Cuppa Joe

I have mentioned previously that Seoul has a huge coffee shop culture. There are coffeeshops everywhere, and more independent ones than huge chains. In Seoul, you can't go far without stumbling into one of these gems. In my neighborhood alone (not even a nice neighborhood mind you) 4 coffeeshops opened up in roughly 6 months. All on the same main drag, and I'm not even counting the shops that were there before I moved in.

That being said, the coffee shop culture is different than that of the States.

For instance, many people prefer to drink their coffees and espressos in house. When you go to a coffee shop, you will usually stay there and meet with friends/study. In America, since many of us drive cars, it's really convenient to just get our coffees to go, or go through the drive-thrus, and show up to work with a piping hot cup or something latted.

Going along with that, it's actually not that common (at least around my area) to have a coffee shop open in the early morning. This was probably the most surprising thing to me, as a former barista, because I remember having to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to make my 5:15 starting time. This actually didn't occur to me until one morning when I really wanted some espresso, only to find that none of the coffee shops in my area (including the 4 that had opened up since I moved into the block) were open. Most coffee shops open around 9 or 10am (8am if you are lucky). So actually, rolling into work with a fresh espresso isn't really an option. I'm not quite sure why coffee shops aren't opened earlier, as this just makes sense to me that people would want espresso in the morning.

BUT, this brings me to my next point. Many of the smaller coffee shops don't actually sell coffee. They have a wide variety of lattes/cinos/smothies but quite often, when I find myself looking for an iced coffee or a drip coffee, that option is noticeably absent from the menu.

It may have to do with the fact that many people don't actually drink coffee coffee. In korea instant coffee is really popular but it's a whole different thing entirely to have a coffee machine in a break room. If an individual wants to have coffee at work, but wants to bypass the instant stuff, they use one of these:



And this set up can often be found in coffee shops that offer coffee as a drink selection.

Also, the drink of choice here seems to be an americano. It's often the cheapest thing on the menu, and theres even a song about it, so it seems to me that coffee/iced coffee would do just as well in Korea.

Speaking of americanos, Koreans (or at least Koreans here in Seoul) will drink americanos black. When I am craving an iced coffee, but there's none to be had, I will order an iced americano. But try to get just the tiniest bit of milk in it --no, I don't want a latte, thank you--and its the most absurd thing ever to a barista. If it's too much trouble, I skip the milk and drink it sugary and black.

If you dont want to bother with the filtered coffee, you can either partake in instant coffee. It is insane popular here. The prepackaged sticks come with instant coffee, creamer, and an intense amount of sugar. Oh, and no need for a spoon to stir your hot water and coffee together, just use the packaging!


Or, if you want something ready to go, there's always the canned coffee. These you can buy in any convenience store in the cold drink section, but also in these little "fridges" but instead of being cold, they are hot. Perfect hand warmers for cold days!


The last thing I want to touch upon is that with rare exceptions (and in this case, Starbucks is a notable exception) you can't really specify your milk choice in most coffee shops. Usually everything is served with whole milk, and if you ask for soy or non-fat, most likely the shop wont carry it. It can be slightly frustrating when I want something hot, a bit more substantial than tea, but can't deal with all that whole milk -____-.

Korean coffee, coffee shops, and coffee culture is a thing of its own, and something that I hadn't actually thought about or anticipated when I first got here. Mostly because you think that coffee is a pretty common sort of thing, nothing really special about it, but the more I think about it the more I think that what cultures tend to do with something as basic as a cuppa joe, speaks volumes about the society at large.