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A cautionary tale from Korea

I’m on day 3 of a week-long trip to Seoul to see family and finally engage the local specialty coffee scene. Lots of interesting stuff!

Wanted to share a quick story before I head out to watch the Korean National Barista Championship finals…

I was having dinner with probably the best-known barista in Korea, Young-Min Lee, and his lovely girlfriend Sunny, when he shared a fascinating story. A few years ago, an enterprising businessman from Seoul went overseas and came back with a licensing agreement for a cafe that would share the name and branding of a coffeeshop that was very successful in its home town market. As is common with such arrangements, they were sent trainers and such to help get everything started, and they had enough marketing muscle to become pretty well-known in Seoul and fairly quickly.

This was also one of the very first coffeeshops in Seoul that was pouring latte art. A good bit of their renown was tied to that latte art.

The problem was, the licensing arrangement also came with the coffee, and with the roasted coffee beans coming in from overseas, freshness was a big problem, and the quality of the coffee itself quickly took a nosedive. But they were pouring nice latte art.

As it was told to me, this one shop actually became a problem for the entire specialty coffeeshop scene in Seoul, because word spread among the coffee-loving, trend-following consumer base in Seoul that… (and this is SO fascinating to me) latte art means bad tasting coffee.

That shop has since closed, and it took years for the “latte art = bad coffee” thing to fade away.

A fascinating cautionary tale, wouldn’t you say?

More from Seoul to come!