Tag: coffee

Korean coffee chains skimp on coffee
Just when I thought my coffee-related posts at ZenKimchi had run their course, the Joongang prints this article about a study by the Korea Consumer Agency that made me spit out my coffee:
Coffee chains skimping on beverage quantities
That Starbucks Americano might come in a grande cup, but that doesn’t mean it’s full.
In its seventh Consumer Report this year, the Korea Consumer Agency said yesterday it found major coffee chains are selling smaller amounts of liquid than they set as their standard amount.
You might expect me to be sharing this article far and wide and doing an ‘I told you so’ dance, but unfortunately this article is more of an indictment of the Korea Consumer Agency than it is of the Korean coffee business.
As I tried to vent about this on Facebook, I realized there’s no way I could fit my comments into the space allowed, so I came directly over here to get this off my chest.
I’m going to break this down by suspect statements made in the article:
First of all, in the introduction:
The agency investigated nine coffee chains, including U.S. brands Starbucks and the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and local brands A Twosome Place, Caffe Bene and Angel-in-us Coffee by evaluating 30 cups of Americanos and Caramel Macchiatos, the most popular beverages, from each store.
Yes, Starbucks and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf are US brands, but it’s important to realize that as a foreign corporation, they are in partnership with a Korean firm. In the case of Starbucks, it’s Shinsegae. I only mention this because I’ve heard many complaints over the years about how much Starbucks over-charges because it’s an American company taking advantage of Koreans, etc, etc. Well, actually Starbucks is relatively cheap compared to other countries besides the US.
But that’s neither here nor there, because my main gripe is with the critical claim of the study:
On average, an Americano sold at the nine coffee chains was 60 grams short of the standard volumes set by each company.
Well whoopty-freakin’ doo. The article goes on to give a breakdown in the numbers from the various coffee chains but fails to mention a critical factor: You’re arguing over ~60 grams of water. Water that is added at the very end of the process, just before putting the straw in. If the total amount of “coffee” (and by “coffee” I mean the total amount of actual coffee + water) is too little, well, that probably means it actually tastes better, or, at least, stronger.
I guess it is possible that they might be skimping on the amount of espresso, but this would be hard to do without watching how individual baristas make the coffee. A standard Starbucks grande, last I checked, has 3 shots of espresso (which I believe is a full shot more than most brands as far as I know). The only way to skimp would be to deliberately leave out one of these shots. Possible I suppose, but much less likely than the possibility that the overworked university freshman making the drinks just rushed the very last stage (pouring the water) of a fairly mechanized process. Another possibility would be that they’re not using the proper amount of coffee beans to make the espresso to begin with, or that they are pulling shorter shots (effectively making a restretto), which isn’t even necessarily a bad thing. But even if you’re trying to gouge customers in this way, the only thing you’re really skimping on is water, and I have a hard time believing any of these chains are so hard up that they’re looking for ways to save a few fraction of a won by skimping customers out of 60 grams of water.
But you know what? None of that even matters because wherever that 60 grams of missing coffee went, it’s largely irrelevant because you can’t really tell where they’re skimping out on without watching them make the coffee. This brings us to perhaps the most infuriating point:
Amounts of caffeine contained in coffee beverages at the investigated chains were also inconsistent, providing consumers with different quality, the agency said.
Woah, hold on a minute there. We’re using caffeine as a gauge of quality now? This is just absurd, considering that low-quality robusta coffee beans have a much higher amount of caffeine than the substantially more tasty and coveted arabica beans. And they also taste horrible (partly BECAUSE of the overloaded caffeine content as a matter of fact).
So theoretically a coffee shop that is TRULY gouging customers by serving robusta beans rather than arabica, would be considered by the Korea Consumer Agency to have “high quality” coffee. In fact, most coffee connoiseurs would rank the beans with higher caffeine levels as lower quality because caffeine generally detracts from the taste. For coffee aficionados, coffee’s caffeine content is more of an annoyance than an asset. If you just need an energy drink and don’t care about the taste, just go buy an energy drink (it’ll probably be cheaper, although certainly higher in calories compared to an americano).
