Are they really crazy about coffee?

by chee Leng (on coffee makers)
(Singapore)

There were various reports that Koreans are crazy about their coffee. There are 9000 over coffee shops in Korea, and the coffee consumption has went up 30% over a one year period.

Seems to be alot of coffee activity for one country that was into tea not too long ago.

This 30% was reported to be from Convenience stores and the coffee that Koreans are consuming are mainly RTD coffee. Even mom and pop stores are growing at more than 20%.

And the recommendations given to manufacturers to grow their sales is to better their packaging and to have more flavors.

Sure, the Koreans are indeed consuming alot of coffee, but would you consider RTD coffee to be coffee? With flavored coffee such as Hazelnut or Strawberry, it is still the coffee that we know?

Korea is the place where cafes serve their coffee using Nespresso (or any other single serve coffee maker), so could it be their culture are tuned more towards convenience?

I posted an earlier article musing if convenience from single serve coffee maker can be taken as good coffee. In the case of Korea, seems that their favorite form of coffee comes from RTD.

In this case, their good coffee is "Ready to Drink" format. A format which I am sure would be frown by many coffee experts.

How can RTD be consider to be good coffee right? Well, if what the Koreans want are easy and fast way of drinking coffee and RTD provided that, that is their preferred coffee, don't you think so?

Personally, I think they are crazy about their coffee (in RTD), not the way some of us might see it -so if you have some RTD format, do check out the Korean market.

What is your thought -can RTD be consider to be good coffee?