Korean drinks

Half the names on this shelf point at the wrong thing.

Korean cider has no apples and no alcohol. Yakult is not yoghurt. Bacchus is not an energy drink — above a certain dose of taurine it is legally a drug, which is why the stronger bottle is behind a pharmacy counter. Each of those is a separate article. This is the table that puts them side by side, with what each one costs this month.

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What each one actually is

The middle column is the reason this page exists. Every one of these is a drink a visitor can pick up in the first hour of a trip and misread, and the misreading is consistent enough to be worth tabulating.

Drink	What you assume	What it is	Buy it if	Read
Chilsung Cider칠성사이다Lotte Chilsung	Alcoholic apple cider	Clear lemon-lime soda. No apples, no alcohol, no caffeine. Launched 1950, eleven years before Sprite	You want the drink Korea actually orders at the barbecue table	Read →
Yakult야쿠르트hy	Spoonable yoghurt	Liquid fermented milk — homogenised after fermentation so it pours. 65 ml, and deliberately so	You want the single most familiar taste in Korean childhood	Read →
Milkis밀키스Lotte Chilsung	A Korean original milk soda	Milk-and-soda hybrid — but Japan’s Ambasa launched in 1982, seven years earlier	You want something with no clean Western equivalent. Start with the original	Read →
Bacchus박카스Dong-A Pharmaceutical	An energy drink	A taurine tonic. Above 1,000 mg of taurine it is legally a quasi-drug, which is why D is pharmacy-only and F is not	You are curious about the bottle every Korean adult recognises. Not for caffeine	Read →
Vita 500비타500Kwangdong Pharmaceutical	A Bacchus competitor	Registered as a drink rather than a quasi-drug, which is exactly how it reached shelves years ahead of Bacchus. Caffeine-free	You want the tonic format without caffeine or the pharmacy counter	Read →
Pororo drink뽀로로 음료Paldo	A single children’s juice	A range that differs sharply by flavour, including a caffeine-free barley version Korean parents rebuy	You are travelling with a child, or want the character bottle	Read →
Coffee mix커피믹스Dongsuh (Maxim) and others	Instant coffee	A three-in-one stick with the creamer and sugar already in it. The ratio is the product, not a convenience	You want to understand the default coffee of Korean offices and mountains	Read →
Hwachae화채Homemade	A traditional punch	Usually built on Chilsung Cider or another clear soda, plus fruit and milk. A summer picnic dish more than a beverage	You are in Korea in summer and want the thing Koreans make rather than buy	Read →

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What it costs right now

Checked August 2026

Every figure links to the article it was verified in. Two of these moved recently — Chilsung Cider went up on 1 August 2026 — so treat the table as the band rather than the till receipt.

Item	Korean	Price	Worth knowing	Verified in
Chilsung Cider, 500 ml	칠성사이다	₩2,500	Raised from ₩2,300 on 1 August 2026, alongside Pepsi	Read →
Yakult Light, 65 ml	야쿠르트 라이트	₩250	Raised from ₩220 on 1 May 2025. The cheapest thing in this table by a distance	Read →
Milkis, 250 ml can	밀키스	₩1,500	Listed at GS25, frequently discounted on promotion	Read →
Pororo drink, 235 ml	뽀로로 음료	₩1,500	Listed at CU and GS25; about ₩1,000 each on a 2+1	Read →
Bacchus F	박카스 F	₩1,000–1,500	Convenience store. Bacchus D is pharmacy-only and priced separately	Read →
Vita 500	비타500	₩1,000–1,500	Varies by store and version	Read →

The ones whose names mislead

Three drinks where the English word on the bottle points at the wrong thing. These are the articles to read before you order.

Green bottles of Chilsung Cider standing in snow.

Korean cider isn’t cider

No apples, no alcohol, no caffeine — and Chilsung launched in 1950, eleven years before Sprite. The frame every English page uses is backwards.

The COCO electric refrigerated cart used by Korea’s Fresh Managers.

Yakult is not yoghurt

One production step separates them, and it produces a physically different object. Plus the rolling refrigerator that delivers it.

Bacchus D vs F

Taurine above 1,000 mg makes it a quasi-drug, so the stronger bottle is the one you cannot buy in a convenience store.

Which one to pick

Where the useful question is not what it is, but which version to buy.

Milkis flavours

Eleven flavours on one base. Which to start with, how Koreans actually drink it, and the Japanese soda that got there first.

Vita 500

Caffeine-free, and registered as a drink rather than a quasi-drug — which is how it beat Bacchus to the shelf.

Pororo drink

Which flavour to pick, what the barley version is for, and the foil seal under the cap that defeats most first-time buyers.

What Koreans drink daily

The formats that are less a product than a habit.

Coffee mix

The three-in-one stick that is the default coffee of Korean offices, and why the built-in ratio is the point.

An iced americano, Korea’s default coffee order.

Iced americano, all year

Why Koreans order it in January, and what 얼죽아 says about the culture around it.

Hwachae

The summer fruit punch built on soda, and the picnic culture it belongs to.

When it is alcohol

The other half of the drinks aisle, and the one where the vocabulary matters most.

Korean drinks beyond soju

Makgeolli, somaek, beer and what to order when you do not want the obvious thing.

Taking it home

Chilled drinks are the part of this shelf that does not travel — Yakult is short-dated and the Fresh Manager cart does not ship. Cans, coffee mix and the tonic bottles do travel, and they turn up in most Asian grocers. Two things to know before you buy abroad: export formulations and can sizes often differ from the Korean domestic ones, and the zero and seasonal flavours rarely leave Korea at all. As an Amazon Associate, EpicKor may earn from qualifying purchases.

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