[Jihye Choi's Trend] Consumers Indulging in Their Own Tastes

Have you ever heard of Essoba? Essoba stands for Espresso Bar. As the name suggests, it is a cafe that sells espresso as a single menu item. These days, Essoba is the hottest dining culture trend. The author’s first memory of espresso goes like this: In the early 2000s, when I came up from the provinces to Seoul to take a university essay exam, I had some time and went into a large franchise cafe, choosing the cheapest menu item, which was espresso. At that time, Starbucks was hard to find even in the outskirts of Seoul. More and more people are deliberately seeking out and drinking espresso, which is small in quantity and bitter in taste. Espresso means “fast” in Italian. It is made by passing hot water under high pressure through finely ground coffee beans, served in a small cup called a “demitasse” with a volume of less than 25mL.

In fact, Korean coffee preferences have long been centered around Americano. The market used to consider whether you preferred “tta-a” (hot Americano) or “eoljuka” (iced Americano no matter what) as the main taste barometer, but now espresso is emerging. The espresso trend can be explained by various reasons. First, the culture of standing at the bar and drinking quickly is unfamiliar but fun to us. Also, the affordable price around 2,000 won has contributed to the trend. Most importantly, espresso offers a variety of variations. You can enjoy different flavors by adding a little cream, cocoa powder, milk, or whipped cream, such as the Neapolitan-style “Espresso Stracciato” topped with cocoa powder, “Espresso Con Panna” topped with whipped cream, and “Espresso Macchiato” topped with milk foam. On Instagram, it is trendy to post certification shots of drinking multiple espresso shots stacked like blocks.

People who say “I like Espresso Con Panna” somehow seem more sophisticated than those who say “I like Americano.” In other words, tastes are becoming more segmented and targeted. This phenomenon is called “digging consumption,” meaning a fanatical consumption focused on and indulging in one area.

Digging consumption is not only observed in coffee. Recently, bagel shops have been spotted in trendy neighborhoods. In Bukchon, a street lined with traditional Korean houses (hanok), a bagel specialty store is crowded with people trying to do an open-run (rushing to buy as soon as the store opens) even in subzero weather. These bagel specialty stores share similar characteristics with Essoba. By selling only a single menu item, bagels, they offer segmented varieties not sold in regular cafes and pursue authentic tastes that can be experienced in New York or London.

Meat preferences are also becoming more segmented. For example, sales of premium special cuts like anchangsal (skirt steak), toshisal (hanging tender), and kkotgalbisal (flower rib meat) are steadily increasing. Cooking methods are diversifying as well. From steak dishes using the sous-vide technique, which heats meat slowly in water that does not boil, to reverse searing with an air fryer (a method where the inside is cooked first, then the surface), people study and indulge in various recipes. Aged Korean beef products are also popular. According to Lotte Mart, sales of “wet-aged Hanwoo,” which is refrigerated and aged for about 15 days at low temperature, increased by 15% in 2021 compared to 2020. At E-Mart, sales of wet-aged Hanwoo skyrocketed from about 1 billion won in 2016 to over 10 billion won in 2021, a more than tenfold increase.

The segmentation of tastes is driving the omakase market. Omakase is a Japanese word meaning “to entrust,” where customers fully entrust the menu selection to the chef, who prepares seasonal dishes using the freshest ingredients. Although it started in Japanese cuisine, it is recently expanding to Hanwoo beef, whiskey, desserts, tea, and more. Especially Hanwoo omakase, despite its high price ranging from 50,000 to 200,000 won per person, has become a hot spot for consumers in their 20s and 30s, enjoying popularity akin to “course registration-level” demand. Restaurants rumored to be must-visit places are already booked for several months in advance. Tea omakase or tea courses are also popular. They introduce teas and desserts that match the season and provide storytelling related to the tea. It is interesting that these are not ordinary green or black teas, such as “Baked Green Tea” blended with Hadong green tea, Job’s tears, and brown rice, or a signature drink of “Smoky Gimun black tea with subtle cherry blossoms.” Usually, the tea course lasts 1 to 2 hours with explanations from a tea sommelier, making it a kind of meditation or new experiential consumption for the MZ generation.

In this way, consumption that seeks to discover and indulge in unique tastes is driving market changes. While it could be dismissed as a new means of showing off or a culture of SNS display, discovering at least one unique personal taste that differentiates oneself from others in life may enrich our ordinary daily lives. At the same time, it is time for the market to consider how to propose unfamiliar yet special experiences and tastes to consumers who increasingly want to explore unknown worlds.

Choi Ji-hye, Research Fellow, Consumer Trend Analysis Center, Seoul National University

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.