A Fat Purple Fig

See how I made it look like Golden Brew Black was another carefully-researched choice? Wrong. We bought coffee here on our way to Bukchon Village, and the photos I took weren’t recorded for Coffee Tour posterity, but because I liked their spotted cups (Koreans really like packaging).

Coffee outings are events in and of themselves, so, later, as our day grew and took on a life of its own, we realised we had missed the chance to fit one in, which elevated Golden Brew Black well beyond its station.

To compound the sudden plummet in standards, I decided to round out today’s tour entry with a popular coffee choice for Koreans on the run, and favourite of my beloved mother; the hot can, sold at all self-respecting convenience stores. We found this one on the way to Dongdaemun:

We stood in front of the cabinet for a while, trying to work out the difference between them and getting no further than ‘just not the Starbucks one’, when a man darted in front of us and bought three cans of this:

That was good enough for me! Trusting complete strangers is par for the course here (on the way to Bukchon village, I failed to cross the road on an obvious green light, because the Koreans beside me hadn’t noticed. I just figured they knew some special system).

Let’s Be mild coffee, according to the can, is ‘as sweet as falling in first love’.

*insert cynical comment about bitter aftertastes here*

Mary had the right idea, adding the box of Pepero.

I could say something here about simple pleasures, and how plastic chairs and coffee in a can be elevated depending on where you are and who you’re with, but this is just about the coffee, right?

It was amazing.