Drink mixing popular among office workers
Korea's distilled liquor Soju was found to be the most popular drink office workers mixed with beer, according to a recent survey. / Korea Times file
As can be presumed from Koreans’ love for “somaek,” it comes as no surprise that mixing drinks is a widely enjoyed practice here. “Somaek” is a mixture of beer and Korea’s distilled liquor Soju.
Among 1,000 office workers aged 19 to 59, who chugged beer in the past three months, 69.1 percent mixed the drink with other types of alcohol or beverage, a recent survey by online research firm Macromillembrain showed.
Their favorite mixture was somaek. In the questionnaire where respondents could check multiple answers, 96.8 said they mixed beer with soju.
Drinks following soju were soft drinks (34.4 percent), hard liquor (33.7 percent), red vinegar (15.2 percent), sports drinks (11.1 percent) and Korean rice wine makgeolli (7.4 percent).
Drinkers said they opted for somaek because it lifts people’s spirits (44.2 percent), because of recommendations from fellow drinkers (42.9 percent) and because the mixture enhances the taste of the drink (41.4 percent).
The survey also showed how often office workers drank during the week. Among the respondents, 61.8 percent were found to drink beer at least once during the week with 28.9 percent drinking two to three times a week, 25.6 percent once a week, 5.2 percent four times a week and 2.1 percent almost every day.
The most popular places to drink were bars (73.1 percent), homes (68.7 percent), beer houses (63.1 percent) and restaurants (61.1 percent). Others also enjoyed drinking at convenience stores (9.3 percent) clubs (6 percent) and street vendors (5.3 percent).
The types of beer people ordered varied according to drinking spots. People opted for domestic brand beers at restaurants (90.7 percent), homes (64.8 percent) and bars (90.7 percent). However, at beer houses more chose foreign beer brands (45 percent) over domestic brands (22.7 percent).
Moreover, the survey showed that domestic brand beer, albeit cheaper, lags behind in terms of taste. Among respondents, 63.6 percent chose domestic beer because it is costs less and 32.6 percent because they offered more discounts. However, those drinking foreign brand beers said they did so because it was tastier (63.8 percent), offered a different taste (48.8 percent) and a greater variety (44.9 percent).