Tag: coffee

Is this a good thing or a bad thing that South Korea has so many Starbucks stores?:

 South Korea held the fourth-largest number of Starbucks stores around the globe as of last year, data showed Monday, driven by solid demand from local consumers.

South Korea held 1,893 Starbucks stores as of 2023, up 116 from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the U.S. coffee giant.

The figure falls just behind Japan’s count at 1,901, despite the Asian neighbor having a population twice the size of South Korea’s.

The Seattle-based coffee giant introduced its first store in Seoul in 1999 in partnership with Shinsegae Group, a Korean retail group.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I prefer societies that hold people accountable for crimes even if its stealing about $3 of coffee:

And now we have the case of a 59-year-old man who was caught nipping a little extra coffee with his order and was detained by police for it. His cover was blown last December when he popped into a convenience store during his lunch break and ordered a Regular Coffee for 110 yen. However, while at the machine, a little devil on his shoulder convinced him to press the button for a Large Coffee valued at 180 yen which filled his Regular cup to the brim.

He then left the store but just as he was about to get into his car, the clerk called out to him and reported him to the police. While waiting for the authorities, the clerk interrogated the man and found that he had done this twice before at that store.

The man was then questioned by the police but no charges were pressed and the man was released. However, since he was the principal of a nearby junior high school, word of the incident got back to the Hyogo Prefectural Board of Education who questioned the man once again.

This time he admitted to having misappropriated coffee a total of seven times since June of last year for an approximate total of 490 yen worth of ill-gotten coffee. He explained that the first time he did it, it was an accident, but when he discovered that a Large Coffee fit into his Regular Coffee cup and the staff didn’t say anything, he decided to do it again, even knowing it was wrong.

As a result, on January 30, the Board of Education handed down a disciplinary dismissal for “gross misconduct unbecoming of an educational public servant.” They also apologized “from the bottom of [their] hearts” for allowing this to happen.

Japan Today

You can read more at the link, but 490 yen equal about $3.30 USD.

I think the Japanese response to crime is better than in the U.S. where for example drugs are decriminalized in Oregon or shoplifters can get away with stealing $950 or less of items in California. This is all madness that increases crimes. You don’t see this madness in Japan and other societies that are tough on crime because they hold people accountable for even small criminal offenses such as stealing about $3 of coffee.

It looks like if someone needs a good caffeine buzz, Dutch coffee products are the way to go:

Dutch coffee products on average contain four times the amount of caffeine in a cup of americano sold in cafes, according to the Korea Consumer Agency on Thursday.

The agency examined 30 Dutch coffee products in the market and found that while a cup of americano contains 0.4 milligrams of caffeine per milliliter, Dutch coffee contains 1.7 milligrams.

Currently, a beverage that contains more than 15 milligrams of caffeine per 100 milliliters is classified as “highly caffeinated” by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and these drinks must provide a warning label to customers to prevent them from consuming more caffeine than the maximum daily intake. However, there were no warnings on the tested products.

The warning standard set by the ministry states that highly caffeinated drinks must have a phrase for those susceptible to caffeine, such as “Caution: can be dangerous to children, pregnant woman and those sensitive to caffeine,” along with a “highly caffeinated” sign. The product must also say how many milligrams of caffeine is in the drink.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

It is amazing how over the past two decades coffee has become such a staple of Korean culture.  It is good to see that the convenience stores are now also offering quality brewed coffee considering how expensive most of the coffee shops are:

Koreans love their coffee – but they’re loving it in different ways.

The market was once dominated by franchise coffee shops like Starbucks and the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, but more people are heading to convenience stores, especially since they started selling quality coffee at low prices.

Local convenience stores such as CU, GS25 and 7-Eleven are aggressively expanding their offerings of brewed coffee. Korean adults consumed an average of 341 cups of coffee in 2014, up 14.4 percent from the previous year, according to Statistics Korea. To put that into perspective, the average Korean consumed seven bowls of rice a week, 11.8 portions of kimchi – and 12.8 cups of coffee. Coffee has arguably become more important than kimchi.

Industry insiders believe that the coffee market was worth about 6 trillion won ($5.06 billion) last year and that it has been growing 10 percent per year. Convenience stores’ coffee sales accounted for about 40 billion won last year, but that is expected to grow to 100 billion won this year.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

"In the other parts of North Korea it is very uncommon to see someone who drinks coffee. " via @nknewsorg http://t.co/AsqRYtw1ki

— Liberty in North Korea (@LibertyinNK) September 1, 2015