April 25, 2024
Features

North Korea’s cafe culture is growing, but coffee is still a luxury brew

Coffee shops are cropping up in Pyongyang and prices are pushing new limits of what's "high-end"

In North Korea, coffee is a luxury — it’s expensive, it’s meticulously prepared and it’s almost always sipped in public view.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has repeatedly appeared alongside an iced coffee in state media images, for example, and the South Korean K-drama “Crash Landing On You” built an entire love sequence around a carefully-poured North Korean brew.

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