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| Ice Coffee (Yonhap News) |
As office worker Jeong Mo, 34, has been working from home for a long time these days, it has become one of her routines to buy ice americano at a nearby cafe. Jeong said, “It’s not easy to concentrate when I’m working at home, so I eat cold drinks and wake up,” he said. “Iced coffee is perfect for working from home alone.”
Iced coffee is gaining popularity in the middle of winter instead of hot coffee.
According to the food service industry on the 10th, Starbucks’ sales of hot and cold drinks in December of last year were 5 to 5. It is similar now from 6 to 4 a year ago.
Iced beverages usually increase in sales during hot summer days, but when the weather gets colder, more hot drinks are sold.
However, this winter, in a situation where eating and drinking in cafes is prohibited due to reinforced social distancing, and only packaging and delivery are allowed, customers are increasingly packing ice drinks in a cold wind.
The number of stores is also the same for Ediya Coffee, the number one franchise in Korea.
In December of last year, Ediya Coffee’s hot Americano and iced Americano sold 49 to 51. It reversed from 57 to 43 a year ago.
Gmarket, an online shopping site, calculated the sales of Ice Americano e-coupons from December 6th to the 5th of this month, and it surged 330% from the same period last year.
An official in the coffee shop industry said, “The people who prefer ice coffee even in winter have become thick enough that there is a new term for “Eoljukah” (ice coffee even if it freezes).”
Also, he added, “The increase in the product line of ice coffee like “cold brew” expanded the range of consumer choices,” he added.