Soju (English pronunciation: /ˈsoʊdʒuː/; Korean: 소주; Hanja: 燒酒) is a clear and colorless distilled alcoholic beverage,[1][2][3] traditionally made from rice, but later from other grains and has a flavor similar to vodka.

Soju often appears similar to several other East Asian liquors while differing in alcohol contents.

[6][18] Soju was then made from ethanol distilled to 95% ABV from sweet potatoes and tapioca, which was mixed with flavorings, sweeteners, and water.

The policy required each provincial alcohol wholesaler to purchase more than 50 percent of their soju from within their own province.

This policy gave the government the responsibility to administer ethanol spirit, the main ingredient in soju.

Each soju company was designated an amount based on their national market share in the previous year.

In the 1980s and 1990s, there was a trade liberalization trend which led the Korean government to begin deregulating the soju industry.

As a result of this loss in market share, local soju companies lobbied to reintroduce the protection policies that had been removed.

In response, the National Assembly of South Korea reintroduced the mandatory local soju purchase policy in October 1995.

[29] Soju is a popular Korean alcoholic beverage, with over 917 million liters being sold in Korea.

[32] While this simple idea allowed multiple companies to recycle the same bottle, increasing their savings while benefiting the environment, consumer participation needed to be improved.

In 2015 South Korea revised an act that promoted recycling and it was found that the return of soju bottles increased significantly.

[32] The return of recyclable materials is driven by South Korea's Beverage Container Deposit System.

This system imposes a deposit on recyclable containers that is included in the sale price and refunded upon return.

With this system households purchase government-issued trash bags while recyclables are separated and collected for free.

[35] Local governments set the price of these bags based on volume and are adjusted to reflect the cost of the waste management process.

According to the Korea Times, Soju manufacturing companies Hite and Muhak introduced non-standard bottles.

Another consequence is that the manufacturers of similar distilled spirits from other parts of Asia, such as Japanese shōchū, have begun to re-label their products as soju for sale in those regions.

[45] Jinro is the largest manufacturer of soju, accounting for half of all white spirits sold in South Korea.

"like the first time") of Lotte Chilsung (롯데칠성) and Good Day (좋은데이) of Muhak (무학) are increasing their market share.

[48] The Daegu Metropolitan Area has its own soju manufacturer, Kumbokju, with the popular brand Cham (참).

[52] In South Gyeongsang Province and Ulsan, the most popular is Good Day (좋은데이), produced by Muhak in Changwon.

West 32 Soju won a gold medal at the 2017 New York International Spirits Competition.

It is distilled according to the German Purity Law (the Reinheitsgebot) for grain spirits of 1789 and uses 100% regional winter wheat and organic rice.

It mainly contains fruit flavor and produces and sells soju with low frequency.

[65] A poktan-ju (폭탄주) ("bomb drink") consists of a shot glass of soju dropped into a pint of beer (similar to a boilermaker); it is drunk quickly.