"These Days, People Drink Alcohol Outside, Together, and Mixed"

Lotte Members Survey on Alcohol Consumption Trends
Beer and Soju Remain Unchanged as Top 1 and 2
Mixed Drinks like Highball Surpass Wine and Makgeolli
Home Drinking and Solo Drinking Responses Drop by Half

Mixed drinks such as highballs have surpassed wine and Makgeolli as the "alcoholic beverages people enjoy drinking these days." With the acceleration of the endemic phase (periodic outbreaks of infectious diseases), the home drinking and solo drinking atmosphere has calmed down compared to the peak of COVID-19.

Lotte Members, Alcohol Consumption Trend Survey 'These Days, We'[Photo by Lotte Members].

On the 28th, Lotte Members released part of their newsletter "These Days, We" containing the results of a survey on alcohol consumption trends. The survey was conducted from the 26th of last month to the 4th of this month through Lotte Members' own research platform Lime, targeting 2,000 adult men and women nationwide (with a sampling error of ±2.19 percentage points at a 95% confidence level).

The survey results showed that the most popular alcoholic beverage currently enjoyed by Koreans is beer (45.0%). Following that, soju ranked second (30.0%). Mixed drinks (5.2%), Makgeolli and Dongdongju (4.5%), Western liquor (4.3%), wine (4.2%), and non-alcoholic beer (4.2%) followed.

However, this year, with the rising popularity of highballs and mojitos, the response rate for mixed drinks surpassed that of wine and Makgeolli. In last year's survey, more respondents chose wine (8.8%) or Makgeolli and Dongdongju (6.8%) than mixed drinks (5.0%). The response rate for Western liquors such as whiskey and vodka also increased from 3.3% last year to 4.3% this year.

Looking at transaction data from all Lotte retail stores, tonic water sales in the first half of this year increased by 292% compared to the first half of 2020, and whiskey sales rose by 364%. Compared to the first half of last year, these figures increased by 191% and 126%, respectively.

This year's survey also asked respondents about their drinking tendencies (multiple answers allowed). The results showed that responses such as "I drink to feel good (77.8%)" or "I drink to socialize with people around me (76.5%)" were more than twice as common as "I drink to get drunk (36.6%)." Responses like "I drink depending on my mood, the weather, or food (67.9%)" and "I drink to relieve stress (60.8%)" were also relatively high.

Many respondents also said they "like to mix alcohol with other beverages (52.5%)" or "have favorite drink combinations or personal tips (43.4%)." In other sections of the survey, more than 8 out of 10 respondents (88.5%) reported having experience mixing alcohol with other drinks or types of alcohol.

The top reason for mixing drinks was "because it tastes better (43.8%)." Other reasons included "to drink lightly without burden (32.8%)," "because people around me recommended it (17.2%)," "to try something new (16.6%)," and "because it is trendy these days (11.6%)." Only 8.1% said they mixed drinks "to get drunk faster."

The most common place to drink was at home (self, friends, acquaintances) at 43.9%, still the highest, but this is about half compared to the 83.6% reported in August 2021 when COVID-19 was rampant.

Instead, the response rate for restaurants and cafes increased from 6.7% in 2021 to 22.6%, and for pubs such as pojangmacha and hof bars, it rose from 5.0% to 21.2%, roughly tripling or quadrupling. Responses indicating drinking at accommodations like pensions and resorts also increased from 1.8% to 4.2%.

Regarding the people respondents usually drink with, friends, seniors/juniors, and acquaintances ranked highest at 34.4%. Others included partners, opposite-sex friends, and spouses at 26.6%, coworkers and supervisors at 11.6%, and parents, siblings, and children at 10.4%. Those who said they usually drink alone accounted for 15.8%, down from 32.3% in the 2021 survey.

Kim Geun-su, head of Lotte Members' Data Business Division, said, "Through this survey, we confirmed that the mixology culture of mixing various alcoholic beverages and drinks according to individual preferences has established itself as a drinking trend. However, unlike in the past with bomb shots aimed at getting drunk faster, many now mix drinks to enjoy better taste and drink without burden. Therefore, we expect various types of alcohol to continue gaining popularity and unique brewing recipes to keep being developed."

Meanwhile, Lotte Members regularly conducts surveys through the research platform Lime, which has a panel of about 380,000 nationwide, to provide data-based insights to partner companies. They publish periodicals reflecting short- and long-term trends such as "Now, We" monthly, "These Days, We" quarterly, and "Tomorrow, We" annually.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.