Lotte Chilsung’s 2022 soju.

Saero (새로) — the Korean word means anew — is a soju made by Lotte Chilsung Beverage, the Seoul drinks company that English Wikipedia says was founded in May 1950 as the Dongbang Beverage Company and is affiliated with Lotte Corporation; it is also the company behind Chilsung Cider, the lemon-lime soda. Lotte Chilsung launched Saero on 14 September 2022, BizWatch reported in 2023; other reports give mid-September 2022.

Its pitch was zero sugar. Lotte Chilsung makes Saero without fructose and, in a line its press coverage has repeated since launch, blends in distilled soju to keep the familiar taste of soju. It also added nutrition labelling to the bottle, which Asia Business Daily described in 2025 as a voluntary step. At launch the distilled spirit in the blend was made from barley, eToday reported in 2026.

Saero joined a company that already had a soju: Chum Churum, which Lotte has owned since 2009. In January 2023 Korea JoongAng Daily referred to the new drink as “Chum Churum Saero” and counted it among four sugar-free soju brands then on sale, alongside HiteJinro’s Jinro, Daesun and Good Day. Chum Churum and Saero have also shared a showcase: in April 2023 Lotte Chilsung opened a joint brand experience hall for the two at its plant in Gangneung, on the east coast, BizWatch reported. The hall took bookings by season after reservations opened in mid-May 2023, and the same report said a 640ml PET bottle, aimed at home drinking and camping, followed that April. English Wikipedia says Saero became a standalone brand in October 2023.

Ceramic curves and a nine-tailed fox.

The bottle is the brand’s main design statement. BizWatch in 2023 and Asia Business Daily in 2025 describe a transparent bottle shaped with the curves of traditional Korean ceramics, with vertical grooves meant to suggest water droplets running down the glass; both reports say the clear glass was chosen for a premium, fashionable look. The drink itself spread by word of mouth, Asia Business Daily reported, with drinkers calling it smooth and less sharp in its alcohol aroma.

The second asset is a character. Saero’s brand ambassador is Saerogumi (새로구미), drawn from the gumiho, the nine-tailed fox of Korean folk tales and television dramas, and used since launch, BizWatch reported in 2023. The story at the centre of its content has a fox that once hungered for human livers reborn, with Saero, as Saerogumi; Jung Eun-ji of the group Apink gave the character her voice and performance. In 2023 the actor Lee Do-hyun, known from the drama The Glory, was also named a brand ambassador, the same report said.

The first renewal came in January 2026. Lotte Chilsung announced it on 21 January, SBS Biz reported, keeping the zero-sugar concept while changing the recipe in response to consumer surveys and what the company called a trend towards softer soju: the barley-based distillate gave way to a 100% Korean rice distillate, five amino acids were added to balance the taste, and the strength was lowered by 0.3 to 15.7% ABV. The packaging changed in detail rather than shape. The cap emblem, which represents Saerogumi’s tail, gained mint, which the company calls Saero’s own colour; the logo on the label was redrawn to be easier to read; and the fox on the label was redrawn in a light, running pose. The bottle design itself stayed the same, and the renewed soju began shipping on 30 January, with shops expected to stock it from early February, SBS Biz reported. eToday summed up the new package in August 2026 as a mint cap paired with the Saerogumi design.

Soju, sugar and the Korean bottle.

The seven brands in this group are all Korean drinks: Good Day, Kooksoondang, Hwayo, Andong Soju, Seoul Jangsoo, Saero and Jinro Is Back. They cover three kinds of drink. Good Day, Saero and Jinro Is Back are everyday soju, from Muhak, Lotte Chilsung Beverage and HiteJinro respectively. Hwayo and Andong Soju are distilled soju: Andong soju is a traditional distilled soju produced in Andong, in North Gyeongsang Province, and Hwayo is made in Yeoju, in Gyeonggi Province, by a company that Cho Tae-kwon founded in 2003; he had founded the porcelain maker Kwangjuyo in 1963, The Korea Times reported in 2025. Kooksoondang and Seoul Jangsoo are rice-wine names: Kooksoondang began as a maker of nuruk, the starter used to brew Korean wines, and is better known for Baekseju, a clear rice wine brewed with raw rice and herbs, while Seoul Jangsoo makgeolli is produced by an association formed by breweries in Seoul, The Korea Times reported in 2013.

For everyday soju, the bottle itself has long been shared. In 2009 Korea’s soju makers agreed with the Ministry of Environment to use green bottles of the same size and design, so that they could collect and reuse one another’s bottles, The Korea Times reported; the agreement was revised in August 2020 after makers began using bottles of other colours and shapes.

Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — its founding story, its owners over time, where its drinks are made and how its labels and bottles have changed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

Flavours, pop-ups and a mint cap.

The range has grown by flavour. Saero Salgu, made with apricot juice, arrived in 2024, and Saero Darae, flavoured with kiwi juice, in spring 2025, Asia Business Daily reported; eToday added Saero Omija, named for the Korean five-flavour berry, in May 2026.

Much of the brand’s design work happens in temporary spaces. BizWatch reported a pop-up in Seoul’s Seongsu-dong from 9 to 25 September 2023 to mark the soju’s first year on sale, a district the brand has returned to since. Herald Economy reported in October 2026 that a pop-up called Saero Dowon ran for five months in 2025, with a menu developed with the chef Jo Seo-hyeong of the cooking contest Culinary Class Wars, and that the Saero Central Museum (새로중앙박물관), held in Seongsu-dong from 21 March to 5 April 2026 to mark the renewal, was built as an escape-room-style game around the theft of a “thousand-year-old secret recipe book.”

For a design guide, Saero shows how a soju can be built from a bottle shape, a colour and a character rather than a long history. Compare Chum Churum, Lotte’s older soju, and Jinro Is Back, HiteJinro’s 2019 soju. For this guide we use mint, deep teal and clear-glass white with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product, character or logo is reproduced.

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