While you’re sitting on that bit of info, also consider this: caffeine level can vary greatly depending on many, many, many factors. Just a few of them:
- roast level (caffeine gets burned up in the roasting process, so darker roasts have less caffeine)
- bean type (already covered)
- brew method (not really relevant, because this study just looked at americanos, in other words, espresso)
- freshness of the beans (in Korea, let’s just say ‘not very’ would be a fair assumption)
- amount of coffee grounds used to make the coffee (not what you might expect. using less beans leads to ‘over-extraction’ while using more beans leads to ‘under-extraction’)
The article goes on to name the coffee chain with the most highly caffeinated coffee (Cafe Pascucci), and the lowest (Tom N’ Toms), which is itself somewhat unfair because they might have different ways of making their americanos. In other words, they could very well be trying to differentiate themselves in the market by making a weaker espresso
So what does all this mean? Well, though I loath to be in the position of defending the Korean coffee shop industry, this “study” seems to have been conducted without consultation of a single expert on either coffee or investigative methods. I can say so, having worked in a previous life as a government performance auditor for a midwestern American state when I was fresh out of grad school. Frankly, the data presented do not even come close to supporting the study’s claim:
“The coffee chains are not complying with their recipes, which has resulted in inconsistency in quality and quantity of coffee beverages,” the agency said.
In spite of their ‘study’ we still really don’t know if the baristas are complying with their recipes. In fact, there are a lot of untested assumptions in that statement. Frankly, most coffee shops’ recipes are unsatisfactory anyway so arguing over whether or not they are followed to a T is just wasting your breath. Besides this, there are natural variations between every coffee shop that cannot be avoided. Nor should they, actually, because finding a favorite coffee shop, and even a favorite barista that makes your favorite drink just the way you like it is all part of the enjoyment of coffee! The whole idea that coffee drinks should somehow be standardized across the board is anathema to the whole coffee industry.
What would be the reaction if some government agency came out and issued a damning report that the different kimchi brands all had different levels of gochugaru and fish sauce? It might be useful to know if you’re allergic to fish sauce or can’t take too much spice, but it is far from a broad hit to the entire industry.
Towards the end of the article, a representative from one of the targeted coffee chains finally gets a word in:
“There is some misunderstanding, since we indicate the size of cups, not the amount of coffee,” said an official at Starbucks Korea.
“Amounts of beverages can be different, since they are handmade by baristas,” the official said.
Actually, that sounds entirely reasonable.
If you’re really so concerned with the quality of your coffee, patronizing the major coffee chains, especially in Korea, is a losing battle anyway (for reasons I explained here, here, here and here). You’re much better off making it yourself at home. In fact, I think I’ll go calm myself down by doing that right now.
August 6, 2012
Cold brew coffee: Easy, cheap, delicious and home-made
Following up on the theme of my last post regarding a coffee question from a ZenKimchi reader, I thought I would share my personal method for making cold brew coffee.
If you ask a coffee connoisseur to recommend a ‘coffee maker’ for you, they will probably giggle with delight and point you in the direction of something that looks like a chemistry set, only more confusing. More than this, for those of us in Korea, it doesn’t make sense to drop half your paycheck buying an electric burr grinder and espresso machine. In fact, you can still make first rate coffee at home with stuff you probably already have stuffed away in the kitchen cabinet.
Ladies and gentlemen, for your consideration: Cold brew coffee.
With summer rapidly approaching, there’s no better time to try cold brewing coffee. There’s no expensive equipment to buy, in fact, you might already have everything you need on hand.
Cold brewing coffee has several advantages:
- Minimal investment
- You don’t need to buy a home grinder. Buy 100 grams of fresh roasted beans from the neighborhood roasterie, ask them to grind for hand drip coffee, and use all the beans as soon as you get home.
- Make enough coffee for the week (or the day, depending on your habit)
- Pretty darn simple. The process takes 24 hours, but there’s only about 5-10 minutes of anything resembling work on your part.
- Less caffeine than other coffee (could be a positive or negative I suppose)
You’ll need to get yourself a large (I think mine is about a quart) glass jar, you’ll also need some sort of filter. [amazon_link id=”B005SW94B6″ target=”_blank” ]Cheesecloth[/amazon_link] works like a charm, but a metal mesh filter, or even a large coffee filter would probably work in a pinch. You’ll also need another receptacle to pour the brew into while filtering. Pretty much any clean pot or jar you have laying around will work just fine.
Once you have your supplies and your 100 grams of ground coffee, there’s just a few simple steps.
