Coffee Book Haul

Today I was at the bookstore Bandi and Lunis, for a meeting with a potential client. We finished up and had some time to spare so I thought I'd do a little search to see what kind of coffee related literature was available.

I found a number of books by Korean coffee experts:

And also a nice variety of industry magazines:

 It should me more than enough to keep me busy :)

Cupping at the Korea Coffee Association

One of the biggest coffee related organizations in Korea is 한국커피협회 (Korea Coffee Association http://www.kces.or.kr/). Their mission is to advance the coffee industry in Korea and educate new generations of coffee professionals and they are made up of cafe owners, roasters, importers and educators.  I was lucky enough to be invited to watch the cupping of some new coffee varieties they are considering importing.

 They had already roasted the samples from various farms in Columbia and Panama and had them laid out on the tables ready for cupping.  They measured out the beans into two cups and then ground the beans back and put them back in their place. 

There was a cup of water for each sample so that the sampling spoons could be washed. 

The first step was to smell the beans and then water was added to them. 

It was so interesting to hear the way the beans were being described. Some people actually said the Columbian coffee smelled like mens toiletries. They used words like mint and cardamon. It really felt like being at a wine tasting event. 

Next came the tasting. Each coffee was tasted using a spoon. The tasters slurped, sucked and spit their way around the table, dipping their spoon in the clean water along the way. They invited me to taste as well, but with no particular instruction. I just tried to do what they were doing, but all the slurping was a bit distracting. There was a really distinct difference between the Columbian and Panamanian coffees but it was hard to tell between the varieties within each country. To me, it was like coffee, coffee oh and more coffee. I really look forward to being able to tell the difference one day!  Here is me, pretending to know what I am doing. The girls behind me were saying "Anyway, she won't know what she is tasting." And yes girls. You are right. All I knew for sure is that it was from Columbia. It was coffee. It won the Cup of Excellence Award.  And it was pretty tasty.  

Luckily, Vice President Lee was very kind and explained which kind of coffees he preferred and why. I hope some day I can learn to make my own opinions on coffees! 

The Korea Coffee Association does barista certification and I want to learn more about coffee terminology in Korean so I am studying from the book I received that day. 

I have so much to learn, but thanks to the warmth and kindness of the people at the Korea Coffee Association, I think I am off to a good start!

A Whole New World of Coffee

My one vice is coffee.

So you can probably imagine how concerned I was in 2006 when I was preparing to move to Jeju Island, Korea. I thought that the primarily tea consuming country would have nothing to offer me. So I quit drinking coffee a few weeks before I arrived. Imagine my surprise when I realized there was a cafe in the building I worked in. I soon went back to my addiction, and spent three hours a day in cafes studying Korean. Ediya coffee and Hollys were my main hangouts and at that time, I was just happy that there was coffee. I was not to picky about the quality.

That brings me to today. In the year 2014, I am now a marketing professional in Seoul. And one of my most recent projects is working with a Panamanian consulting firm to help introduce Panamanian coffee into Korea. The coffee market in Korea has absolutely exploded. Cafes that roast their beans in-house are common and some people are so caught up in coffee mania that they even roast beans in their own homes. I haven't gone that far but I have been LOVING the quality and variety of coffees that are available on the market. And having an excuse to be more involved in this exploding industry is exciting.

A new adventure has begun. Follow me on my quest to learn more about coffee in one of the hottest new coffee markets in the world.