The first bottle
YOBO begins in the Finger Lakes with an American craft soju made from locally grown grapes.
Founded in 2015 · Carolyn Kim
A Korean
American spirit.
In every sense.
YOBO began with one woman’s conviction that soju could reflect the full complexity of her identity—Korean and American, traditional and inventive, deeply personal and made to be shared.
Meet our founder ↓
FounderCarolyn Kim
The founder’s story
01She made the soju
she couldn’t find.
“As a female founder, I was met with much doubt and criticism when I first launched YOBO. Despite the objections, I firmly believed in creating a higher-quality soju that represented my own evolving Korean-American identity.”
Carolyn Kim · Founder
Born in Los Angeles, Carolyn was a lawyer and mother of twins when she saw an opening to create a thoroughly modern, American-made soju. The first YOBO bottle was produced from local grapes in New York’s Finger Lakes in 2015.
It was never only about making another bottle. It was about making room—for a different expression of soju, for a Korean-American point of view, and for the people who had rarely seen themselves reflected in the category.
One idea, still moving
From first pour
to Spirit House.
A new standard
The original idea evolves into YOBO Luxe: a precise, premium expression rooted in quality and craft.
The table expands
Kish brings a chef’s imagination to the house through layered, culinary apéritifs.
The next round
KTOWN turns up the color and flavor—carrying Carolyn’s founding spirit into a new generation.
A word for together
YOBO means
more than us.
In Korean, yobo is an intimate word shared between partners—a small word that holds affection, trust, home, and the life two people build together.
For us, it has grown into a larger idea: spirits should bring people closer. Around a dinner table, across cultures, and through every chapter still to come.
Heritage + home
Korean
+ American.
YOBO lives in the balance between homage and exploration, tradition and invention. That tension is not something to resolve—it is the source of the work.
- Grape
- The unexpected beginning
- Rice
- Korean character and balance
- Wheat
- Structure and a clean finish
The idea today
One house.
Many expressions.
What began as one modern soju now gives each brand room to speak in its own voice—while sharing the same standards of quality, imagination, and connection.
The next chapter
Still defying.
Still building.
Still together.
Carolyn’s first bottle challenged what American soju could be. The work now is to keep expanding the answer.