Top 4 Budget Friendly Cafe Brands in South Korea You Should Have : Cheap Price, Big Size, Good Taste
In South Korea, now it is a warring states period of coffee. From global brands to domestic franchising brands and local small businesses. Cafes are every corner of every building.
Years ago, it happened that franchising cafes who seek to sell big size of coffee and tea at cheap prices started emerging across the country. Since then, surprisingly, some of those cafes have grown and survived in the Korean intense competitive coffee market, while others couldn’t make a success and disappeared.
Here are top four survivors whose coffee you should taste while traveling in Korea.
1. Paik’s Coffee(aka Paik Dabang, 빽다방)
Paik’s Coffee is the first starter of this game. The Born Korea group is the mother company of Paik’s Coffee. Baek Jong-won, a tycoon of Korean food industry and the CEO of the group, launched the coffee brand in 2006 for serving customers much cheaper coffee than big global brands such as Starbucks.
Baek is well known for prioritizing taste the most in terms of making food. He always stress “Taste, taste, taste”, which has appealed to consumers. Paik’s Coffee was started with seeking old fashioned Korean coffee, sweet and strong. So most of items of the cafe taste strong and very sweet, which has attracted not only old people but also young people.
Literally when I have a craving for some sweet drink, I go to Paik’s Coffee and order Daldal Yeonyu Latte(달달연유라떼), which is coffee with sweet condensed milk like Vietnamese coffee. Other than Daldal Yeonyu Latte, Wonjo Coffee is also very sweet. It is a big size of instant coffee with milk and sugar. In very hot summer, the big size of Wonjo Coffee is a good choice.
The price range of Paik’s Coffee is, as of October 2022, from 1,500 won(hot americano) to 4,800 won(blueberry yogurt smoothie). All items on the menu are less than 5,000 won. Think of the price of a tall size of americano of Starbucks. And all the size of Paik’s Coffee is 20 oz.
Besides lower prices, another good thing about Paik’s Coffee is that they try to support local food producers. They have invented items made with ingredients produced by local farms. For example, rice from Gyeonggi and mandarin from Jeju Island.
They also supply bread, hot dogs and dessert. Moreover, Paik’s Coffee launched the subsidiary brand, Paik’s Bakery recently, which supplies more bakery items with the same drink menu of Paik’s Coffee. I posted about the bakery cafe in Songdo, Incheon on this blog.
2. Compose Coffee
Unlike other coffee brands, Compose Coffee is based in Busan, the second largest city in South Korea. Since they started business in 2014, they have increased the number of stores across the country.
In my neighborhood Compose Coffee and Paik’s Coffee are next to each other, and interestingly they are competing and also getting along well.
The price range of Compose Coffee is, as of October 2022, from 2,500 won(americano) to 5,200 won(sweet red bean milk shake), which may sound they are not that cheap, but they offer a 1,000-won discount for takeout.
Normally I buy an ade there, especially grape fruit flavor. Or sometimes I drink milk tea there. Min and I recommend Sweet Corn Milk Shake. It is launched very recently and 3,900 won. As corn drink lovers, to us its sweet and corn savory taste is so good. Their other milk shake items are popular too.
If you have a strong sweet tooth, try Dalgona Latte of Compose Coffee. Yes, that is the dalgona showed on the Netflix drama, Squid Game, and made a hit globally. A few years ago making dalgona coffee at home was a trend. Dalgona Latte is cafe latte topped with dalgona. The price is 3,900 won.
They also have various snacks like macaroons and Taiwanese styled sandwiches. Especially their Taiwanese styled sandwiches are popular as a light meal with coffee and the price is quite cheap, 2,000 won.
3. Mega Coffee
It was founded in 2015. Its full name is Mega MGC Coffee. Mega Coffee is well known for its huge size. In term of size Mega Coffee is the top. Even they have one-liter americano on their menu. It is called Megaricano and 3,000 won.
It is said that at first they focused to set their branches around collages, universities and army camps for young students or soldiers who don’t have enough money. Later they started increasing stores in Seoul and other regions.
The price range of Mega Coffee is, as of October 2022, from 1,500 won(americano) to 4,800(Unicorn Frappe).
One of the most popular coffee item of Mega Coffee is Cube Latte. It is normal iced cafe latte with espresso iced cubes and sweet condensed milk. So it isn’t watered down by melting ice. Brilliant.
Usually my pick at Mega Coffee is Honey Grape Fruit Black Tea. It is quite cheap for the quality. It is 3,500 won and added a real grape fruit slice.
They have a variety of items on dessert menu including doughnuts and macaroons. And recently they launched small sized pizza.
4. The Venti Coffee
First of all, it is pretty and catching eyes. I mean I love its new purple loge. The Venti Coffee, or just The Venti is based in Busan, too. And it was founded in 2014.
The price range of The Venti is, as of October 2022, from 1,500 won(hot americano) to 4,300 won(juice). When you order coffee at The Venti, you can choose coffee bean between dark and mild.
Among popular items of The Venti is fruit and vegetable mix juice series, which is juice made with three kinds of fruit and vegetable. Now they have three items. One is orange, apple and carrot, called Osadang(오사당). Another one is apple, strawberry and beetroot, called Sattalbi(사딸비). The rest is grape, blueberry and purple sweet potato, called Poblma(포블마). All of three are 4,300 won.
They also sell various bread and dessert. Especially bungeo-ppang(붕어빵, fish-shaped burns), coffee bean bread and croffle is popular.
Days ago a new The Venti store opened in my neighborhood, we already had three stores though, and I bought iced green tea latte there after jogging. It was so good.
- Closing
Most of stores of these budget friendly cafe brands are small with only a few of tables inside, and take orders via a kiosk outside. It appears that their target consumers are those who are busy for work and want to get takeout quickly at cheap price. People love their cheap prices and also understand that sitting at a table inside for so long time is not good for other customers and the store. Of course they don’t force customers to get out of the store quickly. It is just a matter of etiquette, I think.
Anyway some times you can see two or even three of them are in the same block. As a consumer, it is so good to have various options with good prices in one spot, especially in this economic recession time.