Spirits | United States | Matchbook Distilling | Hana Soju 20

Hana Soju 20

NOTES

In collaboration with Matchbook Distilling Co.,Hana Makgeoll introduces their first ever distillate, Hana Soju 60. A still strength soju, aged in glass, Hana Soju 60 is a traditionally made soju carefully crafted from organically grown rice, nuruk and time. Born out of the desire to share the rich and bold possibilities of jeontongju (traditional Korean alcohols), Hana Soju 60 is all at once, fruity, earthy and floral.

Each bottle of this small run was assembled lovingly by the teams at Hana Makgeolli and Matchbook Distilling Co. Any person pouring from a bottle of Hana Soju 60 has the opportunity to taste it as originally tasted, straight off the still.

Distiller's notes: "Our original plan was straightforward: run a first pass on the pot still to separate alcohol and flavor from water and solids, then switch to a column still—selecting only the most delicate aromatics, as with Hana 60, a single pass pot column. But the liquid coming off the pot still stopped us in our tracks: cool, sweet-salty, and alive with tarragon and shiso. It recalled a just-shucked spring oyster—cucumber and melon over ocean brine, a wisp of umami kissed with rice wine. It was perfect. So we adjusted the distillation on the fly—tightened the hearts cut, slowed the pace, and embraced a single-pass pot distillation. It’s an uncommon practice that leaves the spirit a little wilder—funkier, grassier, earthier—but here, that raw expressiveness is exactly the point. Post-distillation, we added just a pinch of salt and pinch of sugar to make the salty-sweet interplay sing."