'Who drinks soju bombs at the Han River anymore?' — young Koreans reach for bokbunja and non-alcoholic beer

"We came out to make boksosa."

Lee, 27, stopped by a convenience store near the Han River last week and picked up bokbunja (Korean black raspberry wine), soju and cider. She was recreating "boksosa" — a mix of the three she first discovered at a restaurant in Chungmuro during her college years — to share with friends. "It was so fun to enjoy the boksosa I remembered from college with friends at the Han River after so long," she said.

Young people keep flocking to the Han River even in the heat. Running and picnic blanket outings have become routine. What has changed is the drinking. A culture of light, playful consumption — from non-alcoholic beer to boksosa, the blend of bokbunja, soju and cider — is spreading fast.

Sales data from convenience stores near the Han River show the boksosa trend in sharp relief this summer (July–August). At CU stores near the river, bokbunja sales jumped 892.6 percent compared with the same period last year. Soju and cider sales rose 53.7 percent and 121.7 percent, respectively. Bagged ice and cup ice also climbed — up 186.3 percent and 45.5 percent — driven by viral SNS videos showing people pouring drinks directly into bags of ice.

Convenience store chains moved quickly to capitalize on the trend. CU launched a ready-made boksosa drink (325 milliliters) last month — a fruit wine blending bokbunja, distilled spirits and carbonated water in a 1:1:1 ratio, sparing customers the trouble of buying and mixing three separate bottles. Seven-Eleven, which saw demand for traditional Korean liquor at its Han River-area stores surge 176 percent year-on-year this summer, released "Yun Nam-no Bokdamju," a mix of bokbunja and condensed milk. Within a week of its launch, the product knocked "Chamisul" — the perennial No. 1 in the traditional liquor category — off the top spot.

Cold beer remains popular, but non-alcoholic beer is rapidly claiming the seat next to it. At GS25 stores near the Han River, non-alcoholic beer sales rose 162.0 percent year-on-year in July and August. Over the same period, CU posted 35.5 percent growth, Seven-Eleven 82.0 percent and E-mart24 15 percent.

The non-alcoholic wave is spreading beyond convenience stores into the food service industry. BHC outlets at Yeouido and Ttukseom Han River parks now carry non-alcoholic beer. Overall alcohol consumption is declining, but the ways people drink have grown more varied — lighter, more personalized and increasingly DIY. Convenience stores have become the dominant channel for buying alcohol, making them the epicenter of this shift.

The trend is also reflected in the "2025 Liquor Industry Information Survey" published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Agency. When asked what they considered the most popular drinking trends, respondents ranked "buying at a convenience store" first at 85.5 percent, followed by "home drinking" (drinking alone at home) at 54.2 percent, "solo drinking" (drinking alone at home or at a bar) at 52.2 percent, and "diverse flavors" at 49.1 percent.

"Recent alcohol consumption is shifting away from simply drinking a lot toward choosing products that match personal taste," an industry official said. "The range of options at convenience stores — non-alcoholic drinks, novelty liquors and more — will only keep expanding."

Meanwhile, total domestic liquor shipments last year came to 2.988 million kiloliters, according to the National Tax Service's tax statistics portal TASIS. That marked the first time annual shipments had fallen below 3 million kiloliters since 1998, when they stood at 2.922 million kiloliters — a gap of 27 years. Compared with 2015, when shipments reached 3.804 million kiloliters, the figure has dropped 21.5 percent.