Koffee & Kpop

I recently went to Gangneung, in Gangwon Province, along the eastern shore of South Korea.

One of my taxi drivers was very confused as to why I chose Gangneung, of all places, because in his words, “Only Koreans come here–and only to see the ocean.”

I wanted to see the infamous Gangneung Coffee Street, however. I later learned that Gangneung is also famous for its potatoes and as a Midwesterner, I love my potatoes.

Needless to say, I drank a lot of coffee while there. I may have replaced lunch with another iced coffee on an occasion or two.

The best coffee wasn’t to be found on Gangneung Coffee Street. It wasn’t at the Coffee Cupper Coffee Museum, nestled high in the mountains away from civilization, either.

It was a last minute stop, a few minutes walk away from the train station, at a cafe that caters to tourists wanting to pick up a few quick souvenirs.

On my last morning, I woke up at around 9, planning on tidying up my accommodation, showering, and leaving at 10 to beat the 11am check-out traffic. I realized that I hadn’t bought any souvenirs beyond a couple of magnets for myself, and was worried about the cost of souvenirs in the train station (if there were any–Gangneung Station is essentially one big circle you can circumambulate in five minutes), so I quickly looked up cafes in the area surrounding the train station.

Ongmak Sanghoe seemed to have decently priced souvenirs and I could grab an iced americano to help me power through until I could get some better coffee.

No one was in the cafe when I entered, but a woman popped up behind the counter and greeted me. I went to the kiosk and placed my order for souvenirs. I bought some Gangneung Coffee Bread, as well as a box of chewy dried potato that supposedly tastes better if you grill it. I also couldn’t resist a cute potato keychain.

The first time, I accidentally deleted my coffee from the order, so I had to return to the kiosk to put in my coffee order and play it off like I decided after sitting there a minute that I wanted a coffee.

I decided against getting a boring iced americano and using a Lactaid pill to be able to drink the cafe’s specialty coffee, a milky latte with savory buckwheat cream and crunchy buckwheat groats sprinkled on top.

I was quite surprised at the layer of flavors in this simple latte. First was the espresso layer, which I’m assuming was added at the end of the process. It was good espresso and went well with the crunchy buckwheat groats on top.

The drink was sweet, but not too sweet, and got better the more you drank, as the elements were incorporated.

Simply put, it was one of the best coffees I’ve had and it came from what I would have easily dismissed as a tourist trap with bad coffee.

Thank you, Ongmak Sanghoe, for showing me that you shouldn’t judge a cafe too harshly without giving it a chance. I’m so glad I took a chance on this amazing coffee instead of going to a familiar coffee chain.