This article was originally written by Zhijiu and is not authorized to **Text|Zhijiu team.
In recent years, Japanese and Korean soju has begun to encroach on the shelves of Chinese stores, and on social platforms, it has also become a new type of alcohol that young people are willing to share, a kind of alcohol that emphasizes trendiness, freedom and fashion.
Then, the soju is scooped out of the large urn with a wooden strainer and poured into an earthen bowl ......This soju is naturally strong and fragrant, and it can get drunk to a man. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, even in the closed places of the border city, people were fanatically in love with soju, which was also an indispensable choice for their lives.
The two scenes, the old and the new, are separated by less than a hundred years, but for us, soju is like a "familiar stranger", we know its concept, but we separate it from the daily drink.
Why is there such a perception of drinking?
From the consumer's point of view, compared to baijiu, soju without brand support seems to be a backward type of liquor, which is difficult to put on the table. Of course, there are also people who believe that soju has been replaced by baijiu, which is more representative of the spirit of Chinese liquor.
Sadly, soju, which began in China and has written the thousand-year-old history of Chinese liquor, is now being used by Japan and South Korea and has become an important pole of the world's liquor forest. What's even more sad is that soju brands such as Zhenlu have entered China and become the favorite of some young Chinese consumers.
It is a fact that we invented shochu and lost it.
Is soju really lagging behind? Does the fact that he is loved by young consumers reflect the progressive nature of soju?
Now, when we talk about shochu again, it is better to break the stereotype and see its progress in its eclectic development history.
Shochu, is it lagging behind?
The answer is no!
mentioned the scene of shochu in "Border City", in fact, there is a wonderful dialogue in front of that paragraph-
Big brother, vice master, want sweet wine? Want shochu? ”
Dessert wine? It's not a child, and he asks people to eat sweet wine! ”
The man who was drinking deliberately pretended to be angry at the store and said the answer "I want shochu", and it was clear that in his cognition, the good liquor that adults choose to drink is shochu.
What is shochu? Before the advent of the modern concept of liquor, soju dominated the history of Chinese liquor development since the Tang Dynasty and was an important witness of the three advances
The first time was to witness the progress of Chinese liquor from fermented liquor to distilled liquor; The second time was to witness the progress from rice roast, dregs roasted to sorghum shochu; The third time is to witness the progress of sorghum burning to other miscellaneous grains of soju, and this process is actually the birth of strong flavor, sauce flavor and other flavors of soju after fragrant liquor.
In the context of Chinese liquor, the concept of soju was replaced by baijiu, and the standard was gradually established to consolidate the status of baijiu.
Since then, the concept of soju, which has been popular for thousands of years, has fallen into a state of "lost soul" in Chinese culture.
If we go back in history, we will find that the status of soju is almost unassailable.
The term "soju" originated in the Tang and Song dynasties, when Chinese liquor was still fermented, but the Tang and Song people had invented the method of "heating liquor" to complete the purification and quality of liquor - to become a better liquor.
In other words, from the day the concept was born, shochu was synonymous with good sake. Poets of the Tang and Song dynasties used a large number of poems to praise soju, such as Bai Juyi's "Lychee House to Wine" left a good sentence "Lychee is newly ripe chicken comb color, and soju is amber at the beginning of the opening".
By the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, distillation technology was introduced to China, and real soju appeared. Ancient brewing experts said that shochu is strong and fragrant, and it is "good wine steamed and boiled to extract dew". In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the development of soju entered the era of "a hundred flowers blooming", and from the perspective of raw materials, there were many categories such as sorghum roast, rice roast, dregs roast, wheat roast and miscellaneous grain shochu.
Since then, Chinese liquor has entered the dual structure of fermented liquor represented by rice wine and distilled liquor represented by soju, and with the continuous progress of the times, the share of soju has gradually expanded, and it has become the first category of Chinese liquor.
It should be noted that the progress of soju not only benefits from the progress of the times, but also promotes and enriches the connotation of the times: compared with the Qin and Han dynasties, the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties have achieved all-round progress such as the whole people can drink, the government and the people drink together, life is enriched by wine, and poetry is more than good because of wine.
Shochu, not only as a drink, but also as a progressive way of life, exists in every era.
Intersecting with liquor, "shochu" is eclectic
In fact, when it comes to soju, most people still equate it with baijiu. This is because New China used baijiu as a standard term to describe grain distilled spirits, and strengthened strict production standards.
But in fact, historical soju has a broader definition than modern baijiu in terms of production and drinking. For example, in the brewing process, the raw materials used in shochu are more complex and the koji medicine is more diverse; In the drinking process, soju is also more faithful to the scene of consumers accompaniment to food, and there is no very serious label of liquor in such scenes as politics and business.
However, we really see that Japanese and Korean soju have become popular in the domestic market, and soju and liquor in China have once again converged.
This requires clarifying the similarities and differences between liquor and shochu.
The "same" between the two lies in the fact that they are both distilled spirits, which can bring people a fierce sense of stimulation in drinking; The "difference" between the two is that the scene of baijiu and the people it faces are relatively fixed, and the drinking culture is serious, while shochu represents relaxation and freedom.
From a historical point of view, soju was grown savagely, and its processes, scenes, and brewers all vary greatly from time to time and place, and can be described as "eclectic". And this word is the characteristic that we focus on when we revisit the category of shochu.
