We know our friend Andray Abrahamian to be both a beer and coffee snob, so who better than he to discover an unnamed cafe in Pyongyang, next to the Pyongyang Hotel View Restaurant, that might well be North Korea’s first “third-wave coffeeshop.” (As Dray describes it: “For those of you unfamiliar with the term, ‘third wave’ essentially means thinking about coffee similarly to wine: concern for terroir, freshness and individual, hand-made drinks. It’s pretty bougy.”)
One judges the quality of a coffee by its espressos, but Dray sampled a few more items, it seems, as he writes on Choson Exchange:
The pour-over we had was unfortunately a bit off. The grind was too coarse and the beans slightly out of date by the standards of third wave cafes elsewhere. The espresso, however, was excellent, bursting with caramely and nutty flavors. The cappucino was good, also.
Pyongyang is also home to the Viennese Coffee Restaurant for those seeking something a little, I don’t know, less caramely and nutty.
Third-wave Coffee hits the DPRK (Choson Exchange)
It’s great that you get gourmet coffee all over the world
Never been to Pyongyang and I don’t know much about the place because it was pretty much hidden from the rest of the world. Glad to know that they also have some good stuff to enjoy there.