1. Pour coffee in jar.
2. Pour water in jar (Fill it up to about 4/5th full. It’s a good idea to use filtered water).
3. Stir
4. Put the jar in a cool, dark place. This doesn’t even have to be a fridge. Just somewhere about room temperature or slightly cooler and out of the sun. You might stir it from time to time, but I tend to forget to do this and it has yet to cause an explosion or anything.
I just happened to use the fridge for steeping this time, but it’s not mandatory
5. 12-24 hours later, filter the brew using your filter of choice (Use caution. This can be messy). Once you filter it through once, put the extra coffee grounds in the trash (not the sink!), clean the jar out, and filter it back into the jar one more time.
6. Store in the fridge for up to a week.
Now for the best part!
The resulting brew will be a concentrate with far less acid and body than you are probably used to with coffee. You’ll need to dilute with something and possibly sweeten to taste. You have several options:
- Add cold water in at least a 1:1 water to coffee ratio and add ice for a true iced coffee. Sweeten to taste.
- Hot water, again in a 1:1 ratio, for a hot, low caffeine, cup of coffee.
- Dilute with milk (whole milk is suggested) to taste.
- Pour the brew into ice cube trays and freeze. Add the coffee ice cubes to milk or smoothies to add a nice, subtle, coffee flavor. Make sure to put the trays in ziploc bags or something so they don’t absorb other flavors from the freezer.
It’s a pretty simple method that’s pretty hard to screw up, so you can eyeball the measurements.
Additionally, there’s a slight variation of this method called the ‘hot-cold’ brew method. Everything is exactly the same as before, except at the very beginning you fill the jar about 25-33% full with water about 190-200 degrees celsius (30 seconds to a minute off of a boil). Mix it up to make sure all of the grounds are soaked, then let it steep for 1.5-2 minutes. Now fill it the rest of the way with cold water. I recommend using chilled water specifically for this and putting the jar in the refridgerator for the 16-24 hours steep time in order to rapidly bring the mix down to a cooler temperature.
The argument is that the hot water extracts more of the solubles (including caffeine) from the grounds allowing you to get the best of both worlds; both cold and hot brewing methods. I personally use the hot-cold method, but frankly the jury is still out on which way is better.
There ya go! Try it, play around with it and tweak it. Cold brew coffee is great for the summer or any time you know you’ll have a busy week and want to make your coffee in advance.
June 20, 2012
Survival Guide to Korean Coffee Part IV: For the Haters
Although Korea’s coffee market has matured in recent years, there are many places capitalizing on the trend but cutting all the corners they can. This is the third post in a four-part series by Steve Ward designed to teach you how to find the good hole-in-the-wall Korean coffee shops that are dedicated to producing quality coffee.
In spite of all this, I’m no coffee snob. Seriously. I’ve made coffee from stale beans plenty of times, drink Maxim once a week or so and have even used the same kettle my wife made ginger tea in to boil water for my coffee (it took, like, 15 washes before it tasted right again). I can certainly appreciate the opinion of those that don’t think coffee is worth the trouble. As we’ve arrived at the final post in this series and the last two rules. I figured it’s about time that I gave a tip that absolutely anyone, caffeine addict or not, would appreciate. And it carries with it the recommendation of a place that will probably shock everyone to hear me recommend.
Tip #9) Ever wonder why ‘tall’ is Starbucks version of ‘small’? Well, actually it’s not. Allow me to introduce you to Starbucks’ ‘short’ size. If you’re not interested in coffee (or if you’ve already had too much) and just need a place to kill an hour of time before meeting someone without spending a bunch of money, go into a Starbucks of your choice and order a short Americano or coffee of the day. That is if you can’t stomach espresso (which would probably be the cheapest). You’ll save some money but not feel like you’re freeloading by taking up one of the comfy chairs while you wait.
Even if you already knew about the short size (it’s kinda old news), this particular hack can elevate you to coffee-snob status by ordering a short cappuccino. A cappuccino larger than 6 ounces is not, in fact, a classic cappuccino due to the difficulty in properly frothing milk in an amount above a certain volume. Besides this, the tall and short size cappuccinos have exactly the same amount of espresso in them. So unless you’re just a really big fan of warm milk (which is the only thing that’s added to make a tall cappuccino), there is absolutely no point in ever ordering a tall cappuccino.
