I have had a bunch of coffee shops sitting in my email cache for a while and thought I would just clear them out. As always, if I end up going to one of these places in the future, I will expand on their comments. If it’s good enough, I will create a separate post. For now, bask in the mass of coffee options in the Jeonpo/Seomyeon area of Busan, South Korea!
Here is a story of three coffee shops. Since Korea does seem to love its stories, I thought it appropriate.
The other week, the better half and I felt a hankering for some after work coffees. We first headed to the bustling “Jeonpo Cafe Street” area, where we decided to try a new (to us) spot. We ended up at Cafe the Red (Jeonpo subway exit 7, next left, second right, turn right at Coffeesmith) the home of… Cheese Americano?
Am I reading that correctly? Anyway, neither of us were brave enough to find out whether the aforementioned cheese in this drink (price: 5,000 won) was closer to a Danish or deli Swiss. I went for my usual cafe beverage, a Cafe Latte (price: 4,500 won) while the better half went for her usual, a Caramel Macchiato (price: 5,000 won).
Both drinks did their jobs just fine. Neither of us were wowed by them, but neither were offensive, either. And, depending on what you’re looking for in a cafe, Cafe the Red could be the spot for you. It’s a bit “shabby chic,” with black and red the dominant colors on display and a bit of tchotchkie for spice.
But, was it the spot for us? Probably not as repeat customers. There’s just too many spots to sort out, you know? But, what Cafe the Red did is get us buzzed on caffeine. Did you know a “Pub Crawl” isn’t the only crawl you can crawl? Why not give a “Cafe Crawl” a try?
Matin Coffee Roasters (Jeonpo subway exit 7, turn left, pass Starbucks, walk down to next intersection and turn left, walk straight and you will see this on your right, above a “Mart”)Â caught the eye of the better half a few weeks before. Not because of its cat theme, or even a wellness theme (they encourage people to talk to each other instead of staring at their phones, there is no wifi and no outlets to plug in your devices. However, all of this is written in English, so one has to wonder if they are serious or it’s seriously a gimmick).
Yup.
And, true to their word, Matin Coffee Roasters did not have a kid in sight.
The aforementioned “wellness” initiative may or may not be a gimmick, either, but we enjoyed a few moments following its advice before checking something out on her iPhone. Hey, there might not be any wifi, but that doesn’t mean your data won’t work.
The atmosphere inside and outside Matin was very, very nice, and felt like a comfortable, modern cafe we might have discovered in the States. Popular acoustic-driven alt-rock of the 1990s and early 2000s dominated the speakers. And, it was being enjoyed by lots of people on the day we popped in for our second round of two in our caffeine crawl.
But, enough of that rub-a-dub. How were the drinks? I’ll say… fine?
As this was our second of two stops on the crawl, we both opted for drinks that differed from our usual benchmarks of a cafe’s quality. Instead of her Caramel Macchiato, the better half got a hot chocolate (pretty decent, pretty chocolatey, she said) and I got a “Busan Latte,” which was a little too sweet for my liking but it would likely please those with sweeter preferences. Prices? I can’t remember, but they weren’t cheap. The Busan Latte, I believe was 6,000 won. The hot chocolate went for a little less. An Americano, I think, was closer to the 3,500 to 4,000 won range.
That said, we’ll definitely check it out again. We bought a 200 gram bag of one of their bean blends (12,000 won, yeowch that’s not cheap!) which we thoroughly enjoyed during a casual Saturday morning at home. Next time, we’ll try our usuals and report back our opinions.
While Matin would be the last coffee we’d drink that evening, our caffeine crawl was merely paused until the next night, when we went to a shop just a block past Matin that we’d seen the night before and vowed to try.
Espressivo was definitely the quietest and “homiest” of the bunch. Down a somewhat dark, somewhat broken alleyway, you’ll find this small, old building, where the proprietor has just a few old, comfortable chairs and tables, a lot of bric-a-brac and some fairly decent coffee to make your stay an overall warm one.
Prices for our Caffe Latte and Caramel Macchiato were a little cheaper than most Korean cafe’s we’ve frequented, but by no means cheap. Expect to pay about 4,000 won for most coffee-based drinks.
