168-Hour Black Pork and 200-Year-Old Seed Soy Sauce: Lotte Department Store Offers Chuseok Gifts Infused with Time

[Financial News] Lotte Department Store is introducing premium gift sets for this year’s Chuseok holiday that highlight the “value of time,” including aging and fermentation.
According to industry sources on the 10th, Lotte Department Store has launched “time premium” products among major gift categories such as Korean beef, alcoholic beverages and groceries. The products have undergone lengthy aging or fermentation processes. They stand out by drawing on aging techniques that are difficult to replicate in a short period and traditional production methods accumulated over many years.
In the livestock category, the department store is offering aged Korean beef gift sets developed in collaboration with SOOKSOODOGA, a dining establishment specializing in aged meat. Its pork products also use extended aging techniques. “Sukseongdo Black Pork,” developed with Sukseongdo, a restaurant specializing in aged black pork, features cuts including belly, neck and bone-in loin from Woori Heukdon, a breed restored through 25 years of research by the National Institute of Animal Science. The meat was wet-aged for 168 hours.
Whisky aged for more than 30 years will also be sold in limited quantities. The traditional fermented-paste gift sets use fermentation methods passed down over many years. Nampagotaek, Lotte Department Store’s Korean food brand, is offering a “200-Year-Old Seed Soy Sauce Gift” made by the Park Gyeong-jung head family in Naju, South Jeolla Province, which has been adding successive batches of soy sauce starter for 200 years.
Yang Seong-jin, head of fresh food at Lotte Department Store, said, "We worked to reflect the value of time, which is difficult even to quantify in monetary terms, in a variety of premium gifts for this Chuseok holiday." He added, "Lotte Department Store will continue seeking special finishing touches that can offer customers new culinary experiences through holiday gifts."

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