Gotgam

Gotgam (곶감) is the dried persimmon of Korea, made from the astringent fruit of the persimmon tree, Diospyros kaki, that has long been grown across the southern half of the peninsula. Sangju in Gyeongsangbuk-do is the place most closely tied to it, and the drying of persimmons in the cold, dry weeks after harvest belongs to the winter larder of the farmhouse, where the fruit was a store of sweetness before refined sugar was common. It is carried today by orchard families and village producers, and it sits within the tradition of preserved fruit and sweet foods used at ancestral rites, at the New Year and in the tea table.

Gotgam is made from firm, astringent persimmons, peeled whole, leaving the calyx and a short piece of stem, then strung or hung in pairs on cord or skewers and dried in open air for several weeks. During drying the tannin that makes the fresh fruit mouth-drying becomes insoluble, the flesh darkens to deep amber and turns dense and chewy, and a pale bloom of fruit sugar rises on the surface. The finished fruit is flattened by hand during the process so that it dries evenly, and it is eaten whole, sliced, or stuffed. It is also the base of sujeonggwa, the cinnamon and ginger punch, where it is steeped and served floating in the cold liquid.

Gotgam is eaten with tea, notably green tea and the warmer infusions of ginger and jujube, and it is steeped in sujeonggwa, where its sweetness answers the heat of ginger and the spice of cinnamon. It is often stuffed with a walnut, which supplies bitterness and fat against the dense sweetness of the fruit. The structural reason is balance: a concentrated sugar needs an astringent or oily counterpoint, and a hot or bitter drink clears it from the palate.