Beyond this, there are several ‘Starbucks hacks’ that you can find pretty easily with Google. Starbucks has, apparently, a whole slew of beverages available off-menu to make loyal customers feel cool, I guess. I haven’t ventured too far into this territory, but I have confirmed that the short cappuccino is alive and well in Korea’s Starbucks chains and, in fact, I recommend it.
So for meeting someone by a subway station or going on a coffee date, finding a Starbucks is a pretty safe bet as they are everywhere. You can actually order a ‘short’ size of anything on the menu (or so I’ve heard).
Tip #10) That all being said, just try new things. If, after trying espresso, you find that you really like americano, great! I know that I said americano is an abomination before, but I meant it in protest to the common sentiment of Korean coffee shops, restaurants, etc, that americano and regular coffee are the same thing.
I’m not against people following their own tastes. In fact, what I am trying to help you do, most of all, is to find your own taste, not just blindly rely on common wisdom.
And when you do find the real deal; a truly artisan coffee shop that takes the time to explain the subtitles of the different beans and roasts, by all means try their hand drip, syphon, dutch and even a properly cold-brewed iced coffee. These places are getting easier and easier to find and each one has a style all it’s own. Some are trendy, some are gritty. Some have big aspirations, offering latte art classes, etc, while others focus more on their roasting and make crappy latte art, but amazing coffee. I have found almost all of them to be welcoming and happy to talk to someone interested in learning about their craft.
When I really got into coffee it was because I was trying to get healthy and stopped drinking anything that had calories in it. I had previously been a wine, then scotch enthusiast (and still am somewhat of a scotch enthusiast) and I really enjoy tasting the various tastes, literally, of the land, from countries all over the world.
Coffee has just as much to offer as wine and scotch in terms as connecting us with faraway places, and the soil found there. Coffee was the world’s most traded commodity by a long shot up until the 20th century when the world’s craze for oil kicked off. And since then it’s still held its ground as #2. Some scholars are even suggesting that we may have coffee to thank for the Enlightenment as it started about the same time as Europeans transitioned from drinking alcohol and getting silly in their leisure time to gathering in coffee houses to chat. There’s all sorts of history and knowledge wrapped up with the world of coffee and, most importantly, community.
Take the road less traveled. Favor new coffee shops, flavors, brewing methods, etc, over the tried and true. Talk to the owners about their coffee and bring your friends. Aside from all the free on-the-house espressos I’ve gotten by engaging with the employers and owners, it’s just plain more fun and helps you to feel more connected to the local community and planet.
If you are a coffee-phile, or found yourself intrigued by this series of posts, do yourself a favor and pre-register for the Coffee Expo Seoul 2012 at COEX April 26-29th.
April 16, 2012
Survival Guide to Korean Coffee Part III: On Roasts
Although Korea’s coffee market has matured in recent years, there are many places capitalizing on the trend but cutting all the corners they can. This is the third post in a four-part series by Steve Ward designed to teach you how to find the good hole-in-the-wall Korean coffee shops that are dedicated to producing quality coffee.
Today’s set of tips are grouped together by the theme of roast. While most coffee shops don’t openly advertise the freshness of their roasted beans, there’s a reason. Roast is actually of critical importance and, when it comes to making your own coffee at home, the very first thing on the list for improving your own home-brewed coffee.
Tip #6) Importing roasted coffee beans from some famous company does not, by itself, make quality coffee. Just because a coffee chain is from the U.S. or Italy or wherever, it doesn’t mean the coffee is better. In fact, it’s usually the opposite. While there are certainly legit questions to be asked about the labor practices of the big international coffee corporations and the way they treat the coffee growers, this rule is purely about the disrespect they show their own customers by using insultingly stale beans.
In general, the darker the roast, the more the structural integrity of the bean is broken down, and the faster the natural taste of the bean will escape (high-level coffee snobs will say 2-3 weeks. I say 4…. but I’ve been known to stretch that farther than I’m willing to admit publicly, and with appropriately bad results). I know those dark beans look so shiny and good, but that shine is the oils, which are supposed to be on the inside of the bean.
Here’s the rub: Most of the overseas coffee chains in Korea roast their beans in their headquarters’ warehouses in their home countries and put them on the slowest, cheapest boat possible to get here, meaning the coffee beans they are going to use to prepare drinks for the customers they claim to care about so much, can be six months old upon arrival.
