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[WHY] Siwonhanmat: If digestion could be a taste

Published: 03 May. 2025, 07:00

KIM JU-YEON
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A scaldingly hot bowl of seonji haejangguk (hangover soup with vegetables and ox blood) is served at a restaurant in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi. [YONHAP]

It’s a phrase chanted across Korea at 9 a.m. on a Saturday. It’s exhaled over the clink of metal cutlery and bowls of soup as people nurse their stomachs and their hangovers. To watch someone say it, it’s almost guttural — as if the words are wrenched out from somewhere deep.

“Siwonhada!”

“Siwon,” in its many grammatical forms, literally translates to “cool.” It describes refreshingly cold temperatures, such as a light breeze on a summer day.

The soju-soaked Koreans, however, aren’t saying they're chilly. They’re saying it while sweating as they drink scalding hot liquid from a clay pot. With no air conditioning.

The word is said outside of restaurants, too. Such as when going into a hot tub. Or while watching a baseball player rip a hit, or describing someone’s personality, or … complimenting a person’s handsome looks?

From its use to describe looks and flavor alike, siwonhada can also refer to emotional or metaphorical states. The application of the word diverged in the 15th century to describe a plethora of refreshing or cathartic sensations recorded in the “Grand Dictionary of Korean” (1957).

The word's history is rich and complex, and its use more so. However, when it comes to flavor, some arbitrary rules exist for when the expression applies. It’s what some researchers dub a “third taste” outside of those felt through taste buds — one that involves digestion.

Bottles of soju are displayed at a supermarket in Seoul. [YONHAP]

The feeling of curing a hangover

A gukbap joint in a student district near Sungkyunkwan University in Suwon is at some of its busiest, unsurprisingly, on Saturday and Sunday mornings, according to owner Won Hye-young.

That’s because the shop's signature kongnamul gukap — rice mixed with hot, clear broth and soybean sprouts — and other stew dishes are a popular hangover cure for Koreans who’ve had one too many drinks the night before.

Twenty-nine-year-old Jeon was one of such customers at Won’s store, close to noon on Sunday. She had drunk five bottles of soju with a friend the previous night, and she felt it that morning. But one sip of spicy budae jjigae (sausage and kimchi stew) and she could already feel the hangover going away.

“It’s the feeling of settling down a queasy, churning stomach,” Jeon said after polishing her meal.

What Jeon felt after eating the soup is what researchers from the Korea Food Research Institute (KFRI) and Hoseo University call a core factor for siwonhanmat, or siwonhan taste.

A piping hot bowl of kimchi kongnamulguk (bean sprout soup), a popular hangover cure in Korea, is served at Jijangsu Bonga Jeonju Kongnamul Gukbap in Suwon, Gyeonggi. [KIM JU-YEON]

The sensation refers to a “refreshing taste experienced by the body during the digestive process” that is felt in other organs in the body in addition to taste buds, said the authors of “Siwonhan-mat: The third taste of Korean foods,” a scientific, historic and anthropological study of the topic.

The researchers classify siwonhanmat as a compound taste: one that is received through the taste buds, as do the five universally accepted basic tastes — salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami — and also contains physically and physiologically stimulating aspects: the hit of pain and catharsis when eating spicy foods, for instance.

Compounded tastes — like keoljukhanmat (a thick or juicy feeling) or kipeunmat (deep flavor) — are a dime a dozen in Korea, but what makes siwonhanmat special is how prevalent the word is used, and how highly sought after it is.

Pollack is dried to make hwangtae (dried pollock), a commonly used ingredient in haejangguk for its deep flavor, at a manufacturing facility in Injae, Gangwon, on Dec. 15, 2022. [YONHAP]

Some (many) like it hot

Soup is the undisputed king when it comes to curing hangovers in Korea. There’s even a name for it: Haejangguk, meaning “hangover soup.”

According to a Lotte Members survey in 2023, soups accounted for the top three most sought-after hangover cures, accounting for over 50 percent.

The most preferred hangover cures were haejangguk types like Pollock soup, bean sprout soup or sundaeguk (Korean sausage soup), followed by spicy soups like ramyeon and jjambbong (Korean-Chinese spicy noodle soup) in second place and clear broth dishes like pho and kalguksu in third.

Siwonhanmat isn’t just found in soups, though Korea’s love of the food — an affection that has its own Netflix documentary — explains why so many associate the taste with them. A good bowl of broth — crucially, at a scalding temperature — sits at the heart of every Korean meal and is especially sought as a hangover cure: exactly where siwonhanmat’s digestive properties are needed.

The KFRI and Hoseo University researchers couldn’t pinpoint the exact elements that made up siwonhanmat. However, they concluded that a balanced salt flavor is essential to siwonhanmat, especially as hangovers are relieved by drinking fluids and consuming electrolytes, like sodium.

Of course, siwonhanmat isn’t just felt when eating Korean food, or appreciated exclusively by its people, even if the country has a unique fixation over it.

“The pinnacle of siwonham is a clear clam soup cooked with a spoonful of freshly chopped chili peppers,” sommelier Dustin Wessa said in a feature for Bar and Dining magazine. Other chefs who talked to the magazine also mentioned soup dishes like oyster soup and samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup) to have siwonhan taste.

Italian chef Stefano di Salvo cited Tuscan fish soup Caldaro, and chef Michael Ashiminov pointed to Bulgarian stew dishes Shkembe Chorba and Teleshko Vareno as examples of non-Korean dishes with siwonhanmat.

Ever see a baseball player hit a game-tying home run? Koreans might exclaim "siwonhada!" after feeling that catharsis. Pictured is Hanwha Eagles infielder Sim Woo-jun at a game with the LG Twins at Daejeon Baseball Dream Park on April 29, 2025. [YONHAP]

Not just soup

Like any other taste, siwonhanmat is subjective. Budae jjigae might have been Jeon’s hangover cure of choice, but many people this reporter talked to flatly refused to countenance the fatty bone broth as having that refreshing flavor. Some said only spicy foods had that taste, while others insisted on mild seafood-based broths.

And while soups may be the archetype for the sensation, it can also be found in other foods. For instance, it’s also commonly cited in super tangy kimchi stored underground for years, which the Michelin Guide attributes to chemicals mannitol and acetoin produced by healthy bacteria that grow in kimchi as it ferments.

Haenam residents take out kimchi from a jangdok, or earthenware pot, that has been left to ferment during the winter. [YONHAP]

What’s important is the “cleansing” factor, according to chef Cho Hee-sook.

“It’ll differ by person. Whether it’s beating the heat with more heat while warming up the body, or eating something spicy, it’s a feeling of catharsis felt from the body,” Cho said.

So when you feel that nausea going down, whether from inhaling a hot bowl of soup or seeing your most hated TV character suffer in the most cathartic way possible, open your mouth and say: “siwonhada!” It might just be what you need to get through the day.

BY KIM JU-YEON [[email protected]]