Why Korean Rice Syrup (Ssal-Jocheong) Is So Expensive | So Expensive Food | Insider Business
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 มิ.ย. 2024
- Rice syrup is a staple in Korean cuisine. It is used in many savory dishes, and it's the base of traditional sweets like yeot, or rice taffy. In the US, where rice syrup is gaining popularity as a substitute for sugar, a 1-kilogram artisanal bottle can reach $140. It's all due to sikhye: a mixture of steamed rice, hot water, and barley malt. Sikhye takes days, and nights, of hard work to achieve. So how long does it actually take to make sikhye? And is this why rice syrup is so expensive?
00:00:00 - Introduction
00:01:06 - Meet Young-goon
00:02:24 - Making Sikhye
00:04:21 - Seesawing
00:05:18 - Cooking Rice
00:07:20 - Extracting Malt from Barley
00:08:54 - Cooking the Syrup
00:10:26 - Finished Rice Syrup
00:11:43- Market and Properties
00:12:47 - Hangwa
00:14:05 - Closing
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Why Korean Rice Syrup (Ssal-Jocheong) Is So Expensive | So Expensive Food | Insider Business
![[TH] 2024 PMSL SEA GF D2 | Summer | ร่วมส่งแรงใจ เชียร์ไทยไปพร้อมกัน](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dN2gLsCJ0T0/mqdefault.jpg)
I like this guy "What's your favorite stage of rice syrup making?" his answer "The stage where I make money"
Yeah it's funny, he doesn't bullshit unlike a lot of other artisans. But then again a lot of artisans really do like their craft.
he's a true Young goon lol
It's true what they say, koreans are the asian jews.
😂😂😂
Thats whats boss mean i guess hahahaaa
Let me clear few things here! You make 'Sikhye' first with rice and malt(barley).
Fermentation process produces sweet drink called 'Sikhye'. You take 'Sikhey' and boil it down to syrup and you get 'Jocheong'.
What is 'Jocheong'? Sugar was very expensive and rare in Korea until late 1900s. So 'Jocheong' was used instead of Sugar.
If you ever cooked Korean food before you might notice use of sugar is very common in Korean food. It used to be 'Jocheong' not sugar. 'Jocheong' is still used in expensive Korean restaurants, since it provides rich and deep sweetness unlike sugar.
I am Korean Chef who makes and serve 'Sikhye' as desert in my restaurant. I don't make 'Jocheong' with my 'sikhye' since making a syrup is extremely time consuming and difficult.
Thanks for the information!!
As a chef, would you consider paying 140$ a kg for the expensive/premium stuff?
@@emmanuellebeau5231 obviously only if he makes a large enough amount of money that it won't cut into the margins, which calls for a large demand. the average costumer doesn't think "i want to buy this food with rice syrup in it for $40 a serving", they would much rather grab the $15 dish with only sugar in it. foreigner tourists may try it once and never come back, locals would not see it as that much of a novelty and find it too expensive to be a returning customer
@@emmanuellebeau5231theres already mass produced jochung, but has no strong flavor and properties as hand made. and they are not concentrated as in the video, so no gain in sweetness. people just use them instead of corn syrup, but there are also products like procto oligo that include rice syrup. koreans are very mindful of health and diabetes, weak dna for these heredtary disease.
of course we are talking home cooking here, most outing places use suger and corn syrup.
I like the stage where I make money. An honest man right there.
"i like when i make money"
I love his honesty
@@ChadWilson bro what, everyone likes to make money your acting like it's something to be scared to admit
@@nekomancer09 That makes sense, I was thinking about it wrong because I only saw the comment and not the actual video. The comment took the clip out of context and excluded the fact that he was being asked what his favourite part of the job was so it thought he said that. Also obviously i know how to spell 'you're'. Ive seen people correct that all the time but i really couldnt be asked to add an unnecessary comma. TH-cam isn't a place for *_your_* corrections
he’s keeping it real
Such a wise, sweet, honest, funny answer ❤❤❤
What I find amazing is how things like this were discovered.. someone ages ago went through this entire process and ended up with this product without knowing what they’d end up with.. and then proceeded to eat it
I guess it was more step by step development. but still crazy to think about
What is this syrup used for? Is it alternate to sugar?
