Today, I began my exploration of coffee shop at Namu Are coffee shop. For your information, I’m not actually a coffee person; I’m more of a tea one ;p, but it’s hard not to visit coffee shops in Seoul, since they usually have nice atmosphere and cute interior. So starting from this week, I’ll try to explore them once a week (I want to do it everyday but it’s not good for my pocket :P).
Namu means tree and Are means under, so it means under the tree. This coffee shop is located near my campus, Ewha, and Sinchon train station. You might miss it because it's hidden in small alley. There is only a small sign to mark it. The shop is small with a shape of small house. As soon as you arrive, you can see big coffee grinder in the middle of the shop.
Like many coffee shop in Seoul, Namu Are serves various hand-drip coffees, regular coffees, teas, fruit juices, handmade cookies and chocolates. The prices are around 5000-6000 won for beverages and 1000-10000 won for snacks. Too bad that hand drip coffee was too strong for me, so I chose vanilla latte and my friend chose black cappuccino. It came out with cute latte art (you can see sinchan there ^^;). We also ordered chocolate chip cookies :). As a service, they gave us banana nougat and a cup of water. The coffees turned out delicious^^ I really liked my vanilla latte; It smelt like vanilla (of course) and it was sweet. I don't know much about coffee so you can ignore my comment :P.
As we stayed for long hours, I decided to order peppermint tea. I was surprised by its price (5000 won is pricy for tea). Well, it was worth it since it came with teapot, two cups and a small hourglass. They also used tea leaves, not tea bag :) The smell and flavor were strong. Too bad they didn’t add sugar to the tea, and I was too lazy to ask. For your information, Korean people drink their tea without sugar, so it’s rare to see them serve tea with sugar. By the way, if you are a coffee drinker, you might love Namu Are because they give a free refill of Americano coffee for every coffee you’ve bought.
What I like from Namu is its atmosphere. Even though the place is small, it has warm atmosphere with nice music. They have a lot of books (in Korean) and board games to play, and they also have blankets to keep you warm in winter. I saw two girls were playing monopoly while the owner and the waiters were playing card during the evening^^ They also have free wifi connection, and there is a plug in the corner for your laptop. The kitchen itself is an open kitchen; you can peep while the owner is making your coffee. Too bad they ran away when I wanted to take their picture with the kitchen TT.
We decided to go home at 8.30pm (as we went in at 4.30) since it was getting chilly and it’s getting crowded with people inside. I think I shall come here again since it’s nice to do my work there. Here’s a small map if you are interested to come. :D
