Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tonyvu]

I ask this because im thinking about bringing some over to korea and im aware of their consumption of packaged instant coffee. Is there a good number of people there who make their own coffee or does the instant type dominate the market?

[afsjesse]

I drink black coffee most days and sometimes I bring it to school. Very few teachers actually like it. And the couple that do accept my offer take it VERY weak, as in hardly brown.

I've been told many times "I like Korea coffee" "I like mixuh" "I like sweet" .....

However I have met some Koreans who do like it. I think you're better off bringing black tea or something like that.

Jesse

[Goku]

I'd imagine no. Mostly because people have extremely fickle tastes about their coffee and most of the people I've met aren't caught up in a swirl of trying to get quailty coffee. Maxim and Taster's choice seem to do it for them.

Also, most people I know don't have coffee makers. I don't think it's the ritual like it is in America to make a pot of coffee in the morning.

[prideofidaho]

I had a co-teacher who couldn't get enough of the stuff. She has a little drip coffee attachment to make individual cups at her desk.

The answer is yes, ground coffee would make an excellent gift. But only for someone who likes proper coffee.

[eamo]

There's a fashion at the moment among the fickle middle-classes for real coffee made with a horribly expensive home espresso/cappucino machine.

But 95% of Korean people still prefer instant mix coffee.

Even though I showed my Korean in-laws how to make espresso and latte at home using just freshly ground coffee, and a Mokka express stove-top coffee maker, which they excitedly proclaimed to be just as good as Starbucks, they still buy instant coffee.

[BobbyOrr]

The parents at my school have given a lot of ground coffee as gifts on Teacher's Day, so I would say that it would be a good gift. We brew coffee at my school, with no milk in sight and a lot of the teachers here manage to drink it black.

[Emeliu]

In the Dorms when I would brew up some coffee, the exchange students would go

"WAAAH!!!"

and then hover over the coffee maker for about 15 minutes while the coffee brewed..

I don't think it would be a very good gift at all >.>

[Jane]

I would be surprised to see if most Koreans actually have coffee machines in their homes. Koreans almost always go out to coffee shops if they want coffee, they don't entertain at home so much.

I'm afraid your gift would end up going unused for this fact.

[Xuanzang]

Better to buy those fancy pants Maxim or Maxwell house instant coffee sets.

[tomoyopop]

Honestly, I think it would be like one of those gifts where they would be very appreciative of it (being a sort of novelty/higher-class gift)... but end up never using and probably regift it, saying it's a nice foreign product.

[NightSky]

[Emeliu]

[NightSky]

Emeliu--if you just mean a regular drip coffee maker--I got a cheapie on gmarket for around 30 last year...made in China of course, but it works well enough. assuming you've checked stores here too? Lotte mart has a basic drip model for around 45,000 last I saw.

[tonyvu]

i do have a bag of instant coffee in my house so they can be put to good use...

[Emeliu]