@@giant4695 Guess was invented before sugar came from the new world and it was also quite a time afterwards pretty expensive.
The process also gives the workers youthful hands. The active ingredient is pitera, which is used in SK-II beauty products
@@giant4695 12:54 is where they eat it
I loved this episode. See father and daughter working so closely together is truly a beautiful thing. ❤
the daughter in the end saying that it's hard learning from a parent and that there is no right answer in tradition so she adhere to whatever the father says. i don't find it beautiful.
@@mirabletestif you had a bit of culture you’d understand. It’s beautiful 👌
@@dark_luls i have culture and a mind to comprehend the different shades of experiences. she is obviously hinting on the harness she had to build to be the apprentice of a traditional father that holds the truth of the profession. i don't find that beautiful. if what you find beautiful and cultural is that they are a father and a daughter working together you're just a simpleton
@@mirabletest you're missing the point
@@mirabletest That's the same master apprentice relation for all crafts. Once you have learned all and are a master yourself, inherited the trade, you can decide on your own tradition.
It is actually nice to see a tradition not dying but instead thriving and expanding.
Insider: Rice syrup alone isn't enough for workshops like his to survive.
Him: I operate 3 factories with a 4th on the way.
The operating costs is quite high for a workshop, labor is too in korea where current inflation hurts business. He probably took a lot of household debt to fund this endeavor hoping to come up with a huge profit margins, its normal in Korea, unfortunately we have the highest household debt among the OECD. Realistically though, most Koreans would not buy high-quality rice syrup from Jeolla-do like his, we would like most people buy the cheaper brand-name rice syrups. I don't think he will meet the profit margins to pay off the interest on the debt also like most Koreans and will probably take out more loans to pay off the interest rate. Him being featured on Insider Business is probably based on the hopes of seeing more foreign clientele to offset the lack of interest from domestic consumers because foreigners will likely pay more for quality over quantity.
@@daeseongkim93 while that all may be true, he's clearly not doing poorly if he's literally in process of opening a 4th factory. You don't expand unless you have the need to produce more.
@@Huebz I think its the same in asian countries, new generations arent appreciating much of their own heritages.
Especially with how westernized they are or some of it affected by middle east religion which despise some practices.
@@Huebz That comment was in reference not to the financial struggles of the workshop but its products. Narrator specifies that not only do they make syrup, they make taffy etc. This is an important part of the workshops financial survival.
he probably makes desserts with jochung. traditional korean desserts are expensive
This is not Sikhye but Jochung. As someone stated, Sikhye is the sweet drink, jochung is the syrup
You need to make the Sikhye to make the jochung, as shown on the video.
Does it not start as one, and become the other one later on?
The most beautiful thing about this is how harmoniously they work together
At the end, the daughter says it's a Master-Slave relationship.
@@mgtowski395 how could you have possibly interpreted her comments as confession of a master-slave relationship?
@@chris-id6vk That's what came out of her mouth.
@@mgtowski395 she only said she relies on her father's quidance. That seems like teacher-student relationshipi if anything. Or leader and follower if you have to interpret it in a wierd way. There is nothing as slavery in what she said.
@@Pirates.27 I'm not going by what's translated, then shown on the screen. I understand Korean. That's what came out of her mouth.
I love watching these videos and hearing phrases like “rice syrup is my whole life” there’s something really endearing about it
"what's your favourite stage in the process of making rice syrup?" -> "i like the stage where i make money" 💀
"endearing" like when a dog tilts its head and looks like it's trying to understand you.
you guys have to start putting the business links in the description
Koreans dedicate their lives to work. Some of the most hardworking, clean, cultured, ethical and friendly people on earth. And it fascinates me that the narrator is so good at pronouncing words in different languages. She did a great job in Turkish as well as Korean and many others before.
Great video. Love and respect from Türkiye.
beautiful to see a true artisan passing on his skills to the next generation
Ngl thought that said true Asian 😹
My grandmother's next door neighbor halmoni once made a jar for us some time ago. It tasted incredibly flavorful, was nothing like the ones sold at stores.
Malt and malt syrup are also hugely important in brewing and baking. The principle enzyme in barley malt (beta-amylase) cleaves starches into simple sugars which in this case allows them to make syrup. But in brewing you want the enzyme to make sugars to feed the yeast and drive up your ABV. In baking, breaking down some of the starches with malt changes the flavor, texture and appearance of your bread. Old school NY bagels (the best kind) typically have some malt or malt syrup in the dough.
