North Korea Invents Alcohol With No Hangover — Koryo Liquor Doesn’t Have Bitter Taste And Offers Health Benefits

North Korea claims to have invented a blend of liquor that doesn’t give you a hangover. Dubbed “Koryo Liquor”, the concoction doesn’t have a bitter taste and also offers health benefits.

While North Korea managed to invite condemnation from the world after the country claimed it had successfully developed and tested the hydrogen bomb, it could win its approval through confident claims of inventing alcohol that doesn’t leave you nauseous the next day and with a throbbing headache to boot. If that’s not all, the country’s special blend of liquor isn’t harmful to the body either. The miraculous blend of alcohol contains the magical healing powers of ginseng that are supposed to bestow the drinker with the “elixir of life” and good health too.

According to an article in the North Korea’s state-controlled media Pyongyang Times, a special blend of liquor developed in the country can be consumed without fear of a hangover. The alcohol has been developed by Taedonggang Foodstuff Factory. Apparently, the factory had been improving the drink for many years and was obsessed with the dream of concocting the perfect alcoholic drink, reported the Telegraph. The factory finally succeeded when it replaced the core ingredient with which alcohol is produced worldwide and added ginseng to further fortify the liquor with health benefits.

By replacing sugar with scorched, glutinous rice, North Korea’s Koryo Liquor became completely devoid of the otherwise unavoidable bitter taste that alcohol is associated with. By changing other ingredients, the scientists also completely eliminated the inevitable hangovers, claimed the article.

“Koryo Liquor, which is made of six-year-old Kaesong Koryo insam [ginseng], known as being highest in medicinal effect, and the scorched rice, is highly appreciated by experts and lovers as it is suave and causes no hangover.”

The drink also relies on ginseng root for its medicinal qualities and has been hailed as a “national scientific and technological hit.” The article, “Liquor wins quality medal for preserving national smack,” also mentioned that the blend of liquor was ranked first in the food sector festival.

Apparently, the amber-colored liquid isn’t the first drink that has boasted such benefits. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) published an article last August that claimed North Korea’s Koryo Songgyungwan University was working on improving the quality of Kaesong Koryo Insam Liquor. While the Koryo Liquor offers some health benefits, North Korea claimed that the Insam Liquor is “the elixir of life”.

According to the Guardian, Andray Abrahamian, the director of research from Choson Exchange who regularly visits the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DRPK), admitted that he hadn’t tasted the miraculous blend.

“I am not keen on drinking the liquor as a tasty treat. There are some high quality liquors made in North Korea, though in my experience there is no such thing as hangover-free booze anywhere in the world.”

If the blend of liquor stays true to even one of the claims, North Korea could easily use Koryo Liquor as a means to have a highly favorable negotiation with its immediate neighbor, South Korea. South Koreans are quite fond of alcohol. In fact, according to a 2012 World Health Organization report, South Koreans guzzle down about 12.1 liters of alcohol per year. That is more than any other Asian country.

North Korea is no stranger to making preposterous claims. The country’s scientists regularly develop products that their leading counterparts across the world have failed to accomplish even with ample funding. Incidentally, eliminating hangovers might be a relatively mild curative property of ginseng. Last year, North Korea had claimed that medical products containing extracts from the plant could cure MERS, SARS, and even AIDS.

[Photo by Hoang Dinh Nam/Getty Images]