Page 42 - #45 English

Cover Story

Choe Byeong Hak - Italy Technical Italian Coffee Machine
Training (1992) Company (1995)

Lee Seung Hoon - Machine
Setting up (2001) Inside of Coffee machine (1995)

whole bean. In a few shops using an semi-automatic ma- 1993 to 1994
chine, quite a few people asked for espresso. However, no After some time passed since the popularization of
coffee shop sold it with accurate knowledge of espresso automatic and semi-automatic machine, people started
or demitasse (espresso-dedicated cup). Those coffee shop having mechanical defects. As a result, there was a growing
owners who only knew that espresso should be served as demand for after service. However, there was no profes-
a small amount have usually put a small amount in a large sional engineer in South Korea, who accurately under-
cup. Interestingly, some coffee shops hiked the price of stood the espresso machine. Therefore, the coffee import-
espresso in order not to sell espresso. The reason is that ing companies determined to leverage the engineers from
customers could not understand the true nature espresso other fields. For instance, there was one semiconductor
either. Thus, customers often complained that the quan- equipment engineer who first encountered the espresso
tity was too small or it was too sour. machine with the help of his acquaintance. At the time, he
People brewed Japanese-style coffee with the West- thought that he could have an easier job by looking at the
ern machine. However, they still found to hard to create very simple structure. This was how he became a coffee
better taste than the taste of instant coffee sold out of machine engineer in South Korea. However, these South
an automatic vending machine. In the end, a majority of Korean coffee machine engineers soon found that the
customers preferred coffee from an automatic vending durability of European espresso machines was not great
machine that was also cheaper and that tasted better. In- and also that they could not purchase some parts from
stead, people sought for other beverages such as green tea overseas. Thus, they were forced to get adequate domestic
or hot chocolate in a coffee shop. On that account, those parts from such place as Cheonggyecheon market and they
coffee shop owners and the machine and coffee roasting began to repair and complement the machine by them-
companies had an important task to solve. They had this selves. In addition, these engineers who were on duty of
huge dilemma of “how to make people drink coffee from after service at the time often encountered a case in which
coffee shop tastefully”. The outcome of addressing the they had to address various demands of coffee shop own-
aforementioned dilemma was the introduction of flavored ers. At the time when no one had accurate information of
coffee. Some companied believed that they could not beat coffee or relevant machine, these engineers were forced
the vending machine coffee containing a lot of cream and to set coffee brewing to meet the demand of coffee shop
sugar. Thus, they chose to go with the marketing campaign owners only on the basis of their limited understanding of
to stimulate the sense of smell of consumers by placing mechanical structure. Even in some cases, they were asked
a flavor such as vanilla and hazelnut on roasted coffee to set the brewing time of a machine at 5 to 10 seconds so
bean. The release of flavored coffee was ended as a mere that it would discharge coffee faster than a coffee vending
passing fad. However, it causes an upheaval in the coffee machine on street because this automatic coffee machine
industry. The reason thereof was that it successfully made was more expensive. The machines and engineers had
consumers recognize the existence of bean coffee. indeed undergone the dark age during which people only
knew the name of espresso with vague awareness. But this
dark age finally ended in 1995.
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