Coffee Culture and Korean Coffee Shops in Korea

After only being in Seoul for less than 24 hours, I realized that Koreans drink lots and lots of delicious coffee. Even though they do drink tea, we had rice tea for breakfast every morning at the guest house; once we stepped outside, we saw a coffee shop on practically every corner!! Kind of like Starbucks in Philadelphia, but here they have interesting themes.

Korea has adopted and owned the coffee culture, and we love it. So we spent a big chunk of our time in Seoul hanging out at various Korean coffee shops: chit-chatting, sharing girly moments, and asking people to take our pictures. But, unfortunately, we must enforce tourist stereotypes.

8 Korean Coffee Shop To Celebrate The Rise Of Asia Coffee Culture

Hara Donuts – Seoul

This was the first coffee shop we visited on our first morning in Seoul. Vi was still recouping from travel and the late night out the day before, but I was ready to concur with Myeong-dong. So I saw this place, caught the doughnuts, and immediately dragged Yin inside. Those little holed sugary treats were calling my name, and I believe nobody should walk away from a foreign doughnut!

It was a famous little shop with an attractive logo. We had to queue to order and managed to grab the last seats available upstairs. We had long-overdue quality time: we talked about boys, toys, and hos.

It’s a perfect pit stop after (or in our case before) a day of shopping in Myeong-dong. Order the doughnuts, whatever flavour you want—it’s all good. Yin would have agreed with me.

Do-ong Café – Seoul

Ddo-ong was a celebrity among all the coffee shops I visited in Korea. It’s the ‘it’ café in Seoul and my book. They got it all right. Located on the top floor of Ssamziegil is the buoyant neighbourhood of Insa-dong. They clearly understand the importance of location.

I first thought that Fafa would love this place when I saw it. It was nicely decorated with ceiling-to-floor glass windows. It felt fanciful to look at the snow from the inside.

We came here to have breakfast; we each ordered cake and coffee.

You guys, meet the nicest blueberry cheesecake in the world, and I would know as I made it my mission to find it. When at Ddo-ong-ing, eat the cheesecake on my behalf, will you?

Gahoe Han Kyung – Seoul

It was snowing heavily when we reached Bukchon Hanok village. We needed shelter, and that’s when we saw Gahoe Han Kyung. I warned my friend that it was a gallery, but she had already gone in, so I followed her. We were greeted by a (heated) traditional Korean coffee shop house/teahouse.

Ppong Da Bang – Seoul

The place was quirky! We spent hours there, completely in love with everything. It’s filled with childhood stuff, drawings, board games, and so much fun novelty stuff that my brain almost exploded out of excitement.

LATTE KING – Busan

One morning in Busan, I ventured out of the neighbourhood by myself. I walked to Haeundae beach, the most famous beach in Korea, but some major construction was going on, and I was too lazy to walk much further. So I sat on the sand enjoying the morning horizon, talked to some birds, took a couple of necessary wind-is-blowing-and-my-hair-looked-amazing selfies, and walked back to the guesthouse. On the way, I had to stop at the Latte King, not because I craved a coffee (I had it earlier in the hostel) but because I had to. Because the king is a cat. Who doesn’t want to have a cat as the king?!! So I ordered a cappuccino and dwelled on my thoughts. I still had three-fourths of my holiday in front of me, and it felt super friendly.

I gave the Latte King a nod before leaving the place, wondering how it would feel to have everything in the world: a crown and a latte named after you.

Dal.komm COFFEE – Busan

We found this coffee shop by accident in Busan. It was a music-themed coffee shop inside a shopping mall—obviously not my cup of tea or coffee for that matter—but there was a reason I wanted to try this place so bad that I practically dragged my friends there right after lunch; it the cubes, the coffee cubes.

The coffee is the cube, you guys!

It was revolutionary! At least for me, so don’t tell me that you have taken your coffee in cubes for some time now.

Veloin Coffee – Jeju Island

We roamed the streets of Jeju Island on a chilly night after polishing off the black pig dish. Sometime after that, we stopped at this place, best described as a one-stop coffee shop. It has a waterfall, Japanese tatami seating, bicycle, swing chairs, an internet café section, fashion magazines, and Instax pictures of the customers, among others. They offered so many choices of drinks and a varied crowd so you can come here every day for a month and never get bored.

Hi & Bye – Jeju Island

I saved the best for last, my favourite coffee shop in South Korea, Hi & Bye.

We discovered Hi & Bye on our last day in Jeju when we went to Wangjung-ri, one of the many seaside areas of the island. There were a few coffee shops nearby, but my friend chose this one, so in we went.

It looked small downstairs with pretty cakes on display and an entire wall covered with chalk writings from happy customers.

After we made our orders, we went up; it was a much bigger space upstairs with a seating place both inside and outside. The inside had a whimsical touch while sitting outside was a panoramic treat.

I could see myself spending my time here for days! Just write and enjoy the view and the drinks. Our order came. Mine was a cookie and cream latte with rainbow sprinkles and Oreo crumbles.

Sipping it gave me a combination of waking up on a rainy day only to realize it’s a weekend, Autumn sunshine, and getting a Christmas gift even though you don’t celebrate Christmas. All in one cup.

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