By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
A hot bowl of bean sprout soup used to be the most reliable cure for mornings after a big night out. But today's local drinkers ― who want a quicker, surefire relief ― say they need more, leading to a size up of the local hangover remedy market to one of the world's biggest.
The 100 billion won market, which mainly consists of bottled drinks, first began in the early 1990s, but a speedy growth was driven by the traditional heavy-drinking culture here, coupled with workplace pressure.
``Get drunk with your boss and have all the fun in the world, but if you don't show up freshened up the next day, last night's bonding can be meaningless,'' said Kang Sung-gon, a spokesman of CJ, the maker of No. 1 selling remedy drink Condition.
As the first-ever drink of its kind made domestically, the green-bottled solution has kept its lead market position since 1992. And with last year's sales adding up to almost 50 billion won, CJ recently celebrated selling its 2 millionth bottle.
Catching up next are Dong-A Pharmaceutical's Morning Care and Glami's Dawn 808.
As the maker of the hit energy drink Bacchaus, Dong-A stepped into the hangover cure market just two years ago with Morning Care.
Although Morning Care ― similar to Condition ― uses glutamate as its key ingredient, which helps prevent fast relief from morning after symptoms, it also includes milk thistle to protect the liver.
Having sold its 5 millionth bottle recently with last year's sales at 14 billion won, company officials say the drink debuted on a high note.
Another latecomer Glami's Dawn 808, which comes in the form of canned tea, is also attracting hungover consumers with its herbal ingredients.
Ringing up sales worth 30 billion won in 2006, Dawn 808 is currently exported to 11 countries worldwide.
Aside from Glami, CJ and other makers are also eying the overseas market, as Korea seems to have a uniquely developed hangover cure market and effective remedies to go with it.
A recent survey by the Danish Bacon and Meats Council's office said that nearly half of the British population relied on bacon to get out of a painful hangover, while another survey said Americans' main cure after heavy drinking is greasy food, especially pizza.
``There's definitely room for global expansion, as many of the developed markets still don't have such a wide variety of alcohol remedies,'' said Kang of CJ.