This past Thanksgiving, I visited South Korea for the first time. Without a doubt, my favorite part of the trip was exploring South Korea’s coffee shops. Over the course of 9 full days, I explored 13 coffee shops. With the exception of one, every coffee shop I explored not only had great coffee but also unique aesthetics.
There were two things that I found super impressive and shocking about South Korea’s coffee scene: how many coffee shops there were and the unique aesthetic each coffee shop offers.
Approximately 1 coffee shop for 520 people
According to South Korea Times, there are currently over 100,000 coffee shops in South Korea, with a majority of them located in Seoul.
The current population size of South Korea is approximately 52 million people.
Doing the math, that comes out to 1 coffee shop for every 520 people.
At first, I didn’t know if that was a high ratio or not since I didn’t have anything to compare it to.
Since I’m from the US, I compared to compare it to Seattle’s coffee shop density. Seattle is considered the coffee capital of the US.
According to Noble House, there are 1,640 coffee shops or about 35 stores per 100,000 residents.
If we converted the South Korea coffee shop ratio to per 100,000 residents, that would mean 192 coffee shops per 100,000 residents.
That’s almost 5X more coffee shops.
Even though South Korea is much bigger than Seattle, the numbers pretty much tell the same story: there’s an outstanding number of coffee shops in South Korea.
Perspective of 2 Koreans on the coffee culture
To get some perspective on South Korea’s coffee culture, I asked two people for their thoughts: a barista I met in LA and my sister’s friend who currently lives in South Korea.
The barista mentioned that South Koreans are really picky with their coffee. He said it’s also quite easy to open up a coffee shop in South Korea. He estimated that a shop would need to sell at least 40 cups of coffee per day to survive.
My sister’s friend said it’s one of the latest trends in South Korea.
So many unique coffee shops
Almost every coffee shop I went to had its own unique aesthetic.
Just to give you some quick examples, this one (Maxim Plant) had 5 floors:
This one (Leedorim) had a volcano or mountain piece in it. For the more immersive or interactive experience, you had to walk up to the second floor and back down to the first to get to the main café area.
And then this coffee shop (Yeongyeongjae) had 4 floors, an interesting centerpiece on each floor, and different seating options to sit and enjoy your coffee: mats, couches, and tables.
I should note that all the coffee shops I went to were independent coffee shops, meaning none were part of a chain.
These coffee shops are incredibly innovative and engaging, offering one-of-a kind experience that made my coffee shop tour super fun!
What’s even better is that I could go to a lot of these coffee shops to study!
So which coffee shop should I go to?
There’s too many to recommend — and I don’t mean that as a cop out answer.
My friend and I used Google maps, Reddit, and Instagram to select our choices and we listed out at least 20 coffee shops for just a 9 day trip (I’ll provide that list in another blog post).
It really comes down to taste and what looks good. Just like what the barista I talked to said – South Koreans (and really, people who like coffee in general…) are picky about their coffee.
Our best coffee shop was a coffee shop we randomly found on Google maps. We originally were supposed to go to another coffee shop, but it didn’t open until 11AM. So we quickly searched for open coffee shops and found Aery.
It’s the same coffee you see in this blog post photo.
If you’re looking for a list, you can find that here. I also include the coffee shops we went to as well.
If you’re traveling to South Korea, I highly recommend checking out some coffee shops!
