Red Ginseng: The Gift Koreans Give Their Parents, and How to Bring It Home

Every Chuseok (Korea's autumn harvest holiday) and every Lunar New Year, the same gift box shows up at Korean parents' doors: red ginseng. If you want to bring home the present Koreans give the people they love, this is it. Buy it sealed, pack the liquids in your checked bag, and declare it when you land in the US.

The gift that shows up every holiday

In Korea, when you don't know what to give someone you respect, you give red ginseng. Parents, in-laws, the boss, your favorite teacher. At Chuseok and Seollal (Lunar New Year), the stores stack the red boxes to the ceiling.

It comes in every form you can think of. A jar of thick, dark extract you eat by the spoonful. Pouches of red ginseng drink. Jelly. Even candy. I'm eating my way through a box someone gave me right now. It tastes bitter and earthy, a little sweet, and you get used to it. Then you start to like it.

This isn't a fad. Red ginseng was a government monopoly in Korea from 1899 until 1996. One Korean brand, Jung Kwan Jang, held 44.3% of global retail ginseng sales in 2024, and red ginseng was the second-best-selling health functional food in Korea in 2025, behind only vitamins.

How red ginseng is made

Red ginseng starts as ordinary Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng). The difference is all in the kitchen work. White ginseng is simply dried. Red ginseng is steamed first, then dried.

1. Grow. The roots grow in shaded fields for years. For health-supplement use, Korea requires roots at least 4 years old. Jung Kwan Jang uses 6-year roots.
2. Wash and sort. The fresh roots are washed and sorted by size so each batch cooks evenly.
3. Steam. Traditionally at about 90 to 100°C for 2 to 3 hours. The heat starts browning reactions, the same family of chemistry that browns a bread crust, and the pale root turns reddish-amber.
4. Dry. Down to 15% moisture or less, without putting direct heat on the roots.
5. Grade. Korean law sorts whole red ginseng into three grades: Heaven (cheonsam), Earth (jisam) and Good (yangsam). Heaven has no cracks or blemishes. Jung Kwan Jang has said only about 0.5% of its roots make Heaven.
6. Make. Graded roots are sold whole. The rest are extracted into the jars, sticks, pouches and jelly you'll see in stores.

Steaming also changes the chemistry. Red ginseng is measured by three ginsenosides, Rg1, Rb1 and Rg3, and Rg3 is the one steaming creates.

What it's supposed to do

Here I'll be careful, because this is health, not a recipe.

What Korea's food and drug regulator recognizes. Red ginseng products sold as health functional foods (look for 건강기능식품 on the box) may carry these claims: it may help with immunity, fatigue, blood flow, memory, antioxidant activity and menopausal women's health. These are Korean regulatory claims for a supplement. The US FDA hasn't evaluated them.

What the US National Institutes of Health says. NIH's complementary health center finds the evidence for ginseng small or mixed for things like memory, fatigue and blood sugar. Short-term use appears safe for most people. The most common side effect is trouble sleeping. Ginseng may affect blood clotting and lower blood sugar, and it may be unsafe in pregnancy. Korea's regulator prints the same warning on the box: take care with diabetes medicine and blood thinners.

What Korean traditional medicine says. In the old texts, ginseng is warm in nature and tones your gi (energy), especially when you're run down. The flip side: people who already run hot are told to go easy. Korean medicine doctors say to stop if it gives you a headache or keeps you awake, and people with high blood pressure are usually told to avoid it. That's tradition, not proof. You'll hear the same from plenty of Korean parents.

My take: it's a food Koreans believe in and give with love. Don't sell it to anyone as medicine.

What to buy

If you want the ginsenoside amounts that the regulator checks, buy something marked 건강기능식품 (health functional food). Candy and drinks sold as ordinary food don't have to meet that standard.

Where to buy it

• Jung Kwan Jang's own brand stores carry the full range, from candy to graded roots.
• Duty-free shops carry the big brands, including the extract sticks.
• Olive Young carries the sticks, in flavored versions too.
• Gyeongdong Market (Jegi-dong Station) is Seoul's old herbal medicine market. Herbs and roots are piled high, and ginseng sellers are among them. Go for the smell alone.
• Geumsan, in the countryside, is Korea's biggest ginseng market. It's a long way from Seoul, so it's for the truly devoted.

Getting it home to the US

Leaving Korea. Carry-on liquids must be in containers of 100 ml or less, all in one 20×20 cm zip bag. Extract jars and drink pouch boxes go in your checked bag. Dried roots, candy and other solid red ginseng are fine in either bag. If you buy liquids at duty-free and connect through a US airport, TSA allows them in carry-on only in the sealed duty-free bag with the receipt, and still suggests checking them.

Arriving in the US. Declare it. US rules say every agricultural and plant product must be declared, and the CBP officer decides. Commercially packaged ginseng tea is explicitly permitted, subject to inspection. No US rule I found names ginseng extract, jelly or candy specifically, so declare them, keep them in their sealed retail packaging, and let the officer look. Skip fresh roots (susam) altogether. Soil isn't allowed in without a permit, and fresh roots are a live plant product the inspector can refuse. Buy dried or processed red ginseng instead. Declared items don't get you fined, even if the inspector keeps them. Undeclared ones can cost up to $1,000 on a first offense.

Is ginseng protected? Korean red ginseng isn't restricted under CITES, the treaty on endangered species. Only Russia's Panax ginseng population is listed, and even there extracts, teas and candy are exempt. American ginseng is a different species, and it is listed.

If you'd like a guide

Hidden Seoul Markets with Herbal Wellness & Food is a private tour of Gyeongdong Market and its herbal-medicine traditions.

• Good for: anyone curious about hanbang, Korea's traditional medicine, and the ingredients you'll see in red ginseng shops.
• What you do: a ginseng and herb foot bath at the Seoul K-Medi Center, market tastings, a healthy rice dish with side dishes and seasonal traditional tea. About 3 to 4 hours, meeting at Exit 2 of Jegi-dong Station (Line 1).
• Know before you book: it's private, so the price covers your group, not a seat.

Short on time? Ginseng Museum Entry Ticket with Tea Tasting is a 30-minute visit to the Cheongha Korean Ginseng Museum, with an English-speaking docent and ginseng tea in a private tea room, about 10 minutes by car from Gyeongbokgung Palace. Expect a shop at the end.

Before you go home

Buy one jar for your parents and a bag of candy for the office. Pack the jar in your checked bag, and answer "yes" to the agriculture question, on the paper form, the kiosk or the Mobile Passport Control app. Dinner tonight? Samgyetang, chicken soup with a whole ginseng root in the pot. Fitting, I'd say.

Useful links

• Coffee, teas, honey, nuts and spices (opens in a new tab) (USDA APHIS, on ginseng tea)
• Bringing agricultural products into the United States (opens in a new tab) (US Customs and Border Protection)
• Asian ginseng (opens in a new tab) (NIH, safety and evidence)
• Restricted items on flights (opens in a new tab) (Incheon International Airport)