Specialty coffee in South Korea
Specialty coffee in South Korea grew from pioneers Terarosa and Namusairo in 2002, and Busan's Jooyeon Jeon became World Barista Champion in 2019. Korea moved from the dabang tearooms of the mid-20th century to one of the world's largest instant-coffee markets, and then to a café boom. The specialty movement was started by Terarosa and Namusairo in 2002 and Coffee Libre in 2009; Momos Coffee, founded in Busan in 2007, gained worldwide attention when Jeon, its barista, took the world title. Fritz Coffee Company, founded in 2014, is another widely known roaster. The country now has more than 75,000 coffee shops, around one for every 700 people.
The scene covered here is concentrated in Seoul, where cafés are spread across many neighbourhoods and density is very high. Hanam, just east of the capital, and Busan have smaller listings.
Terarosa's vice president Lee Yun-seon became the country's first Cup of Excellence judge in 2008. Scandinavian roasters have also opened in Seoul, including Copenhagen's April Coffee and Oslo's Fuglen, adding to the choice of light-roast filter coffee.
