Sommeliers.
Usually experts who taste and recommends wine, sometimes even water.
Here in South Korea there's a new kind of sommelier.
He specializes in sesame seed oil.
Seo Bo-bin gets us better acquainted with this trailblazer.
This sommelier uses his expert training and knowledge not for fancy drinks... but to find the best examples of a traditional Korean cooking ingredient.

Lee Hee-jun is a sesame seed oil sommelier. He goes around traditional markets across the nation learning the different local recipes for sesame seed oil, and then helps introduce those oils to the rest of the country.

"Just like a wine sommelier, a sesame seed sommelier uses his or her expertise to find and make known the best oils. Right now, I'm the only sesame seed oil sommelier in the country."

Making sesame seed oil is just like roasting coffee. The flavor and taste of the oil varies depending on the origin of the seed, the way it's roasted and the way the oil is extracted.
Lee Hee-jun only extracts 33 bottles of oil a month from a particular seed he's found somewhere in Korea.
It takes a master's skill to extract sesame seed oil in the traditional Korean way.

"Sesame seed oil is consumed by many people around the world. But what's special about Korean sesame seed oil... is that the masters extract the oil on their own. Here we introduce sesame seed oils from 300 different masters across the nation every month."

This month it's sesame seed oil from Jeju Island along with other products from Jeju.
The seeds are grown in the island sea breeze, and even though they don't contain any salt, they still somehow have a salty taste.
And this sesame seed latte is a specialty here made with seeds from Jeju.

By finding special products like these hidden across the country, Lee Hee-jun, the sesame seed oil sommelier, wants to keep working to bring traditional oils and products to the public.

Seo Bo-bin, Arirang News.