Back when I lived in Korea, I used to pay $3 - $4 for a cup of coffee. The most basic and cheap type of coffee was the Americano - which as a Canadian, I was really unfamiliar with. In Canada, we say things like "One coffee - regular, please". By regular we mean "one cream, one sugar." Sometimes we might say "One double-double, please" meaning two cream and two sugar. So having grown up in an area where it was the norm to put sugar, cream, or milk into coffee, my tastebuds were quite surprise by the rather bitter Americano.
However, one day I visited a park with some of my friends and we stopped by a vending machine. The machine looked quite old but it still worked. It offered milk coffee and such for around 400 Won a cup (which is $0.40USD). It was a relatively cold day so we decided to have some. To my surprise, the vending machine dispensed a small little paper cup (a little bit bigger than that of a shot glass) and soon filled the cup with hot coffee. It was steaming hot and a perfect way to warm up during that cold, chilly day. It was sweet, yet it retained a coffee taste - and it definitely had caffeine.
Each packet contains instant coffee, powder creamer, and sugar.
Soon afterwards, I began noticing this instant coffee everywhere. I saw smaller versions of coffee machines at the exits of traditional Korean restaurant. After paying for a meal, people can enjoy a free small cup of instant coffee. When people went hiking, they might carry a tumbler of hot water and enjoy this instant coffee on the mountain. In hotel rooms, instant coffee packages were offered beside tea bags.
This instant coffee is convenient, affordable, and sharable.
Having to start work every in the morning, I began to rely on this instant coffee. I made sure that my apartment never ran out of it. When I left Korea, I remembered wanting to carry boxes with me but didn't.
It's to my delight that I found these boxes in my local asian supermarket. Although I no longer rely on it as much as I used to, I still really enjoy these hot, sweet, and comforting cups of coffee.
0 comments:
Post a Comment