Chosanjung vinegar goes global after wowing natives

½Åż· ±âÀÚl½ÂÀÎ2020.08.28l¼öÁ¤2020.08.28 10:00

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The history of fermented food goes back to the beginning of civilization. Records tell us that Asar taught people how to brew alcoholic beverages during the time of ancient Egypt and Bacchus in ancient Greece taught people how to make wine. In Korea, Dongmyeong of Goguryeo in a founding story includes liquor with which we can assume the history of fermented food goes back before the Three Kingdom era. 

It was from 1800 that people started artificial fermentation after Pasteur. Today, fermented food is received for the reason of being healthy rather than of eating one kind of many food. Talking of fermented food, Koreans have developed a variety of lines from worldly famous kimchi to soy bean paste, red pepper paste, soy sauce, pickles and vinegar. 

Chosanjung

Chosanjung is known by many as the pioneer of Korean fermented vinegar. Before the Japanese banned home liquor during the colonial era, Koreans made vinegar from naturally grown grains: grains must go through state of liquor to be vinegar. Many thought we lost traditional way of making vinegar but Chosanjung CEO Han Sang-jun revived the very method.

More than 500 traditional Korean fermenting jars are lined in the fermentation room at Chosanjung in Yecheon County, North Gyeongsang Province. It is the very site that CEO Han is making vinegar as our ancestors did. No cutting edge tech gadgets or chemical substances were observed but only the natural ingredients and time. He might at least use light plastic containers instead of heavy pottery jars but he seems to firmly attached to nothing but the tradition. 

Han spent considerable amount of time studying grains and fermentation. He read extensively and traveled far and wide over Korea. He once frequented Kagoshima, Japan, to learn how Japanese made vinegar and use it as reference. 

His hard work eventually answered after numerous failures. He found answer in five grains including brown rice, sorghum and glutinous millet. Dividing each liquor, yeast and acetic anhydride into 15 days of fermentation, he further fermented the vinegar underground for a year. He then filtered the vinegar to make 'ogok-meyong-cho' (five grains vinegar). 

Ogok-myeong-cho (five grains vinegar)

His masterpiece Ogok-myeong-cho being completed, he visited wherever people gather from highway resting area to markets and knocked every door of TV channels. A TV channel answered his hard work and Ogok-myeong-cho started making presence in the vinegar market. 

As things happen all at once, he won the grand prize at the essay contest held by the Korea Forestry Promotion Institute, introduced 'standard for traditional grains vinegar' in cooperation with the Korea Food Research Institute, and opened Han Sang Jun Vinegar School in 2013. 

900 students have went through the school for the last 7 years. Also, he established the Korean Traditional Vinegar Makers Association and took the first president's role and is holding every year the Korea Fermentation and Vinegar Conference which to be held at COEX from August 7 this year.

Vinegar is known to help metabolism. Ogok-myeong-cho in particular is rich in amino acid and Han says taking it for a long time can help reduce blood pressure and fatigue and improve digestion. 

"You can have Ogok-myeong-cho with water or honey or use as dressing or source" guides Han. 

To diversify the product lines, Han also developed 'gamyangcho' similar to Italian balsamic but has sweeter taste. The 75 brix of sugar content makes it easy to drink with water or dip a bread to eat. Peter Gilmore who won the 2018 Chef of the Year Australia once paid a visit to Chosanjung and instantly decided to import 'gamyangcho'. Currently, Chosanjung offers 18 vinegar lines.

Han is ambitious to build a vinegar museum in an effort to spread excellence of traditional Korean vinegar to the world.


½Åż· ±âÀÚ  tss79@naver.com
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