I use to serve Sikhye as dessert (not what's on the video btw) for my college friends and they all love the stuff. They all switched from red bull to Sikhye 😂 They also love BonBon (grape juice with pulp) and claim its the best grape juice they ever had 👍
The daughter : it's also improve our health and enriched flavors
Insider team : It's actually do more harm than good...
The team saw it only in the way of how high the glucose is. Her way of viewing is the way it’s used in cooking and eating. It’s all in moderation. Every sugar can be bad for the health. I rather believe her than the team. Maybe they see it as use of sugar worldwide in that’s in everything and surplus use? I wish I could taste it. Belgium has a tradition of making sugar out of sugar beets. I haven eaten the fresh beet as a kid and loved it. Grandma helped on a big farm and we tagged along. Now there’s different kinds of cubes.
^yup they were talking about if you used an amount of rice syrup to get the same sweetness as sugar its unhealthier, not necessarily if you use it as rice syrup.
@@kylep506 they used that on the base of Glycemic index, which isn't a very good way of determining the health effects of different products
@kylep use sugar in same amount of this syrup, and you will find that sugar is more be5ter and healthy than this syrup 😅
The same corporate shills donning labcoats that basically inverted the food pyramid in what produced one of the biggest public health disasters in modern history are the same people that continues to tell people what our ancestors ate for thousands and thousands of years are blanketly 'bad', e.g. sugar, animal fat, animal products, etc. Our body turns all form of carbs into sugar anyway. Eating sugar just removes that process, which is why our body loves it so much. Sugar in moderation is not only not bad, but it's actually good for you. It's the filth they concoct using all sorts of chemicals that's actually bad. Avoid artificial/chemically made garbage they peddle as a 'healthier' alternative. Cane sugar and natural syrup like rice/maple are much healthier for you in moderation.
Thanks for opening my eyes to the many uses of rice!
JoChung, translates to artificial honey, isn't really expensive. It's about $5-$10 per kilo. Korean culinary culture doesn't have much of sweets, even the desserts are mildly sweet because there weren't many ingredients to produce sweet flavors. There were only few natural ingredients available like honey and fruits. Making of Jochung is very fascinating process and show how much people craved for the sweetness.
Where do you get jochung for $5-10 a kilo?!? In Korea? I just picked up a skinny 300ml bottle of jochung at H-mart for $8.99 plus taxes!
I think you are confusing factory made syrup against actual jochung aka rice syrup
@@mr.sunshine220 Yeah, I meant price in Korea. Didn't even know H Mart has JoChung. Should check it out when I drop by. Anyways, considering the transportation fee and others, 9 bucks sounds reasonable for 300ml.
well crown royal is considered top shelf rye in the states and its the cheapest one on the shelfs here along with a fine selection of other cheap and sadly garbage rye whisky's
just the whole export+Supply/demand, international supply being low, and demand being high relative to the international supply
@@zachjollimore4339 Canadian, eh? 🤣 I know, it saddens me to see Canadian Club and Crown Royal are almost same price. I love CR, but CC on the other hand 🤮
Something about how Jo-Chung, this traditional rice syrup (more in between syrup and taffy in consistency), doesn't have negative impact on blood sugar the way that corn syrups, etc, would. The mild, uncloying quality of it is wonderful.
Dont spread lies. It's all sugar in the body.
it changes starch into malt, and keeping that sweetness of sugar, concentrate to match similar to sugar. the techneque is to not turn malt into syrup which needs precise heat.
Its sugar, so your blood sugar will raise its not exempt for being artisanal
What a great father daughter relationship
there's almost something poetic about his processes. who knew rice syrup was so dreamy
I love how smooth the transation from the thumbnail into the actual video. Good job !
A syrup made of love and affection by the hands of a father and a daughter, how could you expect not to be of that sweetness!
Great video. So heartwarming to see artisinal traditions being carried on like this. I'm always amazed by the profound dedication and diligence of artisan families like this.... 10 hours of work a day to monotonously produce artisan rice syrup. And their reward for such intense work is being proud in producing the highest quality. Legitimately, and I don't use this word lightly, inspirational.
