Seoul
I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the coffee scene in Seoul. The explosion of coffee shops in the last couple of years, and the level of quality and service at which they operate, is pretty staggering. Modern Korean coffee culture emerged out of the grand tradition of super sweet instant coffee, then the inevitable arrival of S-bucks in 1999, which led to a handful of folks planting the seed for the specialty movement, in the late aughts. There are currently on the order of 19,000 (!) coffee shops in Seoul, and the world barista championship will be held in Busan next year. When Korean people get into something, we really get into it.
Things work a little differently there. A lot of coffee shops don’t open till 10 or even noon, and many stay open till 9 or 11 at night. The most common drink by far is a black iced americano, year-round. There is basically no batch drip coffee to be seen, but most fancy places offer a menu of hand pours.
I had a beautiful time hanging with BK Kim, a legit coffee rockstar and pioneer of Korean specialty, who helped launch Coffee Libre, and later, in 2014, Fritz. I’d been following Fritz from afar for a while; it turns out BK and I are connected through our respective cousins! It was an incredibly gracious hospitality experience, and deeply inspiring. Their coffee and bread/pastry programs are amazing, and they’re doing something special with their design, branding, company culture (“internal branding”), and direct trade practices. It’s a soulful company, infused with heart and respect at every layer. You can tell when you visit their shops – they are those magical spaces that you never want to leave.
It was super fun and inspiring skipping around visiting shops, meeting folks, and talking talk. Special shoutout to Cashmere Coffee, with whose tiny shop, where they are roasting, baking treats, and holding it down in a tiny space tucked away on a quiet street, I felt a special kinship.
I’m excited to bring some of this energy back into our space. It’ll be good to see everybody – I’ve missed your faces!
어서 오세요!