SEOUL – Millennials and older Gen Z in South Korea cannot get enough of whisky, sending imports of the grain alcohol surging. 

The country imported 8,443 tonnes of whisky from largely the United Kingdom and the United States in the first three months of 2023.

This was up 78 per cent from the prior-year period, according to data from the Korea Customs Service.

It marks the biggest first-quarter increase in the figures that go back to the year 2000 and the second-highest level after the end of 2022, the data show.

The deluge reflects changing preferences among the country’s so-called “MZ Generation” of millennials and Gen Z.

Whisky imports have been rising steadily since the end of Covid-19 restrictions, when young South Koreans switched to the darker and heavier grain beverage that can be mixed with soda to make a highball or used in cocktails. 

Mr Park Jihong, the owner of music bar Strange Fruit in the trendy Hongdae neighbourhood in western Seoul, says his customers are drinking more Jameson Irish whiskey these days.

“Whisky is more and more popular with young people, and they don’t drink much compared with our generation – I think they’re interested in tasting whisky,” said the 56-year-old Park.

Jameson is popular at his bar because “it’s not expensive, quite good and easy to drink”, he said.

Beer remains king, with the volume of imports about seven times that of whisky in the January to March period.

However, imports declined 8 per cent.

Sales of whisky, brandy and rum exceeded soju – the country’s national drink – in the first two months of 2023, according to data from E-Mart, one of Korea’s biggest retail operators. 

More than one-third of whisky sales in 2022 were to people in their 20s and nearly half to people in their 30s, according to Yonhap News, citing data from GS25, a major convenience store operator in the country.

More than half of whisky buyers at CU, another corner shop chain, were in their 20s and 30s. BLOOMBERG