Liquor Delivery in Korea is (Mostly) Illegal
Miss your wine club deliveries that you used to get back home? Having alcohol delivered to you in other countries is pretty easy, but in Korea it was completely illegal until relatively recently. Back in 2016 they made it legal for restaurants to add liquor to your delivery as long as the food is worth more than the liquor. The Korean government has also created another loophole in an effort to support producers of Korea’s wide variety of traditional alcohol – giving them a convenient leg-up on the competition. Alcohol delivery is legal – IF the alcohol is considered a traditional Korean liquor (전통주).
An enterprising startup called Sooldamhwa (술담화) is taking full advantage of this loophole, delivering almost 2,000 kinds of Korean traditional liquor to your doorstep via a monthly subscription model. Every month subscribers receive three or four bottles of different Korean traditional alcoholic beverages, including makgeolli, soju, spirits, wine and more. They have a brick-and-mortar store in Gyeonggi-do, but if you go there to buy it you don’t get to experience the fun of anticipating your next unique delivery for the month – or free shipping. It also makes a terrific gift for your favorite Korean resident! Did we mention Chuseok is next week?
Interested? That’s why 10 has created this detailed guide on how to sign up for Sooldamhwa’s monthly traditional Korean alcohol delivery subscription.
How to Register Korean Traditional Alcohol Delivery from Sooldamhwa (술담화)
To register, visit the Sooldamhwa website and click on the login button at the top right corner.
Once you are in the login page, proceed by clicking on the sign up (회원가입) button to get started.
On the sign up page, you need to verify that you are 19 years and above as the law does not allow minors to purchase alcohol so proceed by clicking on the verification button (만 19세 이상 본인증) to start the mobile verification process. You will need a Korean phone number for this process.
You can then begin the mobile verification process by selecting your mobile provider name (KT, SK telecom or LGU+), check the required boxes below and click on the ‘start’ (시작하기) button.
Next, enter your name, phone number and security number and click the ‘confirm’ (확인) button to continue.
Mobile verification is done through PASS so if you do not have a PASS app, you have to download the app to proceed. You will receive a text message to download the app at this point if you do not already have it.
You can download the PASS app on any android or apple device by directly searching on google play store or apple store or by tapping on the URL that will be included in your message and pressing the ‘PASS membership sign up’ (PASS 회원가입하기) button.
Once the PASS app is downloaded, proceed to check all the required boxes and click on the ‘agree on terms and conditions’ button (약관동의). After that, enter your password and press on the ‘input complete’ button (입력완료). You will be redirected to the PASS homepage when the registration process is complete.
After the PASS registration is complete, continue the verification process on the sooldamhwa website by re-entering your name, date of birth and the first digit of your alien registration number, your password and click on the ‘confirm’ (확인) button. You will then receive a confirmation message and proceed to click on the ‘ok’ button.
When you complete the age verification process, click on the ‘sign up by email’ (이메일로 가입하기) button to continue the registration process. Type in your information and click on the ‘complete registration’ (가입완료) button. Once you are done, you are ready to order any Korean traditional liquor of your choice or subscribe to get new liquor delivered to you every month.
How to subscribe and order liquor from Sooldamhwa
On the homepage of Sooldamhwa, You can either subscribe to get three or four bottles of traditional liquor from breweries across Korea, curation cards, snacks, cocktail recipes and other content delivered monthly or directly browse through their wide liquor collection and select any liquor of your choice by clicking the ‘shopping mall’ (쇼핑몰) button .
The subscription payments are made on a regular basis on the same day of each month so there is no need to return and pay again every month and it includes shipping fee so you don’t have to worry about any additional cost. Also, you can cancel your subscription anytime, however, if you cancel after the third sunday of the month, you will receive your monthly liquor delivery for the current month and you will not be charged for the next month.
To subscribe, click on the ‘subscribe’ (구독하기) button on the homepage of sooldamhwa and click on the ‘To me’ button to continue with the regular subscription or the ‘To someone else’ button for a one-time payment to deliver liquor as a gift to anyone in Korea. Then, click on the ‘next step’ button to proceed.
Next, click on the ‘regular payment’ button if you chose to deliver to yourself and click on the ‘next step’ button to continue.
You can select either one box per month or two boxes per month and click on the ‘next step’ button to continue.
Enter your information in the empty boxes and click on the pay button to make payment. Note that if you do not have an event discount code, you can leave it blank and if you have any special details about your shipping condition or location, you can explain it in the ‘special details when shipping’ box or leave it blank.
Once you are done, you will receive a confirmation receipt with information on when the next payment and delivery will be made and all you have to do is wait for about two to three days for your first Korean traditional liquor delivery. Congratulations!
Leave a comment below to share your experience using Sooldamhwa with others!