The Birak Sikhye Can That Turns Back Into a Bowl

A Drink You Can Chew

Sikhye is hard to place. In the fridge it looks like any canned drink, and on a summer day it can be just as refreshing. The first sip tells you it is different. There is no rush of carbonation or a fruit aroma like juice. The sweetness carries a soft grain flavor, and then you find yourself chewing a few little grains of rice. The distinction between drinking it and eating it begins to blur.

At home, sikhye was served in a large bowl and eaten with a spoon. Barley malt draws out sweetness from cooked rice. To me it tastes softer and rounder than sugar, and the grain flavor is especially welcome after a rich meal.

Putting sikhye in a can introduced a problem. A drinks can is made to let liquid flow through a small opening. Sikhye has grains of rice. The drink and its container were always a little at odds.

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The Problem With a Small Opening

The old Birak Sikhye can had a familiar routine. Open it, take a sip and wonder where the rice is. Give it a little shake and try again. More liquid comes out. By the end you are tipping the can nearly upside down.

Those grains are what make it sikhye. Getting them out meant tipping the can so far that the remaining liquid could spill out all at once. Some people went in with chopsticks. A simple drink ended up needing a utensil.

It sounds like a small inconvenience, but sikhye carries associations with holidays, bathhouses, jjimjilbang and motorway service areas. When the rice stayed behind and the liquid ran out, the last sip always felt unfinished.

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A Lid That Comes All the Way Off

The newer Birak can takes the whole lid off. Instead of opening a small drinking hole, you pull away the entire round top. The can becomes a little bowl.

It makes more of a difference than I expected. You can drink it comfortably and tip the last grains into your mouth without shaking the can or wondering whether it will spill. One change to the container changes the way the whole thing feels.

The biggest difference is when the rice reaches your mouth at the end. It used to feel as though you were chasing the leftovers. Now the final mouthful is the part that tastes most like sikhye. The texture of the grain gives it a proper ending.

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From Can to Bowl

The lid does more than make the can easier to use. It brings back something of the old way of eating sikhye. Convenience stores and vending machines made it a drink, and the grains became an awkward part of that experience.

With the full top removed, the can works like a small bowl you can hold in one hand. It feels closer to the old way of serving it. An adjustment to the packaging makes an older experience possible again.

How you eat something is part of how it tastes. Sikhye poured into a glass, drunk through a small hole or sipped from a wide-open can can be the same recipe and feel like three different things. This lid changes the impression without changing the flavor.

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The Last Sip Matters

I tend to like the first sip of a fizzy drink and the middle of a glass of juice. With sikhye it is the end. The rice collects, the last of the liquid follows and you finish by chewing. That is when the grain character of the drink is clearest.

In the old can, the rice stayed behind or the liquid spilled as you tried to get it out. The new lid makes the ending feel natural. It resolves an awkward part of a memory many people already have.

What changed for me was the experience. Sikhye brings familiar places to mind, and now the final mouthful feels like part of that memory.