On the East Bay Spirits Trail

A Lucky Gin

Korean-born Young Jung immigrated to San Francisco with her family when she was eight years old. Her mother was a restaurateur, and Jung always loved her mother’s kimchi.

In 2011, as a grown-up with an interest in beverage entrepreneurship, Jung opened a wine store in Brooklyn, but after six years, she sold the shop and moved back to the Bay Area, where she found herself thinking about beloved Asian flavors like kimchi and the Korean spirit soju. What about a kimchi-based spirit? But that would require a distiller and a distillery.

Jung was referred to Ryan Sutherland of Livermore’s Sutherland Distilling Company, where the would-be spirits-maker got her first piece of good advice:

“Ryan told me to make a bathtub gin with everything I wanted to put in it,” she says.

That batch included garlic (a key kimchi ingredient), but the garlic was too intense. As Jung persevered, she arrived at a successful recipe that includes 11 more botanicals: juniper, perilla (with its notes of grass, mint, and anise), earthy roasted sesame seeds, fresh cucumber, lime peel, kelp, coriander, and mugwort plus heat from pepper, ginger, and gochujang chile powder.

Jung launched BOK Gin in summer 2022. “Bok means lucky in Korean,” she says. “Being an immigrant, I always found myself to be lucky.”

Those lucky enough to get a taste of this brand-new spirit will find BOK Gin perfect for both spicy and sweet cocktails.

bokgin.com

 

Four Cocktails with BOK Gin
Recipes by Dominic Butler-Parker

 

Dirty Kimchi Martini

• 2 ounces BOK Gin
• 1 ounce kimchi juice
• ½ ounce Lillet Blanc
• Pinch of salt
• Kimchi for garnish

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a coupe or Nick & Nora glass. Garnish with a couple pieces of kimchi.

 

Subag Smash

• Pinch of gochugaru salt (half gochugaru chile powder, half table salt)
• 2 ounces BOK Gin
• ¾ ounce lime juice
• ½ ounce simple syrup
• 2–3 pieces of fresh watermelon
• 2 perilla leaves

Rim a rocks glass with the gochugaru salt and add ice. Combine remaining ingredients in a shaker. Shake a dirty dump (no strainer) into the gochugaru salt-rimmed rocks glass.

 

Yuja-cha Sour

• 2 ounces BOK Gin
• 1 ounce lemon juice
• ½ ounce yuzu syrup
• ¼ ounce honey
• ¾ ounce egg whites, foamed
• Sprinkle of gochugaru chile powder

Combine gin, lemon juice, yuzu syrup, and honey in a shaker and dry shake (shake once without ice and then again with 1–2 ice cubes). Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with egg white foam and a sprinkle of gochugaru chile powder on the foam.

 

Gochujang Breakfast

• 2 ounces BOK Gin
• 1 scoop kimchi (with the cabbage)
• Pinch of gochugaru salt (half gochugaru chile powder, half table salt)
• Bloody Mary mix (your favorite)
• Kimchi and oi muchim (seasoned Korean cucumbers) for garnish

Build the cocktail in a Collins (tall) glass. Fill with ice and top off with bloody Mary mix. Garnish with kimchi and oi muchim.