While taking a trip to one of South Korea’s most famous temples, Tongdosa, I found myself in need of some caffeine power. Fortunately, there are so many coffee shops in this little area of the city of Yangsan, so I had a multitude of places to choose from.
After walking down one of the main streets, I saw a place that looked interesting, called 1 Euro Specialty Coffee.
The shop was a dark hue of blue to match the flag of the European Union, and there were some interesting vector designs on the windows, including one of the Sydney Opera House!
Despite this little bit of a geographical error, I found myself looking at the menu, which had a wide range of beverage options to choose from.
After perusing the menu, I decided to order a Café Latte and a Salted Caramel Latte to give two different options a try.
While waiting, I took at look around the shop.
It was clean and had some nice areas for sitting down and enjoying your coffee.
There was also a fascinating stack of cups, and it looked like the staff at this location of 1 Euro Coffee was ready for a lot of takeout orders.
After a brief wait, my coffees were ready. The owner was even nice enough to give me an iced black coffee (or Americano) of their blended variety on the house!
While waiting for my drinks to cool down, I of course tried the iced coffee.
It had a nice full blend, and the owner mentioned that it was made from four different types of beans from Brazil, Indonesia, Costa Rica, and Ethiopia. It was of course hard to pick out the individual beans in the blend, but the overall result was a full-bodied coffee with light acidity, a pleasant and long-lasting aftertaste that had fruit notes and a hint of sweetness to it.
Next, I decided to try the Café Latte. This one was actually quite bitter, and it seemed like the milk wasn’t that present. It wasn’t unenjoyable, but perhaps the experience of the iced coffee was affecting my taste buds.
Finally, it was time for the Salted Caramel Latte. This one started off quite sweet with just a bit of saltiness to it. However, as I got further and further through the drink, there was more and more of that salty flavor. By the end, it seemed like all I was tasting was salt! I think that this drink needs to be stirred more if one wants to enjoy the mixed tastes of salty and sweet in the correct proportions.
1 Euro Coffee in Tongdosa is a nice, affordable, and clean location, and the staff are wonderful. They have some good coffees, and with a little bit of work I think they could make some really outstanding cups of coffee. I would definitely give it a try if you are near this famous Korean temple!