Of the three cafe’s we patronized over this two-day span, Espressivo turned out to be my favorite. I thoroughly enjoyed its motif, as well as the pleasant quietness that was lacking at both Matin and Cafe the Red. And, the coffee was rather decent, too. I could definitely see myself sitting at Espressivo for an extended session with my laptop, one or two latte’s and a sense of calm. The better half might choose Matin by a nose as her favorite, but they’re certainly close, and certainly both places we’ll be heading back to sooner rather than later.
Here is a fact: most coffee shops are going to have about the same kind of coffee. If you’re ordering an Americano, it’s going to taste pretty much the same in most middle-tier coffee shops. If you go to one of those 1,500 won cheapo take-out only joints, you’re not going for quality. You’re going for cheap. And, Starbucks tastes like Starbucks, and another one opens literally within shouting distance of the next one, and both are full.
So. If you are trying to rise a bit above that aforementioned “middle-tier,” and your not Starbucks (which seems immune to overexposure), your first instinct will be to step up your coffee game. Better beans. Better coffee making practices. And, these are both very good and very important things. In our previous review, for Mellow Coffee in Gimhae, I praised the atmosphere of the place, sure. But, if the coffee wasn’t any good, all the mellow moods might not be enough to get us back there. After all, “All the Coffee in Korea” is a helluva lot of coffee. That also means that, unfortunately, sometimes a great product isn’t always enough.
Establishing atmosphere, a theme is often employed to get people in the door. You’ve got cat cafes, dog cafes (even a sheep cafe in Seoul that was so sad and just a couple months before I’d started this blog so I didn’t take any pictures), coffee shops that double as eyeglass centers and furniture shops. And, quite a few that double as flower shops have come and gone. But, if your coffee shop doubles as a florist and is down a narrow alley, in one of Busan’s most bustling downtowns, even an average cup could make for a memorable experience.
Blossom would be impossible to spot if this sign, on an unassuming chair, ever got pilfered by some obnoxious teen. Fortunately, that hasn’t happened yet. So, after months of curiosity, Mr. Coffee and his better half went down the rabbit hole that is down a darkened alleyway.
Blossom’s rustic charm becomes apparent almost immediately. It’s a small space, clean but weathered, likely someone’s home or a small repair shop in another lifetime. A humble display of the proprietor’s work greets newcomers at the entrance, along with several tables to settle down.
The coffees are priced in that upper middle-tier range. The above Cafe Latte was 4,500 won, a little steeper than I would have liked to pay. Besides the cute clouds at the top of the foam, it was pretty much an average cup of coffee. A little bitter, it could have been better, but it was definitely not the worst and I didn’t feel ripped off at the time.
So, the coffee was just fine. Does that mean the better half and/or I won’t be going back? Not necessarily. “But, Mr. Coffee, you rambling hypocrite,” you might ask, “that’s not what you said above.” Well, whenever someone asks me a question, I always tell them the same thing: How dare you speak to me.
Then, I will tell you that there are exceptions to the rules. For me, this coffee shop is in a convenient location to my home. It’s quiet, because it’s down a narrow alley (two, actually, as the above alley is from a different direction), and this also gives it a little extra sense of cool. And the coffee was fine. It wasn’t up to the level of Mellow Coffee. But, it’s certainly as good as the coffee I got from Mint Bloom, the flower cafe I frequented in Gimhae last year. That also was in a convenient location. And, the flowers smelled nice.
But, will it be convenient for you? Or will its unique location be enough to check it out? I think these should both propel you here at least once, maybe twice. At dusk on a misty, dreary day not far removed from Halloween, there’s definitely something special about a hot cup of java in a cheery, flowery cafe down a dark, gloomy alley.
DIRECTIONS: Seomyeon subway, exit 6. U-turn and turn right down the next road. Follow this down to the traffic light with NC Department Store across the street. Turn right. Follow this road a couple blocks until you see the above sign next to the above alleyway.Â
Here are three more from the fun Jeonpo Cafe Street area, plus a bonus shop closer to the Seomyeon subway station that looks like it’s been around since before the coffee craze even began.