In recent years, the scale of production and sales of liquor has declined year after year, the head concentration effect has intensified, and the drinking population and per capita alcohol consumption have also gradually declined, obviously entering a cycle of stock or even shrinkage. Obviously, if soju is to be successfully revived, it cannot enter the category track of liquor, and needs to be rebuilt in a category, explaining with new technology, flavor and scene language.
In the scene, soju is more eclectic, different from the liquor business and self-drinking scenes, soju is a real accompaniment to the meal, it is related to fireworks life and joy gathering.
In terms of flavor, soju must remain eclectic, starting with distilled spirits but diversifying from distilled spirits, with multiple innovative advantages in deciding and flavor diversity, which is clearly differentiated from the tasting characteristics that baijiu currently represents.
Technically, we can understand it in terms of liqueur, but it should be bigger, the concept of soju is more penetrating, and the flavor creation has a more unique "core" – the need for additives but not the dependence on additives, emphasizing the elegant taste.
Although we have a better understanding of the process and characteristics of liquor, soju continues to be a thousand-year-old liquor culture, focusing on the concept of flavor liquor and pyrotechnic drink, which is a new category in the current liquor track, and can naturally take root in the large liquor environment.
Freedom and pyrotechnics
Measuring whether there is room for the development and growth of an alcoholic beverage category is actually more and more related to consumer demand and drinking pain points, and he needs: innovative technology, different selling points, and growing demand.
Just as Maopu tartary buckwheat was born in 2013, when people's demand for healthy drinking was rising, it became a provider of healthy drinking solutions for the whole people; and Moutai, which has pulled down its serious face, to provide young consumers with a light experience of soy sauce and wine through Moutai ice cream and soy sauce latte; As well as Mei Jian, who has insight into the evolution of Chinese sourness, and Jiang Xiaobai, who takes the first sip of liquor for young people, cut a new track from the scene.
So, where is the track of Chinese soju?
Now is the new cycle of the Japanese shochu pandemic, and we might as well find the answer here. At present, the Japanese alcohol consumption market is showing a downward trend in sake, whiskey, brandy and other spirits, but shochu is showing steady growth.
Shochu is cool" "More and more young people love to drink it" is the key word that presents the current Japanese shochu market. Zhijiujun inquired about the data and found that the popularity of contemporary Japanese shochu is mainly to actively reduce the degree to cater to mass consumption, and stimulate more consumer demand through taste innovation, which is a category pandemic with upgraded taste.
You might as well find the category keywords of Chinese soju from the comparison with the mainstream liquor that is popular in the Chinese alcohol consumption market.
First of all, compared with the Venerable Culture, Boss Culture, and Dry Liquor culture of baijiu, and compared with the high taste of baijiu, soju has the characteristics of being more free, relaxed and burden-free. Secondly, compared with wine, beer and other liquors, shochu has more flavors and can be drunk more freely; Finally, compared with whiskey and other foreign liquors, shochu is more grounded in the cultural context of Chinese.
On the whole, the attributes of soju have come out - to socialize seriously, to enter a relaxed social, with scene characteristics such as self-drinking, enjoyment, and relief of sorrow. In other words, shochu adapts to all the drinking scenes that are free and relaxed, and the biggest of them is the dining scene.
This is still true from the perspective of "innovative technology, different selling points, and the need to meet growth". Shochu innovates low-alcohol and flavor research and development to meet consumers' easy and free drinking needs.
Define the future of another kind of drinking
Since it intersects with baijiu but is different from baijiu, and emphasizes freedom and fireworks, what should the revisited soju look like? What kind of progress has it made?
It can be defined in terms of the new alcohol market:
Shochu ** is a distilled spirit, but it maintains and terminates its pure and elegant side, so that the liquor body has a simple and crisp texture; The flavor and taste are more diverse, without overemphasizing the intensity of the fragrance and the heaviness of the taste, and the product description language is mostly "good or not" and "comfortable drinking". Most of them are chosen in light scenes of solitude, friends gathering, and supper, representing a relaxed lifestyle.
With the progress of the economy, China's global cultural influence is also gradually increasing. But the strange thing is that as far as the wine market is concerned, there is a clear "deficit" between China and overseas markets, and the share of China's wine exports is far less than the share of imports.
If Chinese soju is revived, can it rewrite the pattern of Chinese liquor in the world?
With thousands of years of Chinese cultural experience and transmission, compared with liquor, Chinese soju has natural adaptability. At this moment, soju is synonymous with the progress of Chinese culture, and drinking Chinese soju and tasting Chinese civilization will become a good marketing strategy.
At the same time, Chinese soju and Chinese catering are a natural pair, and "food and wine pairing" is obviously the most direct and most likely way for Chinese wine to become bigger. Shochu, which is used as a table sake, tells a lot of stories about it.
Finally, in terms of time and materiality, it is difficult for Chinese baijiu to rewrite the current serious culture and heavy taste in a short period of time, and soju, as an emerging category, has a newer and more direct voice. This is essential for the reproduction and consumption adaptation of shochu.
It should be clear that the above three advantages not only point to the competition of soju in the world, but also focus on the Chinese wine market, which has significantly greater advantages.
After all, the new era of alcohol has irreversibly arrived, and people need fireworks to accompany their meals on behalf of freedom. And the charm of soju lies in the fact that it is the same as before - eclectic, self-love for drinkers. 