Zero-sugar soju 'Saero' charts new course with flavors, pop-ups and redesign

100 million bottles sold in 7 months; surpassed 800 million last year

Omija flavor added; pop-ups draw praise after January renewal

The zero-sugar soju Saero, renewed in January [Lotte Chilsung Beverage]

Lotte Chilsung Beverage is pushing to lead the soju market through a renewal of its zero-sugar soju Saero and an expanded marketing push.

Saero, a zero-sugar soju made without fructose, debuted in September 2022. Its sleek design and smooth taste spread by word of mouth, driving cumulative sales past 50 million bottles within four months of launch and past 100 million within seven months. By the end of last year, sales had surpassed 800 million bottles.

The lineup has also grown. After introducing Saero Apricot in 2024 and Saero Darae last year, the brand posted 27 percent growth compared with the previous year as of late last year. Saero Omija, launched in May, sold about 2 million bottles within a month of its release.

In January, the company carried out its first-ever renewal of the product to sharpen its competitiveness and respond to a consumer trend favoring smoother soju. The base ingredient was switched from barley rice distillate to 100 percent domestically grown rice distillate, enhancing a crisp, smooth taste. Five amino acids were newly added to balance the flavor profile.

The packaging also received a refresh. A mint color — Saero's signature hue — was added to the bottle-cap emblem representing the tail of Saero's fox mascot, "Saero Gumi," and the label logo was redesigned for better readability. The gumiho (nine-tailed fox) depicted on the label was redrawn in a light, leaping pose.

To mark the renewal, Lotte Chilsung Beverage ran a pop-up store called "Saero Central Museum" in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, from March 21 to April 5. Built around a storyline in which Saero's thousand-year secret recipe has been stolen, the event was structured as an escape-room game in which visitors searched for clues to restore the lost recipe. It drew more than 1,000 visitors a day.

Last year, the company also ran a pop-up called "Saero Dowon" for five months, attracting more than 40,000 cumulative visitors. A dining menu developed in collaboration with chef Cho Seo-hyeong — known as "the Business Genius" on the cooking competition show Culinary Class Wars — earned a rating of 4.9 out of 5 on the restaurant-reservation app Catch Table.

The brand's design work has also won recognition. At the recently announced 2026 iF Design Award, the Saero Dowon pop-up store and its "Saero Dowon marble tableware" took main prizes in the branding and communication design category and the packaging category, respectively. The Saero Dowon pop-up also won the Winner prize in the spatial design category at the 2026 Asia Design Prize.

"Saero has established itself as a new trend in the domestic soju market, and we plan to pursue aggressive marketing activities so it can grow beyond zero-sugar soju to become the defining representative of Korean soju," a Lotte Chilsung Beverage official said.

Three Saero flavors: (from left) Saero Apricot, Saero Darae and Saero Omija [Lotte Chilsung Beverage]

The "Saero Central Museum" pop-up store held in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, from March 21 to April 5 to mark the Saero renewal [Lotte Chilsung Beverage]

spa@heraldcorp.com