A Nation Obsessed with
Coffee
From Koreana –Korean Culture
& Arts, Autumn 2015, published quarterly by The Korea Foundation, Seoul, Korea.
Article starts on page 84
By Kim Yong-sub, Director, Edged Imagination Institute
for Trend Insight & Business Creativity
Many Koreans start their
day with coffee. They are in the habit of drinking coffee in the morning. Many
stop for a takeout cup of coffee on their way to work, and visit coffee shops
or enjoy instant coffee after lunch. Whether at work or at home, people like to
have a coffee break around 3 to 4 o’clock in the languid afternoon. They drink
coffee with friends and start dating at a coffee shop.Coffee topped the list of foods that most adult Koreans ate or drank regularly, according to a health and nutrition survey conducted by the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2013. Among its findings: Koreans drank coffee 12.3 times a week, whereas — rather surprisingly — they ate rice seven times, and kimchi 11.8 times. Indeed, Koreans consume coffee more often than rice, their staple food, or kimchi, an indispensable side dish. It’s no exaggeration to say that the No. 1 food item for Koreans is no longer rice or kimchi, but coffee, when based on statistics alone. So, how did Koreans become so overwhelmingly obsessed with coffee?
Once the Beverage of Royals and Intellectuals
It was probably around 1890 that coffee was first introduced in Korea. At that time, people called coffee gabi or gabicha. Some called it yangtangguk (“Western herbal medicine”) because of its bitter taste. It became a favorite drink of the royal court. As noted in historical records, King Gojong (r. 1863–1907) tasted his first coffee during his brief refuge at the Russian Legation in 1896. Antoinette Sontag (1854–1925), a German national who was in Korea to manage the legation’s household, served coffee to King Gojong. She was the sister-in-law of the first Russian consul general to Korea, Karl I. Waeber.
In 1902, she opened Sontag Hotel, the first Western-style hotel in Seoul, thanks to the king’s trust and support. Located in Jeong-dong, which had become the diplomatic center and expatriate enclave of the capital, the hotel soon became a major stage of politics and diplomacy as Korea entered the new century. This naturally suggests that the hotel most probably served coffee. The hotel building was later used as a dormitory for Ewha Haktang, the nation’s first modern educational institution for women, but was eventually demolished. There now is a café in the Ewha Centenary Hall of Ewha Girls’ High School, which stands near the old site of the hotel. I sometimes drink coffee there, imagining how someone at the turn of the century must have enjoyed his coffee at that very spot about 110 years ago.
Korea’s first dabang, meaning “tea room” or “teahouse,” was Kissaten (a Japanese word with the same meaning), which opened at the Namdaemun [South Gate] Railway Station, today’s Seoul Station, in 1909, shortly before the start of Japan’s colonial rule. Back then, there were a number of dabang in the area, as many Japanese lived there to work for a railway construction project to link Seoul with the northwestern border city of Sinuiju.
The first dabang operated by a Korean was named Kakadu (“Cockatoo”), which film director Lee Kyung-son (1905–1977) opened in Gwanhun-dong, Jongno, in downtown Seoul, in 1927. It was after the 1920s that coffee became a popular drink in Korea. Coffeehouses opened one after another in Seoul’s downtown areas of Myeong-dong, Chungmuro, and Jongno. Koreans began to consume coffee in earnest.
In the 1920s and 30s, intellectuals and artists opened coffeehouses which became popular spaces for people to imbibe in the new coffee culture and bask in the elan of café society. Writer Yi Sang (1910–1937) opened Jebi Dabang (Swallow Teahouse) at the entrance of Cheongjin-dong, Jongno in 1933 with the help of his gisaeng (courtesan) girlfriend Geumhong.
Playwright Yu Chi-jin
(1905–1974) operated Platana in Sogong-dong, and actress Bok Hye-sook
(1904–1982) was the proprietor of Venus in Insa-dong. With its beginnings as
the royals’ preferred drink, coffee took root in Korean society as part of high
culture closely associated with intellectuals and artists. Coffee culture
filtered down from above and turned from an exclusive luxury to a favorite of
the general populace. Naturally, it was an expensive indulgence in its early
days. Many Koreans still believe it is the height of etiquette to serve guests
coffee at home or workplace.
What Kind of Coffee Do You Drink?
What Kind of Coffee Do You Drink?
