Korean drinkers have names for the ways of mixing it.
- Spoon. A spoon tapped gently into the glass to stir it.
- Chopsticks. Two chopsticks held in a V inside the glass and struck from above.
- Titanic. The soju glass is floated on top of the beer, then sunk.
- Tornado (회오리, hoeori). Chopsticks drawn upward through the glass to spin the mix.
- The drop. A shot glass of soju let fall into the beer.
The drop is the classic method, and it came with a ritual: the glass was downed quickly and the empty shot glass rattled inside it for applause. That is a drinking game, not the recipe, and the drink is the same sipped.
Where somaek came from
Somaek is the soju branch of poktanju (폭탄주), bomb liquor, the family of drinks made by putting a spirit into beer. Nobody agrees on how it reached Korea. One account credits soldiers who trained in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Another dates the whisky and beer version to the early 1980s, at a gathering of prosecutors, police officers and journalists in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province. A third ties the habit to salaried workers under pressure in the boom years.
Whisky was the spirit in the early versions. Soju took its place because it was cheaper and easier to find, and the name somaek followed.
Questions people ask
How do you pronounce somaek? In two syllables, so-maek, written 소맥. The second syllable rhymes with neck.
Is a soju bomb the same as somaek? Near enough. Somaek is the Korean name for soju and beer however they are mixed; the bomb in the English name points to the drop, where a shot glass of soju falls into the beer.
What is a somaek glass? A beer glass printed with fill lines for the soju and the beer, so the ratio comes out the same every round without measuring.
