Pressed Cold, Never Roasted

[Saebyeok Mill] 100% Cold-Pressed Raw Perilla Oil (200ml)

Meet 100% Cold-Pressed Raw Perilla Oil from Saebyeok Mill, a small mill in Yangpyeong, the green farming county just east of Seoul.

Most perilla oil in Korea is made the old way: the seeds are roasted hot, then pressed. That gives you the deep, toasty oil you might know from Korean restaurants. It's delicious, but the heat changes the oil, kills the Omega-3 content and drowns out the seed itself.

Saebyeok Mill goes the other way. Whole native perilla seeds, grown only in Yangpyeong and never blended with seeds from other regions, are rinsed three times in clean water and pressed cold, at just 12°C. No roasting at all.

It's a slow, costly way to make oil. A cold press gives less than half the yield of a regular one. What you get in return is a clear, golden oil that tastes clean and fresh, with a soft nuttiness and a light, silky feel. It's the kind of oil you pour straight onto food rather than cook with.

So what's inside?

Full Ingredients List: Perilla seeds (100% Korean).

To use: Drizzle over namul, bibimbap, cold noodles, tofu or seaweed soup at the end. Try it as a dip for sashimi, or a few drops over vanilla ice cream. Being raw, it's best unheated.

In the box: One 200ml glass bottle.

To keep: Store at room temperature away from direct sunlight. Once opened, keep it in the refrigerator. 

Good to know: Made from perilla seeds only. Produced by Evergreen Everblue Cooperative in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi-do. Per 100ml: 894 kcal, 99g fat (7.17g saturated), 0g sugar.

In Korea, plenty of people keep a bottle in the fridge and take a spoonful each morning. Others swear by a drizzle over myeongran (salted pollock roe) and hot rice.