Coffeest (Seoul – Sajik-dong)

Well, it’s been… quite a while… and quite an interesting few years since I last wrote, hasn’t it, CaféSeaSeo readers? I’m certainly well, and I hope you have been too, especially throughout this difficult year and a half of the coronavirus pandemic. Here in Korea we’ve been relatively unscathed compared with other countries, though sadly I have lost family members and a family friend back in the US and other parts of the world. Like any other pandemic in the past, it will certainly leave a mark on our lives and in history.

But, life goes on, as we remember all loved ones and past times. And today, I’m thinking of the past a little more. And not only the four years in which I haven’t written in this blog. … Sorry about that. … My current job got particularly busy around 2017, and then when I had time to write again I started my companion blog, Snippets of my Seoul, and I tended to focus on that when I had time and energy for writing. But I’ve still been drinking coffee all this time, of course! And thinking about when I would start to write in this blog again. Unlike many people who discovered copious amounts of time during the pandemic, I, as a teacher, continued working, first through online classes, and then through the combination of 1/3 in school and 2/3 online and later 2/3 in school and 1/3 online. So my life here in Korea was relatively stable, with the exception of avoiding Seoul and social distancing and whatnot. But today I’ve come to Seoul again. It’s only the 5th time or so that I’ve come since the pandemic started. And since we’re still in the strongest wave yet due to the delta variant, I decided to come by car. But why did I come? Well, like I said, I’m thinking of the past. Today happens to be the 10th anniversary of the first time I visited one of my favorite little cafés in Seoul, Coffeest.

5th anniversary, and top country views

Wow! Today (July 3 Seattle time) happens to be the 5th anniversary of this blog, which I started on a rainy day in Caffè Fiorè in Seattle. Since then, I do feel like I’ve found my blogging voice, but I regret not using it to post reviews as often as I’d like. They are few and far between, and tend to come in spurts when I find some time. But the project continues…

Dangook University café (Jukjeon)

About a week after trying Coffee Florian, I was exploring my neighborhood once again. Nestled at the northwestern edge of Beobhwasan (법화산), which to my surprise unexpectedly has a huge Korean Wikipedia entry about it, is the fairly new campus of Dangook University. I’d been to the Dangook University area a few times to eat with friends, but now I was there to explore, and eventually find coffee.

Coffee Florian (Jukjeon)

In early April 2011, I was still exploring my new neighborhood of Jukjeon, and learning about all of its ins and outs and side streets. Along one of these side streets, I found a rare rough and underdeveloped area of Jukjeon, which is typically known to be well off and fully developed. Near the small rough area, there was a café and an ice cream shop. But I was on my way to get dinner, so I decided to go there another time.

But! That other time conveniently happened to be the next day. After dinner at home, I figured why not try this new place now rather than later. So I walked there, and arrived when it was already dark, but a bright cube light and the promise of double espresso beckoned me in. I had found Coffee Florian.

Article – Coffee per year

Here’s an interesting graphic from The Korea Herald about how much coffee an average Korean drinks in a year. The interesting, thing, however, is not the amount. Look at what a small chunk of that cup brewed coffee, i.e. coffee made by a barista in a café, takes up! It’s only about 1/7 of the total coffee. Imagine if Koreans replaced their coffee mixes with more trips to the neighborhood café… Cafés would have to multiply even more. My school went from having 0 cafés nearby last year to 4 as I write in May 2017 [May 9 update: make that 5! another one just opened a few days ago]… this could easily go up to 10. We’ll see what happens…

http://www.koreaherald.com/common_prog/newsprint.php?ud=20170410000912&dt=2

Articles – Approaching the peak, but still climbing

It has certainly been an amazing few years to be a coffee drinker, a café aficionado, a CaféSeaSeo, in Korea. Café culture has exploded, the number of cafés has risen exponentially, and the quality of coffee keeps increasing year by year.

So for today, here’s a series of articles noting the expansion of coffee drinking in Korea, a milestone for Starbucks, a list of exemplary cafés, and a few other random things that fall under the banner of coffee. ^^

Best Korean coffees of 2016

Hello everyone, and Happy New Year 2017!

While my regular posts are still about cafés I visited a few years ago, I certainly went to many new and amazing cafés in 2016. So here, while not a regular post or review, is a little gift of eye candy at least.

With Coffee House (Yongin)

A few cafés are well kept secrets. Others are secretive just because they are far away from view, deep in a neighborhood or deep in the mountains. Today’s café, With Coffee House, is one of the latter.

Caffé Pascucci (international chain; Seohyeon branch)

Happy Friday to everyone. Are you thirsty? Do you feel like taking a little trip to one of the international centers of coffee? Italy is just a plane ride away, after all…

But it’s not that simple, is it? However, there are other options for experiencing other parts of the world. And if you want some Italian coffee, an Italian coffee chain has made its way to Korea and other parts of the world. It’s called Caffé Pascucci.

Cafe Nell (Jukjeon)

Now here’s a place a little closer to home. My friendly neighborhood café, to be precise! (after 2010’s Liesgen Haus and before 2013’s Risio Coffee). In our fluid back-and-forth chronology, were are now in early 2011, when I moved to Jukjeon-dong. As I mentioned that I was happy about, the Jukjeon café street was about a 20 minute walk away. But even closer to home, which was a block away from the border with Seongnam / Bundang, there was a small selection of cafés too. Much as I loved the café street, sometimes I wanted something quickly, or a change of scenery. Fortunately, the coffee gods complied, and provided me with a pleasant place to go to in a pinch. Let me introduce to you the tiny but charming Cafe Nell.