If they are not upfront about the freshness of their beans, there’s a reason. Drinking stale coffee isn’t going to hurt you. You won’t get food poison from it if you drink it three years after the roasting date. So technically they can put the expiration date as some far off date. It’s just a ripoff. You’re not getting value for your dollar.
Several times I have rummaged through the beans on display for sale at two of the biggest foreign coffee shops in Korea and I have seen expiration dates a year or more away. Considering the slow boat across the Pacific they took to get to Korea, which adds months on top of THAT… <shudder>
The next rule will probably bring all the serious coffee geeks out of the woodwork to argue with me…
Tip #7) All else being equal, favor coffee shops with a roaster (that’s actually in use) over those that get their beans from somewhere else.
Wait! Don’t immediately scroll to the bottom of the page to start arguing with me in the comments. Hear me out. I am well aware of the fact that just having a roaster doesn’t necessarily mean you have the skill to use it, and there are certainly lots of shops around that put a roaster in the window pretty much as decoration.
It’s happening more and more these days, as it is seen as a guaranteed means to a profitable business. The youth will flock to you to fork over their money and hang out far from the reach of their parents. Ajummas will come to kill time while their kids are all at hagwon. Owning a coffee shop is an attractive business for a retiree looking for an easy, secure, investment to live off of into retirement. Coffee shops are a good place to spend time, so why not
I’m not saying these shops are going to be winning any awards for their roasts. All I’m saying is that I have had better experiences favoring small roasters than I have from similarly small and locally-owned shops that do not roast their own beans.
Of course, a special exception is granted to the cafes that fly their beans in via air mail like Chan’s Bros., and I think Chan’s Espresso Bar, does.
Tip #8) Again, if you’re chasing a caffeine buzz, opt for light roasts. Aside from having more subtle and nuanced flavors, dark roasts have had more of their caffeine burned off in the roasting process.
The final two tips in this series will be geared towards those with little interest in coffee, or maybe don’t even like coffee at all, but still find themselves in coffee shops from time to time.
April 11, 2012
Survival Guide to Korean Coffee Part II: No ‘x’ in Espresso
Although Korea’s coffee market has matured in recent years, there are many places capitalizing on the trend but cutting all the corners they can. This is the second post in a four-part series by Steve Ward designed to you how to find the good hole-in-the-wall Korean coffee shops that are dedicated to producing quality coffee.
In writing the next couple rules, I have taken great measures not to go off on various tangents. The reason? There are a lot of misconceptions about both drip coffee and espresso.
Tip #3) Americano is an abomination.
Americano : Coffee :: The Hollywood remake of ‘My Sassy Girl’ : The original ‘My Sassy Girl’
It’s not even because of the name that I say that. As you may already know, Italian espresso aficionados started calling watered down espresso ‘americano’ as a way to make fun of Americans for drinking weak espresso.
Look, if you like Americano, go ahead and keep on enjoying it. I’m not even talking about issues of personal taste here. I’m talking about how it is used in many establishments in Korea as a sort of coffee substitute that allows them to get away with charging outrageous prices, making it way more profitable than having one of those instant mix coffee machines set up by the exit.
As coffee has become trendy in Korea, various businesses have seen coffee as a way to make some easy extra cash. In fact, a friend of mine that was involved in the opening of a restaurant a couple years back told me that they didn’t even have to purchase their own espresso maker. Contracted to serve only a certain brand’s beans, that company supplied the espresso machine. As to who trained the bored high school part timers on how to use this beautifully complex marvel of engineering, who knows.
The point is, any restaurant, Coffee/Wine Bar, bakery calling themselves a cafe, etc, can get a nice espresso maker at relatively low (or no) cost to them and be up and running making extra cash selling Americanos at 4,000 won a pop. Furthermore, these are the places that start putting signs outside saying things like “1,000 won discount for takeout.”
Good business, wretched coffee.
Any sign offering a discount for takeout coffee is pretty much saying “We’d be glad to take some pure profit from you, but don’t need you around dirtying up the place.” It might actually turn out to be a drinkable espresso, but you’re taking your chances.
Tip #4) If it’s a caffeine buzz you’re after, avoid espresso and americano entirely.
It’s worth discussing briefly what exactly espresso is.
