Iced coffee takes over South Korea

Seoul – K-pop stars BTS drink it. It appears in K-dramas. Fans are so dedicated to consuming it year-round they’ve coined a new South Korean proverb: “Even if I freeze to death, iced Americano!”

The humble coffee – shots of espresso served over ice, topped up with water – has become South Korea’s unofficial national drink, outselling its hot counterpart even during the depths of winter, Starbucks data shows.

Office worker Lee Ju-eun, clad in an ankle-length puffer jacket, shivered on the pavement in downtown Seoul as she clutched her iced coffee during a polar Vortex cold snap in January, when temperatures hit -17°C.

“I only drink this. Iced Americano is easier to drink and also tastier, so I enjoy drinking it even in winter,” she said, gingerly holding the edge of her frozen plastic cup.

“I’m cold but it’s okay. I can endure it,” she said.

Accountant Lee Dae-hee said he drank iced Americanos exclusively because it was a faster and more efficient caffeine hit, essential in South Korea’s hard-driving ppalli-ppalli (“hurry-hurry”) work culture.

“I quickly drink iced Americano to wake up and work,” Lee said as he tried to shield his large cup of coffee from the driving snow while rushing back to his office after lunch.

“It doesn’t make me cold because I go straight to the office and I don’t spend much time outside,” he said.

South Koreans take their coffee seriously.

The average South Korean drinks 353 cups per year, more than double the global average, according to a 2019 study by the Hyundai Research Institute.

Coffee culture has even spawned its own language.

Iced Americano is known as Ah-Ah, and its die-hard drinkers are known as eoljuka, a contraction of a new proverb proclaiming they’d freeze to death for their drink.

The trend has been noticed by corporate coffee giant Starbucks Korea, which ran an “ice challenge” promotion where eoljuka got a free size upgrade when they ordered in late January’s sub-zero temperatures.

Iced drinks accounted for 76% of total sales at Starbucks stores in South Korea last year, the company said. Even during January’s cold snap they sold more iced Americanos (54%), than hot ones.

“People’s tendency of consuming goods, food and beverages regardless of the weather seem to have become a new trend,” Park Han-jo from Starbucks Korea told AFP.

Independent coffee shops said their data showed the same thing. Kim Bum-soo, who owns a cafe in downtown Seoul, said around half his coffee sales were iced Americanos. But foreign tourists like Chinese, tended to order warm tea, even in summer. –