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Korean Crazy into Drink Coffee Since When


 

COFFEE COMES TO KOREA: THE ROYAL CONNECTION

Korea was introduced to coffee centuries after its European counterparts. As of such, the drink experiences a very slow-moving popularity (although, thanks to an immense growth spurt in the past couple of decades, it’s definitely caught up now).

In 1896, Emperor Gojong became the first Korean to try coffee – and subsequently Korea’s first coffeeholic. It was a dangerous time in Northeast Asia, and after the assassination of the emperor’s wife, Empress Myeongseong (otherwise known as Queen Min), he and Crown Prince Sunjong went into refuge at the Russian Embassy. There, Antoinette Sontag, the German sister-in-law of the Russian consul general at the time, offered the emperor a cup of coffee. Needless to say, he was hooked.

THE DABANGS & THE SPREAD OF COFFEE

6 years later, Gojong supported Antonoinette Sontag in opening the first Korean dabang (coffee shop) for foreign diplomats. Fast-forward to the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945), and the Japanese began to open more and more dabangs, meaning coffee was no longer the province of non-Koreans.

So who were the people drinking coffee? For Emperor Gojung, allowed to live but confined to the royal palace Changdeokgung, coffee remained his favorite drink. In addition, many of society’s elite and wealthy individuals – along with royals, politicians, businesspeople, artists, and intellectuals – fell in love with the drink. It became a symbol of Western culture and, as of such, status.

The next major development in Korean coffee culture first appeared during the Korean War years (1950-53), when the Americans introduced instant coffee. However, as an imported product requiring foreign currency exchange, it remained scarce.

Making it even harder to access coffee, dabangs often doubled as political meeting places. In this era of political anxiety, the authorities kept a watchful eye on them and their patrons (just like in Sweden and Turkey a few centuries before).

Things all changed in the 1960s, however, thanks to local company Dongsuh Food. Under licence to Maxwell Housse, they began production of instant coffee – and the drink left the realms of the elite and the political troublemakers. For the first time, it became popular among the middle class.

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