Espresso is a type of coffee, but not all coffee is espresso. Espresso is just one method of extracting flavor from coffee beans that happened to have been invented in Italy. In other words, it is not a special type of bean and you cannot make espresso just by buying a pack of espresso roast beans and putting them into your home coffee machine. Also, for the record, espresso is not spelled, nor pronounced, with the letter ‘x’, unless you’re intentionally referring to the Spanish variation of the word rather than the Italian.
Espresso is produced by forcing very hot water through coffee beans under high pressure. This is not something easily done and, in fact, requires high-quality, expensive machinery. I would be extremely skeptical about purchasing the 50,000 won home espresso maker on sale at the neighborhood supermarket. In fact, the level of engineering sophistication required to produce good espresso is even difficult at the 200,000 won price point, although the ‘Handpresso’ Nitrous oxide-powered espresso maker does a decent job.
The point is, most espresso machines worth their salt are well over a thousand bucks (USD). Commercial-grade espresso makers can be well north of that, into the tens of thousands of dollars range, which is why getting your espresso fix at coffee shops, rather than home, is usually preferable. But just having an espresso machine isn’t good enough. It is a complicated piece of machinery and the user needs to know the subtleties of the proper amount of coffee grounds, just the right amount of force to tamp with and the proper cleaning and maintenance of the machine.
It requires training and skill. Are you really sure that the aforementioned high school part timer working the espresso machine at the Mexican restaurant has the proper training? Plus, for those of you looking for a caffeine buzz, an espresso has only about 50-33% of the caffeine of a cup of drip coffee. For all that most places are going to charge you 3-4,000 won for an Americano that really doesn’t have that much caffeine in it and tastes horrible anyway.
Save your money, and head down the street to the convenience store for an energy drink or Green Tea.
Tip #5) That being said, if you’re not just after a caffeine buzz, go ahead and try getting into espresso.
There is a whole lot to appreciate about fine espresso. It may be an acquired taste, but it is well worth it. Give it a try! At the very least, try easing yourself in the direction of espresso by trying a long black. It’s just americano with a little less water.
Espresso is also the base of the various mochas, lattes, frappes, etc, that we have all enjoyed on occasion, in spite of the sugary calorie-bombs that they are. Espresso is the building block of all those drinks, and there’s like two calories in an espresso. At the very least, I’d recommend trying it just to see what it is that your white mocha frappuccino tastes like before it’s drizzled in chocolate syrup, whipped cream, ice cream, and whatever else they put in those things.
In the third part of this series, we’ll get into why roast is important and how that impacts coffee quality.
April 7, 2012
Survival Guide to Korean Coffee Part I: The Basics
Although Korea’s coffee market has matured in recent years, there are many places capitalizing on the trend but cutting all the corners they can. This is the first post in a four-part series by Steve Ward designed to teach you how to find the good hole-in-the-wall Korean coffee shops that are dedicated to producing quality coffee.
Imagine this Situation: You’re on a lunch date and it’s going very well. After finishing up at the restaurant, your date agrees to continue the conversation over a cup of coffee. You walk onto a street where you see two mom-and-pop coffee shops across the street from each other and a Starbucks a ways down the road. What do you do?
I’m going to help you answer that question. My intention in this series is to arm you with the knowledge to identify certain warning signs that you might not be getting the best bang for your buck at a given cafe. These ten tips are warning signs. Think of them like the infamous ‘Brown M&M’ clause Van Halen always put in their tour contracts; each tip is really just a signifier of the attention to detail that a cafe puts into its craft. If they cut corners in just one of these very visible areas, they will probably cut corners in other, if not all, areas.
Additionally, you can think of this series of posts as a sort of ‘starter guide’ to coffee appreciation, much the same way as you might take a wine tasting class if you wanted to learn a little bit more about wine.
I am not the first person to have blogged about the Korean coffee scene. In fact, other bloggers have been doing a great job. Korea’s history with coffee has been covered by The Marmot’s Hole, and if you’re looking for the cream of the cup, so to speak, you can head over to FRSHGRND and check out the places he explored (it’s slightly out of date since he moved away, but his google map may still be the best way to locate a good coffee shop near you, if you’re in Seoul.). Kiss my Kimchi has reported on some nice ones, and of course Eat Your Kimchi is in the fray as well, beating everyone else by making a segment on Arirang TV about it.