This episode was amaaazing, the editing and music omg!!! nice one
This is truly a piece of art when you purchase products from them
Thank you for opening different cultures and their food to the world. You guys always disguise learning behind entertaining videos and keep fooling me into learning new things. I love it!
All of these can be boiled down to "It takes a lot of effort and is a family tradition passed through generations".
im impressed how skilled this maker is. He has been doing it for so long that his hands are heat-resistance, this shows true mastery
What a humble guy, saying he's not skilled and that he's still practicing, and yet he's recognized as a cultural grandmaster
I think Maangchi shows you how to make homemade rice syrup on her TH-cam channel.
TL:DR it takes a lot manual labor, which is what makes it so expensive. The ingredients themselves don't cost diddly squat.
diddly squat😹
DIDDLY SQUAT
also it's an artificial product, not manufactured. There is no economies of scale to bring the products per unit price down
But did it take "years to master"?
In the economically developed world, labor is expensive and materials are cheap; in the rest of the world, it's the opposite.
Appreciate effort of passing on tradition generation to generation 💐
A true master who enlightens other and see his trade flourish.
I am impressed.
Fascinating, I would love to taste it.
Truly a labor of love ❤️!
That’s a great episode. Great visual and ambiance.
Beautiful and so inspiring! ❤
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My wife's family brings soybean paste, gochujang, and sesame oil from korea. That kinda quality can't be found here in the states. It must be the raw ingredients.
Either that or the mass producers take shortcuts to process more faster at the cost of lower quality end product.
Its also the fact that Western companies who make those products cut corners. A LOT of corners
A lack of pesticides alone would account for a HUGE difference in taste/quality. Don't use soybeans from the U.S., they are rife with the worst chemicals.
@@MylkT1023 Yeah, that's what I suspected. Only focus being on quantity.
@@Arthionthey’re literally different products. You can’t expect an artisanal handcrafted item when it’s produced by a conglomerate.
In most places the margins make it impossible to import.
The taffy stretching was like a dance, between just the two of them, and that music was perfect
Wow!😮 Talk about dedication. Until now, I wasn’t aware that Korean rice syrup could be very pricey, and I’m Korean-American.😳 However, I do remember as a child drinking ‘shikhye’. Nutritionally, I would think rice syrup is similar to honey, but don’t quote me on that. Overall, this video was informative.🙂
This first step isn’t fermentation, barley has enzymes and they convert starches into sugar.
Anything manufactured with such dedication and purposeful intent. . . It will naturally be vastly better than any similar products. What one puts in is what one gets out. . .
.
All the best to this man and his family.
May his business only grow from strength to strength
TGC
Blessings:)
The rice does not, in fact, ferment with the barley malt. The alpha amylase enzymes in the barley malt converts the rice starches to fermentable sugars. Like in beermaking and whisky production.
This soooooo good! Serious everyone should try it
👍👌👏 Oh WOW, simply fantastic! Thanks a lot for making teaching explaining recording editing uploading and sharing.
Best regards luck and especially health to all involved people.
"I wouldn't say I'm skilled at it." Young-goon, 21st Grandmaster, when asked how good he is after 6 decades of practice.
That's why he's the grandmaster.
Excellent episode!
Sir❤️Thanks for the vdo when you post it brings joy to my face 😄
Hlo I will ask you
Pls help me
You can find 쌀 조청 for like $8-$15 a bottle here in LA.
It's about the same price as other Korean sauces & condiments.
Only the premium brands are expensive.
And...sikhye is a sweetened rice & malt drink.
not as same as homemade, the malt is low on mass produce products
Amazing recipe !!
An amazing part of human culture!
This is pure art😌
love how much humour he imparts into the process haha
rice=sugar,wine,rice,noodle
so much ways to innovate
🥥 =drink,food,sugar,alcohol,rope,fire torch,firewood,helmet lol
Human inventions are always amazing. I love how they accidentally do something and create cool things
Great video Canada
This is one of those artesians that are so honest and don't really bullshit in front of the camera, you can see that clearly
With barley malt oh my it must be very delicious!
Especially with cream!
Grew up having barley malt , love it.
Fantastic tradition! I wonder what more awaits us in South Korea?
