The Faculty of Hospitality Management of Universitas Pelita Harapan has the opportunity to be visited by 16 students from Korea who were doing a visit as a part of their field practice in PT Heonz Royal Jaya Korea on January 16, 2019. UPH became the only university to be visited by this company during their trip to Indonesia, which purpose was to observe the market’s characteristics and the market target under PT Heonz Royal Jaya distribution.

Heonz is a company that imports and distribute two of Korea’s renowned brand namely, Samyang and Dong-A. As a beginning of their relationship, Heonz brought their beverage product, Dong-A, as the basic ingredient for a Mocktail Workshop which was held with the students of UPH Hospitality Management.

Upon welcoming the visit, Nonot Yuliantoro as the head of Hospitality Management lab, explained that they have been preparing the workshop as well as a Mexico-themed lunch for the guests. Moreover, they also explained that the Mocktail Workshop is going to be presented by the Mixology Club, a special club made by the students of STTPH who has passion in bar.

“If there are events with international guests, we usually invite them to be the executor of their own special and original recipes,” Nonot explained.

Special for the guest today, in order to emphasize our local culture and product, we serve a special drink which is a combination between special local Ingredients and the carbonated drink product of Heonz. The recipe was an original creation of the students who are joined in UPH Mixology Club.

“The challenge is how to make this ready-to-drink product to a unique drink that is able to promote Indonesian culture. For example, Ayu, one of the students, used a unique concept for her drink, her mocktail uses chili, celery, and basil in order to give the taste of ‘rujak’. So she was trying to serve a drink with the taste that usually is used in food,” said Nonot.

The Korean students looked very enthusiastic as they watch and enjoyed the performance of the club members as they were making their mocktails. They repeatedly clapped their hands as they amazed over the performance.

“Awesome and fantastic, it goes beyond my expectation, the mocktails and the foods are super delicious. I can feel their passion as they were making these, they looked very happy. I feel really content. This is my first visit to Indonesia, and I can see that Indonesia has grown and will have a better economic growth in the near future,” said Lee Minah, one of the students from Kyunghee University in Korea.

Another praise also came from Soonseok Jong, who conveyed hi amazement at UPH.

“This university is so huge and beautiful, it has great and complete facilities. It was a great experience for me to be able to be here,” said Sooseok.

They didn’t only get the chance to taste the drinks, they also got directions, explanations, and they also got to try to make the drinks that has been served.

Through this workshop, Nonot hopes that these students are able to gain new knowledge, that ready-to-drink product can also be served as various beverages. “According to the current trend, we have to adjust and add creativity to these ready-to-go products. Hopefully, the guests are able to gain more knowledge from their visit to the Faculty of Hospitality Management of UPH,” he also added. ™