I myself have learned about some fantastic coffee shops from the above. However, there is a gap in the existing body of work, so to speak, about the Korean coffee scene: How do you seperate the real deal from the imposters? How can you know at a glance which, if any, of the three coffee shops right next to each other will be any good?
It was a random walk through the fabled ~~Land of Oz~~ Garosugil when I knew I HAD to write this.
I ended up in the area with time to kill, so I hadn’t had a chance to do my due diligence on the reputable coffee shops and was on my own. Exploring the back alleys of the neighborhood and was drawn in by a sign advertising hand-drip coffee made from premium Jamaican Blue Mountain beans for a ridiculously low price. I assumed it must be some limited time promotion to get new customers to this trendy-looking new cafe. But no, actually, the “premium” beans they were serving were robusta.
Tip #1) if you see the word ‘Robusta’, give the place a pass. Luckily, this occurrence should be pretty rare. In fact, I’m surprised I even need to mention it at all, but apparently I do.
It’s true that, according to the intertubes (specifically Wikipedia), Robusta beans make up about 20% of the world’s coffee trade, but the vast majority of these end up in instant coffee or as cheap filler beans in some proprietary blends. They have more caffeine, but that is to the detriment of the taste. Anyone proudly advertising their premium robusta beans fully deserves to go out of business, which they inevitably will.
I might welcome robusta in the high octane QuikTrip brand coffee at 3am on a drive across Kansas, but it is unacceptable if I’m paying more than 1,000 won and have any expectation of actually enjoying it.
Tip #2) If you’re looking for a good cup of coffee rather than just a cheap caffeine boost, avoid any place that is a coffee shop + something else (ie, Beer/wine + Coffee, Bakery and coffee, Pasta and espresso, etc, etc, etc).
I’m going to be bold and say that the plain old regular coffee I make at home is better than 90% of the coffee shops in Korea. That does not necessarily mean that if I opened my own coffee shop, that I could maintain that statement. The reason is that it takes me a good 15-20 minutes to make that cup of coffee. If I owned a coffee shop, that would give me time to serve 3-4 customers per hour. I would be exhausted by the end of that hour. How many customers per hour do you think your typical Caffe Bene sees?
Making a good cup of coffee takes time and dedication; art, if you will. It just isn’t economical for a place devoted to serving quality coffee to also have to deal with the hassle of setting up beer taps, uncorking wine bottles and checking whatever red bean/donut hybrid is cooking in the oven. A coffee shop that tries to be more than a coffee shop is spreading itself too thin.
Most people haven’t had the chance to try quality coffee. Even most coffee lovers out there take it for granted as a bitter drink to be diluted with milk and sugar. Or, in Korea’s case, coffee is associated with those little packets of sugar and creamer with a sprinkling of instant coffee on top. The ‘Bakery Cafe’ and ‘Hof and Coffee’ take advantage of this fact. It’s not necessarily an intentional deception. In fact, they may not know the difference themselves. Fundamentally it doesn’t matter to their bottom line because people don’t know any better… or just don’t care.
Stay tuned for the second part of this series, in which we will learn what exactly espresso and americano are. In the mean time, if you’re a fellow fan of the bean, go ahead and mark your calendars now for the Coffee Expo Seoul 2012 at COEX April 26-29th (I have no connection with the expo whatsoever, I’m just a fan).
April 5, 2012
Hidden kimchi: Java Hub, San Anselmo, Calif.
Many assume the territory between San Francisco and Sonoma County wine country an hour’s drive north is bereft of Korean cuisine. I did, too, until I discovered one long-disguised as a coffee shop.
Java Hub Cafe is Marin County’s only noted venue for Korean victuals. It’s a simple coffee shop in San Anselmo, Calif., a suburb of San Rafael located about 10 minutes north of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. And it is well off the beaten tourism path of Highway 101, the Marin-Sonoma thoroughfare.
On entering the little cafe, I noticed the subtle sounds of acoustic modern folk and alternative music playing subtly from speakers. The large counter has a big posted menu from which to order.
Indoor seating is on barstools with a long table facing a large window. That’s nice natural lighting for food photography, but it offers an unimpressive view of the regular stream of traffic.
Outside there are more than half-dozen tables. It would be nice to enjoy coffee and a meal alfresco in the summertime. However, it’s now winter in California. Even though our winter days are mild compared to Korea’s, I still didn’t want to eat outside.
