**New Book ‘Coffee, Such a Historical Beverage’**
(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Song Kwang-ho – Sungnyung has long been a representative drink enjoyed by the people of Korea. Commoners would boil water with scorched rice stuck to the bottom of the pot since the early to mid-Goryeo era. Its slightly burnt bitter taste and savory aroma made it popular. In “Seoyugyeonmun” in 1898, intellectual Yu Gil-jun wrote, “Westerners drink tea and coffee like we drink sungnyung.”
Only about a hundred years have passed since then, but Koreans now drink coffee as much as Westerners. Last year, coffee imports amounted to 193,000 tons, which allows an adult to consume 1.3 cups a day. As of the end of 2022, there were 270,000 workers in coffee specialty shops, and the number of cafes exceeded 100,000. It is at a level that can be called a ‘coffee republic.’
Recently published ‘Coffee, Such a Historical Beverage’ (Timsachekbang) is a book that traces how Koreans, as residents of the coffee republic, have embraced coffee and its history. It covers the 140-year social history of coffee infiltrating the daily lives of Koreans from the late Joseon period to the present.
According to the book, coffee is presumed to have been introduced during King Gojong’s era. In 1884, civil official Min Geon-ho referred to coffee as ‘Gabicha’ in his diary “Haeunilrok,” and the same year, the Hanseong Sunbo referred to it as ‘Gabi’. The commoners called it ‘Yangtang-guk’ due to its taste and color resembling herbal medicines.
King Gojong enjoyed coffee but faced significant troubles because of it.
In 1898, Kim Jong-hwa, a court chef, was bribed by a treacherous retainer and added a large quantity of opium to the coffee that King Gojong and the crown prince (later Emperor Sunjong) drank. Accustomed to the taste, King Gojong sensed something was off and only took a sip, thus avoiding harm, but the crown prince drank it all. As a result, the prince barely survived but lost most of his teeth, suffering the aftereffects of wearing dentures. Rumors spread that the crown prince had become a fool. The Independent Newspaper reported it as being due to ‘Coffeecha’, alerting people to the existence of coffee.
During the Japanese colonial period, coffee became a symbol of modern boys. Starting with the first Korean-owned cafe ‘Kakadue’ in 1927, cafes like ‘Megishiko’ and ‘Nangnangpara’ opened one after another. Writers and filmmakers gathered in cafes to discuss art and the severe state of affairs. Some lamented their hopeless futures. Novelist Park Tae-won, a regular at Nangnangpara, depicted the cafe atmosphere of the times in his novel ‘One Day of Gu Bo.’
“The cafe at 2 PM had people without work sitting on chairs drinking tea, smoking cigarettes, talking, and listening to records. Most of them were young, and despite their youth, they already felt that life was tiring for them.”
From the post-liberation period to the 1970s, Korea was practically a barren land for coffee. The reality where coffee was more expensive than rice during annual barley hump days meant that most people could not afford such ‘luxury’. Only instant coffee from U.S. military rations was sporadically distributed.
The atmosphere began to change as economic conditions improved in the 1970s. Dongsuh Foods led this shift, hitting it big with coffee mixes released in the 70s. The ability to enjoy coffee mixes at home and in offices at relatively low prices, rather than just cafes, was the driving force behind their success.
In the 1980s, domestic coffee specialty shops appeared, and in the 1990s, coffee shops began to proliferate around university areas, culminating with Starbucks entering the Korean market in 1999. Starbucks continued to grow despite the IMF financial crisis, becoming the harbinger of the coffee era in the 2000s.
The author explains that the coffee we enjoy now is different from the coffee when it first arrived. Furthermore, the coffee enjoyed by Koreans is described as something that, like K-culture, is mixed in various contexts complexly yet harmoniously.
388 pages.