World’s First Korean Specialty-Coffee Guide in English Just Published

World’s First Korean Specialty-Coffee Guide in English Just Published

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World’s First Korean Specialty-Coffee Guide in English Just Published

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Every Friday, Perfect Daily Grind rounds up the top coffee industry news from the previous week. Here are this week’s stories. Mon, 16 Jan World of Coffee Dubai 2023 attracts more than 12,000 visitors from 48 countries. The event, which was held at the Dubai World Trade Centre, also included over 180 exhibitors and 36 […]


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World’s First Korean Specialty-Coffee Guide in English Just Published

U.S. Coffee Championships 2023 Denver Qualifiers Reach New Heights

The next group of coffee champions moves on to nationals at the Denver qualifiers. BY KATE VAN PETTENSPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE Photos by Matthew Temple and courtesy of Specialty Coffee Association The high-flying world of U.S. CoffeeChamps competitions reached new heights as coffee professionals flocked to the Denver qualifiers for the 2023 season, hosted in […]


Medium-sized farms play an important role in specialty coffee

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World’s First Korean Specialty-Coffee Guide in English Just Published

World’s First Korean Specialty-Coffee Guide in English Just Published

minimum dose size?

Jan 31, 2024 |

I use the Hario switch to brew my coffee and am trying to reduce my caffeine consumption. Hence I would like to brew smaller cups of coffee. I am currently using 10g of coffee with 160g of water. (1:16 Ratio) I am wondering if there is a minimum amount of coffee...

World’s First Korean Specialty-Coffee Guide in English Just Published

The Korea Specialty Coffee Guide aims to introduce visitors to many of the nation’s fantastic specialty cafés.

BY SUNGHEE TARK
SPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE

Photos by Grace Bak 

South Korea’s coffee market has been multiplying. The traditionally tea-drinking country has become one of the fastest-growing specialty-coffee powerhouses of late, with 2019 World Barista Champion Jooyeon Jeon representing the nation, and internationally popular coffee brands such as Fritz Coffee Company.  

Nonetheless, publication on Korea’s burgeoning specialty-coffee scene has been scarce and limited to the Korean language for the domestic audience. An increasing number of coffee professionals have visited Korea, but getting a good specialty coffee is like shooting in the dark amidst the myriad café options around the country. 

Authors Charles Costello, left, and Wonjin Cho, right, autographing copies of their new guidebook.

A Guidebook for Coffee Lovers

Such thirst is what led Charles Costello to create the Caffeine Compass coffee guide after living in Korea for several years. Now he has written a book, Korea Specialty Coffee Guide, to introduce visitors to Korea to more of its great specialty cafés. “Koreans do not frequently use Google Maps but instead their own search engines to search good places near you and to leave reviews. And these domestic search engines are hard to use for foreigners if you don’t speak the language. There are only so many cafes reviewed on Google Maps … making access to well-reviewed cafes difficult for non-Korean speakers,” says Charles.  

Magic Cafe Guide and Scheherazade Decaf are two coffees specially blended in honor of
the Korea Specialty Coffee Guide release.

Charles teamed up with Wonjin Cho and Jaebom Shim, who have been among the leading voices in archiving and writing on the Korean coffee industry for a while now, to write the book. Korea Specialty Coffee Guide marks an important milestone as the first specialty guidebook on Korea’s coffee industry to be written in English.  

Book Contents

Korea Specialty Coffee Guide features a brief summary of the history of the Korean coffee industry, beginning with the Chosun dynasty—when the first written record of coffee drinking in Korean territory appears in 1886. Next is the rapid growth in consumption of pre-mixed soluble coffee in a stick, popularized by Dong Suh Food Corporation. Then, there is the first Starbucks opening in 1999, and the onset of the specialty-coffee scene in the country, primarily led by Terarosa, Namusairo, and Coffee Libre. It continues with the emergence of the most recent wave of specialty-coffee leaders: Fritz Coffee Company, Felt Coffee, and Momos Coffee, between 2009 and 2016. The book is packed with in-depth reviews of the 82 most notable cafés across the country, all while exploring what makes the Korean specialty-coffee industry so enticing.  

Wonjin Cho helps prepare and serve coffee at the Korea Specialty Coffee Guide launch in Seoul.

The authors selected these cafes, they say, because they captured the essence of the unique Korean coffee scene. Readers can expect to have them categorized by various regions in and outside of Seoul. Thanks to the authors’ depth of connection with the industry, each café in the book is reviewed with essential information. Reviews include opening hours, locations, and the stories of the founders and brands.  

The Book’s Purpose

In celebration of the launch, on September 30, the authors hosted an event at Peer Coffee Roasters in Seongsu, Seoul. Hundreds of coffee professionals from across the country attended the event. The authors personally greeted each guest and served the special blends of coffee created for the books: Magic Cafe Guide and Scheherazade, the first specialty decaf blend to be introduced in the Korean coffee scene.  

The book release at Peer Coffee Roasters in Seongsu, Seoul, drew coffee professionals from all over South Korea.

The authors hope that this book will be a helpful guide to those visiting South Korea in the future, as they search for a good cup of coffee during their stay. The Korea Specialty Coffee Guide is published by Ttabi, a Korean publisher, and is available for shipping across North America through online platforms Kyobo USA and Bandibook USA.  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sunghee Tark (she/her) is the co-founder of Bean Voyage, a feminist organization that collaborates with smallholder womxn coffee producers to build an equitable coffee value chain. She is also a freelance coffee writer, Specialty Coffee Association LEAD Scholar, and Re:Co Fellow.

The post World’s First Korean Specialty-Coffee Guide in English Just Published appeared first on Barista Magazine Online.

World’s First Korean Specialty-Coffee Guide in English Just Published

Perfect Little Beans

Chinmey Hill Coffee uses specialty-grade beans with zero primary defects (such as black beans or sour beans) and less than five secondary defects (such as broken beans). This is important because primary defects will greatly affect the taste of the coffee. Having zero defects allows the coffee to be the most optimal flavor.

Window for Optimal Flavor

Chimney Hill Coffee ships our coffee the same day it was roasted, so you will receive it before it enters the window of optimal flavor.  This means you’ll never miss the opportunity to enjoy the coffee’s peak flavor.

Coffee Ratings

Coffee undergoes many scoring processes by professionals who achieved their Q Grader certification. Coffee is first graded when it’s green. If there are defects the coffee is determined to be “not-specialty grade”. For those coffees that pass green grading, they are sample roasted and cupped. (Cupping is the official term for critically tasting and scoring coffees. The official cupping form is standard worldwide, and where the 100-point scoring system comes from.) A coffee’s dry fragrance, wet aroma, flavor, aftertaste, body, acidity, balance, and overall impression are taken into consideration while uniformity issues and defects, will lower the overall score.

Specialty Coffee

Specialty coffee, coined by Erna Knutsen in 1974, refers to a coffee that receives a quality grading score of 80 percent or higher. While “premium” or “gourmet” seem like they’re synonymous with “specialty,” they simply are marketing terms with no defined standards. Specialty coffees are grown in specific and ideal micro-climates, and have distinctive and unique flavor profiles, with little to no defects.

Third-Wave Coffee

We’re currently in the third wave of coffee. The first wave of American coffee put pre-ground, vacuum-sealed cans in kitchens across America. The second wave started with the late ‘60s introduction of Peet’s coffee (by Alfred Peet) through the proliferation of Starbucks. The third wave of coffee focuses on origin transparency, nuanced flavors, and artisan roasting. The term “third wave” is synonymous with specialty coffee.

World’s First Korean Specialty-Coffee Guide in English Just Published

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