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A new Western-style "business" specializing in the sale of beer has opened its doors in North Korea. Not just any beer, but the domestically brewed one: Taedonggang Beer. To understand what we are talking about, just take a look at the latest video released by the North Korean government.
The clip illustrates the interior of the Hwasong Taedonggang beer restaurant, built on Rimhung Street in the capital Pyongyang, "thanks to our respected Secretary General" (the reference is obviously to Kim Jong Un). You can see tables filled with dozens of customers, a pool table, glasses full of beer and food, all arranged on long wooden tables, all in an elegant atmosphere...
"Our Hwasong Taedonggang Beer Restaurant is spread over two floors and has beer gardens, separate rooms and balconies, so customers can enjoy themselves in any of these places," said Ms. Gang Bong Suk.
As part of a major effort to revitalize the capital, the government has built three new suburbs and several skyscrapers over the past two years, including Hwasong, where the restaurant is located. The new brewery, as mentioned, hosts the Taedonggang Beer brand (the most popular beer in North Korea), but also appears to offer international beers (in defiance of phantom international sanctions and isolations).
North Korea's most famous beer
Taedonggang takes its name from the river that runs through central Pyongyang. It is beer for the masses, that is, created to quench the thirst of the people of North Korea, produced by Taedonggang Brewing Company.
Her story is special. It all started in 2000, when Ushers Brewery, a British brewery in the English town of Trowbridge, was forced to close the taps. What does North Korea have to do with a UK brewery?
It certainly has something to do with it, as after 175 years of production, Urshers Brewery was put up for auction. The winner was Kim Jong Il, the father of the current president of North Korea, who put £1.5 million on the table. The result: the entire brewery, complete with machinery and components, was dismantled and shipped to the Far East, in Pyongyang, and reassembled with the help of Russian (some say German) experts.
A year later in 2001, North Korea reorganized what it had purchased into the Taedonggang Brewing Company, which would soon become the number one North Korean brewer in the country. He started selling his drinks at home, but would later export to China and South Korea as well (during the years of inter-Korean détente in the era of the so-called Sunshine Policy).
Today, popular even among foreigners visiting North Korea, Taedonggang is sold in bars, restaurants, hotels and shops across the country. A bit of curiosity: in 2016 Taedonggang organized the first (and apparently the last) North Korean beer festival, gathering over 45 thousand people, including foreigners and locals.
Have you ever had a Taedonggang?
Taedonggang, made from naturally grown North Korean barley and water from underground tributaries of the Taedonggang River of the same name, is available in multiple versions. To recognize them you don't have to read the name of the beer, which is always Taedonggang, but rather the number that follows this word.
So we have, for example, Taedonggang No.2 (meaning number 2), which has lots of bubbles and is the most popular in the country, and the latest Taedonggang No.8, a low-sugar, very low-calorie version . And again: Taedonggang No. 1 is malty and bitter, while No. 7 is dark and chocolatey.
"The beer is unpasteurized, which means it's best consumed closer to the brew date, but it's still a fabulous beer, especially when compared to the mass-produced watery beers popular in South Korea," wrote Young's Gareth Johnson Pioneer Tours.
Of course, beer is not for everyone in North Korea. Both because the preferred alcohol is Korean soju alcohol, and because of the cost of the golden drink, which is affordable only for a small part of North Korean society. However, know that Taedonggang is the most popular beer in the North, but not the only one. In fact, there are other brands, such as Ponghak beer, brewed outside the city of Pyongsong, and Pyongyang Beer, founded in 1956 and the first in the country. / Inside Over
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