127. Road 209 (Jeonpo Cafe Street). This one also sells beer, I think.
128. Espace Cafe (Jeonpo Cafe Street). This one actually looked pretty cute inside. I might have to venture in for a cuppa.
129. Cafe the Mansion (Jeonpo Cafe Street). Here’s what appears to be a fancy place for your coffee tastes.
130. Unique Coffee (Seomyeon). The unique part of what appears to be an older coffee shop in Seomyeon is that it’s been around for at least a few years. Fun fact: I had a toast sandwich (the Korean styled ham, egg, cheese and strange ketchup-like fried sandwiches that were a phenomenon about 10 years ago here) with a good friend of mine at the connected toast shop on the right of this frame about three years ago after she’d just had her wisdom teeth pulled. Needless to say, she wasn’t able to finish hers.
The following are an assortment of cafes located in the Jeonpo Cafe Street area, near Seomyeon in Busan, Korea’s second largest city, located along the coast in the southeast. As I live nearby, it’s an area myself and the better half often frequent. We’ll return to some of these places in more detailed future posts.
120. Simile. I wonder what this coffee shop is like?
121. Koam Ba Nyong Bakery and Cafe. The exterior of this cafe, on one of the quieter side streets of the area, looks super cute. Unfortunately, they are closed on Sundays, when this photo was taken.
122. Cafe the Red. Not much to say about this one yet. It’s red. So, it’s got that going for it.
123. 3C Cafe Cozy Container. Here’s a cafe in the Jeonpo Cafe Street area I have grown to enjoy a lot. True to its name, the theme is that it appears to have been, at least in part, built using container boxes. And the interior? Quite cozy. It’s also a cafe. 3C. And the coffee? I’m going to write more about this one in a separate post (which will be linked here when it’s up) and let you know. But I will say, I enjoyed that, too.
124. Cafe 5 Tak Koo. The exterior reminds me of a nail or hail salon. The inside looks like a diner from the 1960s. Not sure what to think of this one.
125. Runway and Coffee. And here is one that actually does traffic in things like hair or nails! And coffee. Always coffee.
106. The Liter (Seomyeon, Busan). Here is one of the recent entries into the “coffee bigger than your head” phenomenon that has swept through Korea (in the same vein as The Venti, perhaps the granddaddy of the trend). Never mind that the same amount of actual coffee is used and the rest is just sugar, milk and/or ice. I am always reminded of the first time I was in Korea, in 2005, and how the largest cup of coffee available at the time was the size of a Starbucks short (about 8 ounces). And now, this. I went to this specific location during rehearsals for a play I was in earlier this year. The coffee was as one would expect cheap, massive-sized coffee would be. Not terrible, not great. But, who the hell needs a Super Big Gulp-sized coffee, regardless of how much actual bean is being used? Also note: in familiar copycat corporate culture, this has the identical color scheme and design as another of these massive coffee size shops: 1LiterCoffee. I will add a link once I have taken its photo, for comparison.
107. Tops bean (Busan Citizens Park, Seomyeon, Busan) A surprisingly decent latte was acquired recently at this take out coffee shop, located in a snack rest stop building in Busan’s lovely central park. 3,500 won.
108. Sprout Coffee (Jeonpo-dong, Busan) I live pretty close to the Jeonpo Cafe Street area, which once mostly consisted of small industrial shops. Today it’s full of small boutiques, restaurants and an endlessly-rotating complement of coffee shops. This one features macarons (not to be confused with macaroons), which have been all the rage in the country these days.
109. dessert 39 Bakery & Coffee (Jeonpo-dong, Busan) Located just two shops down from Sprout is this bakery and coffee shop. I do enjoy the purple awning.
110. ê³ ìœ ì»¤í”¼ (Goyoo Coffee) (Jeonpo-dong, Busan) Turn right after the aforementioned bakery & coffee shop and you will see Goyoo Coffee. Goyoo, a Korean acquaintance pointed out, means something like “the original,” so this means something like the original or true coffee, or something like that.
