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1995 to 1996
When the concept of owning and using it began to spread rather mid-90's Espresso machine in South Korea
than the understanding of automatic and semi-automatic machine,
the movement of reviving the originality of espresso started to unroll. LaCimbali-M21
The import of Italian coffee fueled this movement. The introduction
of such Italian coffees as lavazza, illy and segafredo presented the
heyday to those espresso machines who could not take center stage
until that time. Furthermore, the opening of La Palladio in Apgujeong-
dong in 1996 accelerated the promotion of genuine espresso style.
La Palladio was a cafe that reproduced an Italian shop and culture.
At the time of opening, the Italian barista stayed for 6 months and
conducted the proper training on shop management, menu recipe
and espresso. At this time, Korean baristas were trained for the first
time. Those people who had worked at the hotels or restaurants for
service positions led this trend. In addition, Cafe Lalee gained a lot of
popularity in Busan with Japanese style cake. At this time, Cafe Lalee
also entered the Seoul market and introduced the espresso machine www.cimbali.com
and Italian coffee. Moreover, people could see the Italian barista at
Segafredo in Myeong-dong. This Italian barista who drank his own
espresso as standing in the bar became the target of envy and curiosity
among a large number of women and young people.
Meanwhile, the machine industry also had a growing interest
and understanding of coffee. In 1995, one South Korean machine
engineer had a business trip to Italy. This engineer visited one Ital-
ian machine company and boasted about the technical excellence of
South Korean coffee machine technology. However, this engineer
also encountered a strange situation. He tasted the espresso brewed
by an Italian barista for the first time in his life. He was shocked with
the brewing that was so different from the one in South Korea. As a
result, he embarked on the research project that aimed to reproduce
the taste he experienced in Italy along with his colleagues. These
engineers finally succeeded to create a similar type. Whenever they mid-90's Espresso machine in South Korea
were dispatched for after service, they informed the coffee shop
owners that the one they created was “a genuine Italian-style espres-
so”. This was how the original recipe of espresso was unofficially
passed down. GAGGIA-TD
1997 to 1999
The South Korean government’s request for IMF bailout in
1997 was a shocking new for everyone in South Korea. Due to IMF,
the large-scale hotel equipment companies began the restructuring
just like many other industries. As a result, there were many early
retirees from the hotel industry as well. In addition, those people
studying abroad started coming back to South Korea because they
could not continue their study with financial strain. This situation
forced these early retirees to start their own business in relation to www.gaggia.com
coffee and relevant equipment. Those people who had studied abroad
also opened their own cafe based on their overseas experience. There
were too many individual shops and small-sized cafes in a relatively
short period of time. Thus, the competition got so intense for sur-
vival. In the end, the competition for coffee machine and coffee in
the South Korean espresso market got fiercely intense.
At this time, Starbucks team visited South Korea to open its first shop
in South Korea. It was 1996 that was the following year after the first
Starbucks shop was opened in Japan. Starbucks was conducting the
negotiation with the South Korean company to open its first shop.
However, IMF bailout in 1997 made Starbucks delay its opening date.
Finally, the first Starbucks shop was opened in 1999. This is one of
the main issues worthy of note in the history of South Korean coffee
industry. However, the significance thereof should be understood
from the two aspects. First, it is true that Starbucks created a posi-
tive cultural trend in the history of South Korean coffee market. The
biography of Howard Schultz containing the contents of Starbucks
was published at the same time as opening the first Starbucks shop in
South Korea in 1999. This biography planted the hope and dream of
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