A city’s brewers in one association.

Seoul Jangsoo’s story begins with a merger rather than a founder. In 1962 Seoul’s privately owned makgeolli breweries — 51 of them, according to Newsis in 2023 — came together as the Seoul Brewing Association (서울주조협회). Asia Economy reported in 2020 that in 1963 the 51 sites were reorganised into joint manufacturing plants. In 1980 the body took the name it still uses, the Seoul Takju Manufacturers Association (서울탁주제조협회); takju is another name for makgeolli, the cloudy Korean rice drink.

The company traces its brewing further back. Both Newsis and Asia Economy single out the Mugyo brewery, in Mugyo-dong in central Seoul, which began making makgeolli in 1909 and is the longest-standing of the breweries that were merged. In a 2026 report Newsis dated the brand’s brewing history to that Mugyo-dong start and said Seoul’s city government named it a “Seoul Future Heritage” in 2016.

The trading company came later. The association set up Seoul Jangsoo Co., Ltd. (서울장수주식회사) as its subsidiary — in 2009 according to Asia Economy in 2020, in 2010 according to Newsis in 2023, which adds that the company shipped its first export of makgeolli to Japan that same year. The brand’s home is in Mangwon-dong, in Seoul’s Mapo district, where Asia Economy placed the headquarters and a makgeolli experience centre that opened in 2019.

Production is spread between the capital and the provinces. Newsis listed six union plants in Seoul in 2023 — Guro, Gangdong, Seobu, Dobong, Seongdong and Taereung — along with a plant at Jincheon, in North Chungcheong province; in its 2026 report it put the number of Seoul union plants at five.

A green bottle, then a clear one.

The flagship is Jangsoo Saeng Makgeolli (장수 생막걸리), launched in 1996; English-language press often spells it Jangsu. Saeng means fresh or live: the drink is unpasteurised and keeps its live yeast, and Asia Economy reported in 2020 that it is sold within a window of about ten days. The company describes a same-day system. Orders close at 5 p.m., brewing starts at midnight at the Seoul and Jincheon plants and deliveries leave from around 4 a.m., Asia Economy reported; Newsis wrote in 2026 that the drink is brewed early each morning and that each day’s batch is bottled and shipped the same day.

For most of its life the makgeolli came in a green PET bottle, and green became its signature. In January 2020, Dailian reported, Seoul Jangsoo moved Jangsoo Saeng Makgeolli into a colourless, single-material PET bottle — about 25 years after the 1996 launch — to make the bottles easier to recycle, as an amended recycling law took effect in December 2019. Versions made with Korean rice switched first, and versions made with imported rice were due to follow the next month. The label kept green as the brand’s signature colour and moved to an adhesive designed to peel away cleanly. Along its foot it carried a ten-day shelf life, “유통기한 10일,” beside a slogan that plays on the brand name and that shelf life. Lee Sang-min, a sales planning team leader, told Dailian that the drink had been the symbol of the green bottle for decades.

The bottle had changed before. A photo caption in Asia Economy in April 2020 dated earlier redesigns to 1997, 2000, 2010 and 2011, between the 1996 original and the 2020 clear bottle.

New products came slowly. Newsis lists Jang Hongsam makgeolli, made with six-year-old red ginseng, as the company’s first flavoured product, in 2012, and Dalbit Yuja, a yuzu makgeolli whose name means moonlight yuzu, in 2020. Asia Economy reported that Insaeng Makgeolli, at 5% alcohol against the standard 6%, arrived in 2018, the first new saeng product in 22 years. The range also includes Wolmae, a pasteurised makgeolli, which Newsis reported the company also sells in cans.

Rice, nuruk and the Korean table.

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.

A brewery site turned brand space.

The brand now leans on its place in the city. Its makgeolli experience hall in Mangwon-dong stands on the site of a former brewery, Hankyung Magazine reported in May 2026, and uses delivery crates and bottles as part of its interior. Since 2023 the company has run seasonal Saturday programmes there; the 2026 season, its fourth, ran from 9 May to 1 August, with a history space on the brand’s past, a tasting zone for Jangsoo Saeng Makgeolli, Wolmae and a new kombucha-based drink, Teazen Kombucha-ju Lemon, and a photo zone. In 2020 Asia Economy reported that the company was aiming its marketing at drinkers in their twenties and thirties as well as its older customers.

Abroad, Newsis reported in 2023 that Seoul Jangsoo shipped to about 30 countries, including the United States, Australia, China, Japan and Cambodia, and planned to push Wolmae and a “K-cocktail” concept product called Maksa, with Vietnam among its targets.

For a design guide, Seoul Jangsoo shows how a colour can outlast the package that carried it: when the bottle went clear in 2020, green stayed on the label. Compare Kooksoondang, another Korean maker of rice drinks, and Jinro, the soju name from 1924. For this guide we use label green, deep green and rice white with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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