111. Man from Coffee (Jeonpo-dong, Busan) Located very close to the others already mentioned is the curiously-named “Man from Coffee.” Seriously, I have to wonder if the owner saw the movie “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” when it came to Korea and fell in love with how that sounded. This one is a very recent addition to Jeonpo Cafe Street that I plan on exploring further in the future.
112. FM Coffee House (Jeonpo-dong, Busan) About a three-minute walk from the aforementioned, this is a rather popular coffee spot in this area. Despite being across the street from a Starbucks, FM Coffee House always has steady business. It’s definitely higher-quality coffee than some of the others, but the air around it always smells like burnt coffee, which isn’t the most pleasurable scent in the world, at least not for this coffee drinker.
113. ESpacio Self Nail Care Detox & Coffee (Jeonpo-dong, Busan) Well, OK, then…
Here it is. Soak it up, drink it down. After almost one year and three months, the wait is finally over.
Behold: Coffee shop number 100.
Located on the main platform of the Jangjeon subway station (Sinpyeong side) in Busan, this shop serves both hot and cold bevvies, including sweetened and unsweetened coffees, hot chocolates and green tea.
And, so cheap, too! Those 1,500 won monster sized coffees from places like The Venti and 1 Liter might be all the rage these days, but this is the O.G. for discount coffee. Expect to pay between 300 and 400 won a cup. BARGAIN.
I chose a classic blend of sugar and powdered milk for my coffee, which was served to me in less than 15 seconds. And you thought Starbucks was fast!
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. That is pure joy right there, friends.
I have to give credit to Jen Jones for suggesting coffee shop 100. We had just visited a random place across from the subway station and, 4,500 won a cup each later, were left somewhat disappointed. I had wanted to just go for something random because I had not posted on this site in over a year. In my mind, better to get something now rather than overthink the location and then lose interest again.
I am pretty sure she was mostly joking. Nonetheless, whenever I “order” a cup of Korean jet fuel from a random machine, I am instantly teleported 11 years in the past, when I first arrived in South Korea, in Jinju, several years before Korea’s coffee obsession took hold.
In humble Jinju, the only coffee (as far as I knew at the time; I only stayed that time for 6 weeks) was Holly’s Coffee (which came in far smaller cups than what one can now feed their need for caffeine) and the ubiquitous powdered coffee machines that were in far greater quantities then than they are today. While there were other, small independent coffee shops in Korea long before the chains took over, I never visited them.
The vending machines are by no means extinct. But, there are less. Why should there be any, one might think, when there are so, so, so many coffee shops on every street in every city in this small country? But, the vending machines remain. Why? Convenience? Taste? Maybe for some, it too is nostalgia. Whenever I take a whiff, even just a little sniff of this coffee, piping hot, I am 26 years old again, living in a foreign country for the first time, freaking out because everything is different, I have no idea what I’m doing in the classroom and Skype and Facebook haven’t gone mainstream yet.
Smelling a hot cup of sweetened powdered coffee puts me in a time machine every time, much like how smelling a certain kind of rubber transports me back to Christmas 1984, when a five-year-old version of myself was getting his first Transformers toys, and life was simpler.
Life in Korea 2005 was simpler, too, if only because I had not lived here long enough to develop any real connection to it beyond the mystical. And so, whenever my nasal chambers fill up with the powerful scent of vending machine coffee, I’m no longer in the super familiar Korea I’ve lived in and drank a sea of coffee in for almost four years, it’s that other Korea, the one where you could still smoke in the P.C. Bang, where gimbap can still cost 1,000 won and where it seemed like there was a coffee vending machine on practically every corner, the odd-ball Korea of my imagination.
Directions: go to Jangjeon subway station (stop 129), heading toward Nopo-dong, exit the train and look for the machine. Or, just look around anywhere. Recommended brew: the one with milk and sugar. Even I can’t stomach that powder without stuff to cover up its actual taste.
I have heard stories, anecdotal mostly, how even the scent of coffee can cause one great need to have a poo. Does this happen to you? Because, I also read recently that one of the sneaky causes of constipation can be drinking too much coffee.
Here are some coffee shops in Korea that have English that may raise an eyebrow or two, causing several heads to be scratched in the process.
All the Coffee In Korea 