As a Russian, I really like photographs. The custom of infusing vodkas with herbs and botanicals, like punchy horseradish and tangy black currant leaves, is one which’s particularly pricey to me. That’s why on the just lately opened Orion Bar in Bushwick, Brooklyn, I felt significantly at residence due to a variety of equally complicated, infused soju photographs, that are among the many many Korean consuming staples taking heart stage within the bar’s beverage program.
One of the attention-grabbing photographs is the Samgyetang Ju, which is impressed by a Korean rooster soup of the identical title that’s made with ginseng and different medicinal herbs. Restorative and hearty, the stick-to-your-bones dish is eaten each on scorching sizzling days to chill off and within the winter to heat up. As a shot, the serve—with notes of jujube, chestnut and licorice root—instantly seems like a heat hug.
To make the infusion, Orion Bar’s co-owner Irene Yoo makes use of Jinro 24 soju, chosen for its greater proof, which permits higher taste extraction. She combines it with samgyetang herbs, which could be discovered at Korean supermarkets as a package for the soup. From there, it’s a easy serve; “the toughest half about making this [soju] is getting a maintain of these herbs in bulk,” says Yoo. There isn’t any precise rooster broth within the shot—“so it doesn’t style like rooster soup,” she provides—however the infused herbs seize the identical comforting sensation nonetheless. They could even, she jokes, provide the identical well being advantages.
Yoo’s most well-liked solution to drink the shot is to chase it with the Korean power drink Bacchus D, which tastes like apple juice with a little bit of a medicinal tang. The pairing is offered on the bar’s menu because the Soju Vitality Bomb. “You may have that and you might be good to go for the night time,” says Yoo. “You’re energized, you’re vitalized, you’re like, ‘Let’s go!’” However even by itself, the Samgyetang Ju is ideal as a shot firstly of a meal or for sipping alongside dinner.
Like its namesake soup, samgyetang soju could be loved in any season: It’s inviting, comforting and brings folks collectively. I’ll be making a bottle for my vacation desk this yr, and I counsel you do the identical.
