About Granny Choe’s Kimchi Co.

Back in the day, awesome kimchi was hard to come by unless you: A) Lived in the motherland or B) Had access to a Korean grandmother. But life got a little tastier for kimchi lovers everywhere when Oghee Choe launched her online kimchi shop in 2008. Since then Granny Choe's Kimchi Co. has won first place in the prestigious CRITTER Kimchi Contest in San Francisco and earned the adoration of fans across the nation.

Oghee "Granny" Choe
Co-founder & Big Cheese

Oghee is a genuine Korean grandmother who can't knit a sweater or bake a snickerdoodle to save her life, but who can whip up an electrifying batch of kimchi in less time than it takes for you to say, "My taste buds are dancing with joy." She was raised in post-war Seoul, South Korea without the luxury of a refrigerator (or electricity, for that matter), so she and her family made kimchi the way that Koreans had been doing it for hundreds of years: gathering together at the end of every summer to prepare massive amounts of kimchi, then burying it in earthen vessels so that they would have vegetables to eat throughout the winter. Now at 58-years-old, Oghee is an R.N. by day and a kimchimonger by night. She is rather relieved that her wrinkles and gray hairs are few and far between, and credits her youthfulness to an "endorphin-producing, love-your-neighbor" philosophy and a diet of natural foods (including her homemade kimchi).

Connie Choe-Harikul
Co-founder & Grand High Poo-bah

Considering that she's the daughter of Korean immigrants, Connie says that she is not very good at being Korean. She never aspired to be a doctor or lawyer. She can't play piano. She is married some non-Korean guy with a weird last name. And when she was a kid, she wouldn't even touch kimchi. For shame. She hopes that her involvement in the kimchi biz will make it all up to her peoples. Connie became interested in natural living while working in marketing for natural skincare companies. Her daughter (Baby E, pictured above) serves as both inspiration and chief distraction. 


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