Dabang Keopi

Here’s this week’s tip on Korean language and customs:

Q:
I was just browsing around Namdaemun market the other day and saw a rather odd-looking expression, which my friend and I managed to read with our beginner-level Korean knowledge. We found a few handwritten signs that read: “We have dabang coffee.”

What kind of coffee is “dabang coffee”? We’d like to try once we know exactly what it is.

A:
Coffee aficionados in Korea have managed to drink brewed coffee for years, and thanks to the spread of international chains, such as Starbucks and Seattle’s Best Coffee, take-out coffee that comes in various flavors and sizes became common everywhere.

Before this fad came along in Korea, there was the dabang, literally meaning a tea house, that served various Korean traditional teas as well as coffee. In the 1970s, drinking a cup of coffee at a dabang was a fashionable thing to do as coffee suggested a posh and hip American culture. This early form of coffee was a mixture of instant coffee, cream powder and sugar. Pre-mixed coffee powder is still a popular choice, and some Koreans prefer to drink so-called “dabang keopi” out of either habit or nostalgia.