Tucked behind the coffee shop edifice is a restaurant serving all sorts of North Asian cuisine, including 갈비 kalbi, 비빔면 bibimmyun and miso udon.
After waffling between ordering bibimmyun or bibimbap, I initially ordered the spicy bibim noodles (called bibimmyun in Korean, $7.25 USD). But owner Joyce Jung immediately advised me it would take about 20 minutes to make it. I asked if the bibimbap ($6.50 USD) would arrive more quickly, and she said “yes.” So I opted for the popular Korean dish.
The bibimbap arrived in a regular ceramic bowl — not the oven-heated stone bowls of dolsot bibimbap — with steamed white rice, raw shredded carrot, sauteed mushrooms, steamed broccoli, a sunny-side-up fried egg and a couple of tablespoons of 고추장 gochujang.
After thoroughly mixing items together with the supplied fork. The raw carrots and lack of marination of the ingredients made the Java Hub version not as sweet and garlicy as the dish often is in traditional Korean restaurants.
Non-Korean vegetables such as broccoli may surprise some, but as a big fan of broccoli I enjoyed it very much.
Jung told me Java Hub has been open at this location for 10 years. Originally she only served coffee, tea and typical coffee shop fare like bagels and sandwiches. However, she soon found she needed to offer something more to keep the doors open.
“I noticed that business dropped off in the winter, and I started offering hot meal options to draw winter business,” she said.
So she began offering familiar Korean and Japanese dishes to her menu as well as other hot items like hamburgers.
The mix of coffee joint and Korean restaurant may seem eclectic. Yet while I was talking to Jung after my meal, one of her customers, waiting for his “usual order” of a bacon cheeseburger, opined, “Her burgers are the best anywhere.”
If 빨리 빨리 bbali bbali (“Hurry, hurry!”) is your battlecry and you just want a quick coffee to go, you can place your order from the drive-through window. Jung makes the coffee herself and will bring your order to your car.
[googleMap name=”Java Hub”]60 Greenfield Avenue, San Anselmo, CA[/googleMap][googleMap name=”Java Hub”]60 Greenfield Avenue, San Anselmo, CA[/googleMap]
Java Hub Cafe
60 Greenfield Ave.
San Anselmo, CA 94960
(415) 451-4928
January 18, 2012
Coffee Seolgi
I’m back to seolgi (설기), steamed cake made with rice flour, sugar and water at its simplest form. This time, together with instant coffee in milk and finely chopped walnuts, a new seolgi is born as an afternoon pick-me-up coffee cake that goes great with, what else, a cup of coffee.
In itself is a guilt-free, mildly sweet dessert. If you are willing to allow yourself a little more ‘guilt,’ drizzle some coffee caramel sauce over it. Or top your coffee seolgi with simple whipped cream.  Or, just maybe, you can try both.  Coffee seolgi topped with whipped cream and drizzled with coffee caramel sauce is – h e a v e n l y ~
You can see more pointers on seolgi from my recent orange seolgi post.
You can also find my other rice cake posts.
Baked Rice Cake with Kabocha
Dancing Ghosts and Sleepy Pumpkin Rice Cakes
First Full Moon Day (정월대보름) and Energy Tteok
Songpyeon (송편; rice cake for Korean Thanksgiving Day)
Zucchini – Soy Pulp Cupcakes (애호박 비지 미니떡)

KOREAN WORDS
snack    간식 (gan sik)
dessert  후식 (hu sik)
April 28, 2011
Surprising place to buy fresh coffee beans
[viddler id=649474c1&w=437&h=370]
Posted by Steve Ward
Not all E-Marts have the roasters, but it seems like the big ones do and it’s usually by the wine, not the other coffee.
Steve Ward has been living in Seoul for nearly five years now and has dabbled in many different hobbies and types of work in that time. SteveWard.TV is the homepage of his official online presence.
January 27, 2010
Buying Coffee Beans from the Chains
Posted by Steve Ward
I was asked recently by a friend what the price range was for buying coffee beans specifically at the import chain coffee shops. I happened to have my video camera with me so just decided to pop into the places around my office and see for myself, as I’ve been buying my beans from independent roasters for quite a while and really had no idea what was being charged these days.
[viddler id=6e70a7af&w=437&h=288]
I’ve got another video coming out tomorrow. Hope these have been useful!
December 13, 2009