I was in downtown Seoul last night drinking with some Korean friends. We had many bottles of soju… Oy! My head!
Before opening a new bottle of soju, one of the guys I was drinking with would pick up the bottle, turn it upside-down, and rap it several times with his elbow. I have observed Koreans do this with a new bottle of soju several times (though this is the first time I have seen it done with the elbow…), and the explanation has always been along the lines of: “There is some poisonous alcohol that rises to the top of the bottle if it sits upright too long, so you must shake it up a bit before opening the bottle to mix it up.”
Huh? Aside from the fact that all alcohol is poisonous (at least according to my throbbing head! :p), what could possibly be in this stuff that might rise to the top and cause harm (or perhaps I should say MORE harm than regular alcohol)? And if that were the case, why would mixing it back in help (keep in mind that these are pretty small bottles…)?
Ah, local customs. IMHO, this is just something that everyone does because “that’s the way it’s always been done”.
Mixing would have no effect at all if you will drink the whole thing in short time. Besides, after sloshing around after taking a few drinks, it would be pretty well mixed anyway. Then there’s also the fact of whether or not it would be legal to sell a product that was highly poisonous. I know some countries have pretty lax consumer safety laws, but still…
I agree entirely, jk1245, which is why this puzzles me so… however:
Let me see… tobacco, alcohol, cheeseburgers, any number of over-the-counter drugs, rat poison, herbicides, etc. (don’t mean to nit-pick, but there are lots of highly poisonous thing being sold here in Korea as well as other countries)
When mirobes ferment carbohydrates, they usually make ethanol, but also a certain proportion of other substances, like methyl, propyl, butyl, and amyl alcohols, certain aldehydes like acetaldehyde and certain esters like ethyl acetate. These are called congeners. Some of them are more poisonous than ethyl alcohol, but they are normally found only in small amounts. Fusel oil (the alcohols heavier than ethyl alcohol) are sometimes blamed for causing hangovers. As far as I know, all of the important congeners are soluble in water or alcohol (and in most cases both), so they should not rise to the top but stay in solution.
Soju is a distilled product, which should tend to decrease the amount of congeners unless they do a really crappy job of distilling.
That should give me a little ammo next time I’m out with my friends… but is there anything that would rise to the top and necessitate a good shaking before drinking?
They may do a really crappy job of distilling… I wouldn’t know (but wouldn’t be surprised!).
BTW, I have also seen Koreans take the top off the bottle, and hold a lighted match or lighter to the top of the bottle to burn off the alcohol fumes at the top of the liquid with the same excuse (poisonous alcohol…).