The Korean “Kuh-pi Bang-aht-gan” is roughly equivalent to “Coffee Mill.” This is one of the cafes I visited in 2007 on my first trip to Korea. It’s located in the Samcheongdong neighborhood near the Blue House Presidential residence and Gyeongbokgung Palace. While their coffee is not really worth mentioning, the interior style is pretty cool and shows how quirky and inviting Korean cafes can be.
Open kitchen, hand-drawn menus, esoteric decorations, tons of interesting clutter and effort put into every detail. Like many indie cafes, they roast in-house and offer a variety of single-origin coffees prepared with a Melitta style pour-over filter. Unfortunately their coffees are roasted quite dark, and I can’t really recommend any of them (if you must, resort to milk and syrup drinks). Their espresso suffers from the same problem, and is served unappealingly in a big, regular sized glass.
The draw, for me, is the eccentric interior full of little hand made decorations, coffee devices, photographs, doodles, and other creations. In a country as dense as Korea, where it’s not uncommon for one block to have a dozen or more cafes (of dubious quality), you gotta differentiate yourself somehow.
While I much prefer the coffee at ‘Coffee Factory’ just next door, the decor and experience of Coffee Mill is worth a visit.
Map & Directions below. Continue reading ‘Coffee Mill‘
The Korean postman who rang my doorbell was probably wondering why I was so happy. If only he knew; it was because, among other things from the states, my sister sent me some coffee from Agua Preta, Brazil roasted by Intelligentsia. Nothing beats getting coffee from artisan roasteries back home. Even if it’s two weeks old by the time it gets here, it still tastes more interesting than most of the coffees I’ve tried here in Korea. I’m not sure if that’s because of better sourcing & access to the best coffees around the world, more subtle roasting expertise, or both?
Thanks to a suggestion from Intelligentisa barista Tyler M., I tried this as a single origin espresso today at Ecclesia cafe and it makes for a well rounded cup with nice body, chocolatey sweetness and pleasant acidity. I didn’t want to waste it–good coffee is precious here–so I didn’t have time to really fine tune the grind, but the several good shots I got reminded me a lot of the espresso flavor at Paul Basset’s cafe. Brewed in a pour-over filter, the taste was smooth milk chocolate, with an interesting floral note. I wish it was easier, and cheaper, to source good coffee here; it’d be fun to try different blends and single origin shots…
That reminds me, I need to write up the cafe next to my apartment that has ~8 dedicated espresso grinders and only serves single origin shots. That’s unique.
I’ve been trying to get latte art down for quite a while now, but it’s been pretty hard learning from books and Youtube videos. I finally got some feedback while visiting Republic of Coffee yesterday, everyone there is really nice and I appreciate their patience with my poor Korean skills! You can see my feeble attempts below; I can’t take credit for the one that looks good, mine are the ugly blobs.
Today I practiced a bunch at Ecclesia Cafe. They’re not great, but at least they aren’t blobs!
Caffe Artigiano is a Vancouver based chain started by multiple award winning barista champion, Sammy Piccolo. Since then he’s sold the business and shifted focus to his 49th Parallel coffee roastery. I’ve never had the chance to try their Canadian shops, which are certainly worth visiting, but I have been to their two locations here in Korea.
UPDATE: Check out JT’s comment below for a correction and a more detailed summary of Artigiano’s origin as well as the founders’ current projects.
UPDATE 2: As of April 2010, I think their espresso is back on track. Visited their Gwanghwamun shop and had a nice tasting double.
Their Gosok Terminal cafe had one of the first good espressso shots I found in Seoul back in 2008. They were using Intelligentsia beans around that time, and the walls were decorated with hundreds of empty Intelli bags. Unfortunately, due to the construction of subway line 9, their nicely appointed, spacious location was moved to a hallway corner just outside the Shinsegae foodcourt that houses Paul Basset’s cafe.
I’ve been to Caffe Artigiano at Gosok Terminal a number of times since they changed locations and noticed that their espresso quality has suffered quite a bit; it’s not as consistent as before, though I have had a couple of good shots amidst the bad ones. I’d still give them a go if you’re curious, or if Paul Basset’s cafe just around the corner is too crowded. Maybe they’re just in the process of training new staff or something. Given their reputation and past performance I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Caffe Artigiano also has a little booth near Gwanghwamun. This spot is just big enough for a 4 group espresso machine and a La Marzocco Swift automatic grinder/doser/tamper, which I believe they’re also using at the larger store. Hopefully they’ll invest in training their staff or hiring qualified baristas rather than relying on equipment. If I were to speculate, I’d guess that given the originally good espresso, maybe they just haven’t kept things well calibrated.
If you do visit one of their shops, let me know how your experience was. I’ll happily amend this post if things improve.
Directions Below. Continue reading ‘Caffe Artigiano – Seoul‘
It’s surprising how few fine dining establishments bother to compliment their meticulously prepared food with quality coffee. A while ago I found out that LAMILL has a roastery in Korea that supplies coffee to a few restaurants and hotels, including the Hyatt, so I was looking forward to trying it out at some point.
For Valentines day we tried the Sunday brunch buffet at the Park Hyatt hotel’s Cornerstone restaurant after reading a few good reviews online. The food was great overall, especially the main courses (I thought the lamb was pretty amazing), though their tasting dishes inspired by Korean cuisine were not as interesting or refined as those at W Hotel’s ‘Kitchen’ restaurant.
I asked for a coffee and out came a ~6 oz. Americano with light crema on the surface. It tasted pretty good once it cooled a bit, with decent body and a nice semi-sweet, roasty flavor showing through the water. Nice!
Before we left I asked for an espresso to finish off the meal, hoping for something decent but expecting the usual (worst). Surprisingly, they pull a decent shot that shows a lot of the characteristic caramel and dark chocolate of LAMILL’s espresso blend.
After that we went up to the 24th floor lounge, creatively named ‘The Lounge,’ to do a little reading (yeah, we’re nerds). The experience here wasn’t as pleasant. They advertise LAMILL coffee on their menu and charge an astronomical 12,000KRW (~$12) for any espresso based drinks. Total waste of money; and on top of that it was undrinkably bitter and over extracted. And wifi costs $12 an hour too. The atmosphere is alright but nothing to excuse that kind of price gouging and mediocrity. If you do visit, avoid coffee. Get a smoothie or something.
Park Hyatt is located right outside exit 1 at Samsung (COEX) station.
