Julia Mellor's mission to globalize soju

Julia Mellor provides information about traditional Korean alcohol during an event at Hamel House in the Netherlands, March 18. Courtesy of The Sool Company

Many people think of soju, Korea's iconic distilled alcoholic beverage, as a cheap, low-quality liquor that comes in a green bottle and causes a killer hangover. But Julia Mellor, founder of The Sool Company, has made it her mission to evangelize the traditional rice-based version of the drink.

Recently, she set up a booth at the International Dutch Distillers Festival, where she gave two soju masterclasses for 110 guests introducing 3 craft sojus paired with Korean snacks.

"It was a totally Dutch festival, so the audience was very green and probably 90 percent of attendees had never heard of soju, so it was a really great opportunity," Mellor said of the event. "The encouraging thing is that once people taste these premium Korean spirits without preconceived ideas, the quality speaks for itself. To have the opportunity to present Korean soju to such a new audience with no background knowledge was an exciting milestone and gave us a confidence boost that we are headed in the right direction."

Mellor, an Australian, spent 17 years living in Korea, where she discovered her love for Korea's alcohol traditions. Not only did she learn about the various drinks based on centuries-old recipes, she also studied the craft of making them. At The Sool Company, founded in 2012, she taught classes in making traditional Korean alcohol, known in Korean as "sool," and also led guests on tasting tours. In 2023, she decided to move on, taking her mission to the Netherlands.

"I was becoming increasingly aware that developing the international market for sool while being in Korea had its limitations," she said. "After COVID, with 'Squid Game' and the way Korea's cultural star became so on the rise, there was this idea in the back of my mind that it was time to try and take sool out of Korea to make more of an impact."

Her original plan was to open a brewery in Europe for makgeolli, a cloudy beverage that is usually sold at about 8 percent alcohol by volume, but she ended up focusing on trade and market development to help support sool as an emerging category.

"Initially, most interest came from people who already loved Korean culture through food, K-pop or K-dramas," she said. "Today, we're seeing something different. Bartenders, importers, retailers and spirits enthusiasts are actively searching for the next emerging category and Korean traditional spirits are increasingly entering that conversation."

She consults with people who want to open their own makgeolli breweries and distilleries around the world. Her clients are in the U.S., Singapore and around Europe, including Korea Foods UK, which launched the first makgeolli brewery in the British Isles a few years ago with her help.

"The more people open breweries and distilleries locally, the more robust the industry will become, so consulting is a huge part of the overall mission," she said. "Being in Europe gives me a lot of opportunities and flexibility to build the market for sool. I'm still here because it's an investment in the next decade and beyond for sool. I know firsthand how long it can take to build a category and market, so I'm under no illusions that it will have explosive growth overnight."

She also participates in trade shows, such as Prowein in Germany, Vinexpo Paris and Bar Convent Berlin London. She has also worked with The Whisky Exchange, an importer and distributor in the U.K.

Julia Mellor provides information about traditional Korean alcohol at The Whiskey Exchange in the U.K., April 8. Courtesy of The Sool Company

"This year we are going even bigger," she said, revealing plans to showcase Korean spirits at Whisky Live Paris by La Maison du Whisky, The Whisky Show UK and the Falstaff Cocktail Festival in Vienna. "For me, these events are another sign of how far the category has come. Korean traditional spirits are increasingly appearing alongside the world's leading craft spirits, not because they're a novelty, but because they genuinely deserve to be part of that conversation."

Early in her journey, she focused mainly on makgeolli instead of soju.

"Back then, there was a real movement to revive traditional makgeolli, to move away from artificial sweeteners and preservatives and restore respect for what had largely become viewed as a cheap farmer's drink," she said. "Traditional or artisanal soju was a much smaller part of the conversation. The market was overwhelmingly dominated by the green bottle, and there were relatively few craft distilleries producing premium soju. Compared to today, it's almost unrecognizable."

International interest in soju increased over the pandemic, she said, as consumers became more interested in craftsmanship and supporting artisan producers. This led to a significant increase in the number of distilleries and the diversity of products, although traditional soju remains a niche category, even in Korea.

From a business and logistics perspectives, soju is better for export than makgeolli, as it has a significantly longer shelf life.

Mellor also points out that soju is more compatible with global liquor markets than makgeolli.

"International success doesn't necessarily depend on the domestic market embracing premium soju to the same extent," she said. "The global drinks industry already understands how to talk about spirits, whether that's whisky, mezcal, rum or gin. That makes traditional soju surprisingly easy to position internationally because people already have a framework for understanding craftsmanship."

She has found that Europeans are much more interested in strong sojus with alcohol by volume above 40 percent, while the diluted 20 percent soju more common in Korea is an unusual concept there.

"In Korea it's very much the opposite, where spirit strength can be perceived as 'too strong' because of domestic perceptions of what soju should be," she said.

Another major reason for Europeans' appreciation of soju is the lack of expectations. They are willing to pay more for premium bottles, unlike in the Korean market where 360-milliliter green bottles of soju sell for 1,600 won ($1.10), and any soju even slightly more expensive runs the risk of being perceived as a rip-off, no matter how premium.

"In Europe, the conversation is much less about price and much more about craftsmanship, authenticity and flavor," Mellor said.

The biggest challenge she faces in overcoming European expectations for soju comes not from the green bottles, but from flavored soju, which she says is dominant.

"When you say 'soju,' the assumption is that it will be a peach or blueberry," she said. "One of our biggest jobs is helping people discover that Korea also has an exceptional craft spirits industry producing premium traditional distilled soju, rice spirits and other amazing products."

Mellor and her team have spent a lot of time curating a selection of soju types. Aiming to showcase the diversity of soju, they represent both table-strength and spirit-strength soju, traditional and modern production methods, and producers with compelling stories rooted in local communities and heritage. They also promote Korean gin and an omija liqueur that she said is proving popular in Europe.

"We're trying to broaden how people think about enjoying soju," she said. "Rather than seeing it only as something consumed neat in shot glasses 'Korean style,' we encourage bartenders to explore it in classic cocktails, or imagine new interpretations. The success of soju internationally will be in helping consumers imagine how to enjoy it in a variety of ways."

A selection of traditional Korean alcohol and paired foods is presented at The Sool Company's studio in northeastern Seoul's Hyehwa-dong. Courtesy of the Sool Company

Meanwhile, The Sool Company remains active at its base in the Netherlands as well as Korea.

"I live and breathe The Sool Company, and it has been my sole focus for 15 years — for better or worse," she said. "Overall, we have been building The Sool Company to have its roots and network in Korea, which supports our development and expansion in Europe."

Along with her business partners Bona Kim and Valentin Janiaut, they have a team of instructors, brewers and business developers in Korea that handle day-to-day operations for tourism and cultural education activities.

They have their own makgeolli brewery and education studio in Hyehwa-dong, where they hold brewing and tasting classes. They recently launched new experiences such as "Sip & Paint," partnering with a minhwa (traditional Korean folk painting) artist, where guests learn traditional painting techniques while sipping house-brewed makgeolli.

They also work with tourist industry partners and help with logistics planning for alcohol industry visits. This includes teaming up with Netflix to create a soju cocktail bar for the afterparty following BTS' comeback concert in Gwanghwamun on March 21.

Visit julia-mellor.com for more information, or thesoolcompany.com to sign up for events.