Koreans drink a lot of coffee.
And if you spend any time here, you’ll notice a surprising number of inexpensive coffee chains that seem to be everywhere.
Mega Coffee. Compose Coffee. Paik’s Coffee. The Venti.
You’ll see them on busy streets, next to subway stations, tucked into the ground floors of office buildings — sometimes several of them within the same block.
They’re cheap, they’re fast, and the drinks are usually much bigger than you’d expect.
Start With an Iced Americano
If you only order one thing, make it an iced americano.
It’s basically the unofficial drink of Korean office workers, students, commuters, and people who apparently don’t care that it’s freezing outside.
Yes, you’ll see people drinking iced americanos in the middle of winter.
Prices vary by chain and size, but the whole point of these places is that a basic coffee is cheap enough to become an everyday habit rather than an occasional treat.
The Chains You’ll Keep Seeing
Mega Coffee is the giant. With thousands of locations across Korea, it’s probably one of the easiest names to recognize. The menu goes far beyond coffee, with an endless rotation of sweet drinks, desserts, and seasonal items.
Compose Coffee is another major player, with coffee, bakery items, and snacks that make it an easy stop when you want something quick with your drink.
Paik’s Coffee is known for generous portions and big, sweet drinks. If your idea of a coffee is “give me a lot of it,” you’ll probably understand the appeal immediately.
The Venti is another chain you’ll see regularly, especially around busy commercial areas.
And those aren’t even all of them. There are smaller chains everywhere, along with names like Ediya and newer budget brands competing for the same everyday coffee crowd.
After a while, you stop noticing them as individual cafés. They just become part of the street.
This Isn’t Really a Café Experience
That’s probably the biggest difference to understand.
These places aren’t necessarily somewhere you’re supposed to spend two hours working on your laptop.
You order. You get your giant iced americano. You leave.
Maybe you drink it on the subway. Maybe you carry it into the next store. Maybe you take it back to the office.
It’s coffee as part of your routine rather than coffee as the destination.
And that’s why the chains are so common. When coffee is cheap enough to buy almost every day, you don’t need to make an occasion out of it.
One Last Thing
You’ll probably notice something else after you’ve bought your coffee. There aren’t many public trash cans on Korean streets, so at some point you’ll find yourself holding an empty cup for an unreasonably long time, wondering if you’re just going to have to check it into the hotel with you.
Leave a Reply