Cool thing called patbingsu
Bts
Just as a reminder, Jeolla is pronounce Joh-La, not Jur-rah
Well, the phoneme that is represented in Romanization of Korean as "L" or "ll" is pronounced kind of halfway between and , so it can sound to some ears like either one.
@@nostalgiakarlk.f.7386take a look at the romanization rules for Korean and then take a look at the pronunciation rules. The romanization corresponds to the pronunciation.
Yup, she butchered Jeolla.
The daughter, 'it is good for your health'
The narrator, 'it is harmful to your health' 😅😂😂
I believe the daughter, of course it's harmful if consume like the taste coca cola sweet
That look delicious I want to try this stuff
I hope he does well in the business for years to come
How I'm almost 30 and this is the first time in my life hearing about this?!?!!?...
10:02 gained even more respect for those nicely polished shoes ❤
To me, everything she said at the end has a meaningful contribution to how she grew up and still grows to this day
Everyone appreciates the opportunity to partake in another's tradition and culture. But ultimately it gets censored or destroyed by those who feel they were abused or whatever they assumed happened
As I continue to learn about life in general, I feel like there will always be a delicate balance of being discreetly traditional into the modern times.
Those who view her at the end, did you notice she at an older age still respects and looks up to her elders (father and his parents)?
Before process to rice syrup, the 'sikhyee' is generally consumed as a sweet beverage in korea.
I’m just seeing so many places where you could still use sikhye and get more and better product with machinery. Like extracting the water. They could use a screw press.
A work Of art
Came to the comments to find something about the half-assed pronunciation attempts
Instead found criticism of the accuracy of the narrators statements
I am not disappointed 😂
Rice has so many wonderful uses
Now imagine making Sake with premium rice syrup...
2:46 I would not call it a 'solution'. It's a drink, like orange juice. Sikhye is basically a rice juice.
At the end it shows them pulling taffy by hand when they could literally use a taffy stretch machine or a cheaper machine with an arm wheel. Someone needs to show them the technology so they don't waste time.
My korean grandmother raised me and ive never heard of rice syrup. Ive heard of sikaye but not this lol very cool
The last part confused me. He says he has 3 factories and 4th on the way business is booming, but he has to sit on rice at 2am?
Welcome to Insider, where the person in the story often unravels the story Insider makes up. They also said it's not enough for his "workshop" to survive...meanwhile he operates multiple factories and has helped 50 farms get going.
He could be making the super premium brand stuff by himself, while producing a more commercial version in the factories. It's like how wineries and distilleries often make produce at different price points by bottling only particular vineyards or doing longer periods of cask-maturing, respectively.
so what should he do? Just lay down and die?
@@Slampty Agreed, I think he just likes the process
Its beautiful peaceful an builds family amazing
4:25
Well balanced life of a couple
at 4:53, his daughter covers his hand. earlier he complained that his hands were cold... i think she's warming him. i just think that was really cute.
My god that looks good.
Damn, yung goon makes sick sizzurp
Good
This is the sweet rice drink that was used to be served after every meal in a korean restaurant back then! Idk why they stopped, and even more confused as to why they are shocked when I ask for it.
because it is unhealthy, worse than sugar.
I love the common theme with these masters lol
*So are you any good?*
Them, after 60 years:
*Meh, it needs some work*
does it taste like rice or barlery?
The biggest factor in their cost is labor. Also the fact that they're using a traditional method like boiling on open fire in clay pots. It's a lot easier to make with a rice cooker that has a warming mode but will still taste way better than what you buy on the market
Why are so many Asian artisans/masters at their craft so humble?
아시아, 특히 동북아시아(한국,중국,일본)은 2천년 전부터 '유교 문화' 의 영향을 매우 강력하게 받았다.
유교 문화는 겸손함을 매우 강조한다. 겸손하지 않다는 것은 출세에 매우 큰 걸림돌로 작용하게 되었다.
이것이 지금까지 이어져 오고 있는 것이다.
Nice caramelised rice sugar, I am sure you can make exactly same with modern techniques.
Both are beaufiul
Sikhye makes me think of Horchata... except fermented. 😅
young goon, what a legend !
this guy is so real for " i like the stage where i make money"
Young Goon is about his paper 💯
i like the music
I'm all for preserving traditions but they need a press so they can 1 be more efficient 2 sell at a lower price and 3 get more sleep
I've tried non-artisanal rice syrup and this looks so much better.