Korean tastes and coffee culture closely trended with the prevailing lifestyles during the country’s socio-political and economic development in the decades following the end of colonial rule, World War II, and the Korean War: from dabang coffee in the intellectual ferment of the 1960s and instant coffee in the go-go 1970s to coffee in cans or pre-mixed packets in the exhilarating 1980s, then full circle back to leisurely café coffee in the 1990s, and franchise coffee in the trend-conscious 2000s.
Since the early 2000s, the coffee consumption patterns have further diversified thanks to the widespread availability of drip coffee, espresso, and capsule coffee machines. With growing affluence, tastes turned to fresh-roasted coffee beans, high-end espresso machines, and coffee makers at favorite cafés and at home; studying coffee and becoming a certified barista are trendy among today’s young adults. But there still are many people who enjoy instant coffee mix. Coffee vending machines are still readily available even as multinational franchise coffee shops are all the rage.
Currently, there are about 30,000 coffee shops across the country. They attract large numbers of habitues, because customers can essentially “rent space” and linger for the price of a cup of coffee. Many coffee shops offer free Wi-Fi. After purchasing a coffee, you can occupy a spot at a coffee shop and use it as your office for a few hours. A new coinage, “coffice” people, refers to laptop-toting habitues who park themselves in a café to do their work there.
Tastes in coffee might have trended toward high end, but consumer choice remains democratic: there still are about 40,000 coffee vending machines in operation throughout the country. Back in the 1990s, coffee from a vending machine cost about 100 won, allowing people to enjoy coffee for a single coin. Coffee vending machines continue to be an important source of ready-to-drink coffee for the masses, although fewer than half of them remain, compared to their heyday.
Indeed, convenience store coffee, instant coffee, and canned coffee account for a much larger market share than the pricier jolts of java offered by coffee shops. According to recent market research, the market scale of instant coffee and convenience store coffee amounted to nearly 2.2 trillion won (about US$2.2 billion) in 2012, considerably greater than the 1.58 trillion won of coffeehouse sales. This shows that many more people are still enjoying cheap instant coffee every day. Praised for their high quality, Korean coffee mix sticks are loved by coffee drinkers overseas.
What Does Coffee Mean to Koreans?
Koreans crave coffee because of its energizing jolt: it works as a tonic that keeps them constantly on the go — work hard and overtime a lot, and study hard and play hard on very little sleep.
In Korea, coffee is not just another beverage: it is as much a stimulant for the hard-driving Koreans of today as it is a social lubricant, which has been true since early modern times. And where they like to drink coffee is important as well. The introduction of Western culture, upon Korea’s opening to the world near the turn of the 20th century, gave rise to its coffee culture and the emergence of dabang, a comfortable and friendly meeting place where anyone can come and enjoy coffee and conversation. In Seoul alone, there were 214 dabang right after the Korean War armistice in 1953, and 1,041 by 1960. Dabang served not only coffee but also traditional beverages like ssanghwatang (herbal tonic drink). Dabang became a popular meeting and cultural space along with the rise of a new favorite drink — coffee.
On October 26, 1909, the anti-colonial patriot Ahn Jung-geun (1879–1910) waited in a dabang at the Harbin Railway Station in northeastern China for his chance to assassinate Ito Hirobumi, the first resident-general of Korea. Modern Korean history is replete with references to the coffeehouse as a site that has witnessed or sheltered the key players in major political events. There were many dabang near universities in the 1980s and 90s in the upswell of Korea’s democratization movements and subsequent social revolutions. Sitting in high-backed seats and sipping cup after cup of coffee in the myriad dabang around the country, college students discussed politics and love amidst a thick haze of cigarette smoke — a scene that epitomized the spirit of those decades.
Coffee is no longer a simple drink to us Koreans. It has become a daily necessity that is enjoyed as part of leisure, affording time for romance and introspection. And it is once again a luxurious indulgence; over the past few years, young people have gone crazy over pricey desserts — macaron, chocolate, cake, and ice cream — in tandem with the soaring consumption of coffee.
Some 728 cups of coffee are consumed by Koreans every second, which amounts to 22.9 billion cups a year. At this very moment, many Koreans are making drip coffee, enjoying coffee alone, or talking with someone over coffee. More than just a passing trend, Koreans’ obsession with coffee seems set to continue well into the future.
