I know how it feels to grow up and not know where your place in the world is. When I was younger, I felt the pressure of generations before me who put their hopes in my sister and I to continue a family legacy of pioneers, artists and intellectuals. My sister eventually found her way into medicine, following in the footsteps of our Mexican grandmother who was one of the country’s first female plastic surgeons. But for me, finding that one calling didn’t come as easily. After studying Markting, largely because I didn’t know what else to pick, I ended up in a few Marketing and Branding roles at various companies before discovering that my path was leading me towards entrepreneurship. And ten years later, I have never looked back.
For Pil Hoon Seu, founder of South Korea’s Coffee Libre, the story was similar. The son of a philosophy professor, it was initially expected that he would succeed his father in academia. He did get excellent grades at school after all but somehow, he always felt like a bit of an outsider, a misfit. He often got into fights and almost got expelled from school but his strong academic record acted like a protective shield. According to an interview he gave, it wasn’t until he came across the Hermann Hesse book ‘Narcissus und Goldmund’ that he found peace within himself and learned how to fully embrace the two opposing forces that were causing him to be in conflict with himself and others. “It’s about rationality and emotionality finally coming together, and after reading this book, I was able to accept my extreme duality as a part of my personality and who I was,” he told Typica.
When he started working in a coffee shop, he had this ‘a-ha’ moment. Here was something that allowed him to utilize all of his senses, not just his brain. He fell head-over-heels for specialty coffee and soaked up everything he learned like a sponge. He loved the idea of being able to connect with producers at origin and take their finest coffees back to Korea to tell their stories. But for him, that wasn’t enough. He also wanted to have real impact in producing countries and help local farmers to get ahead.
After setting up Coffee Libre in 2009, Pil spent much of his time travelling to origin countries to build relationships with farmers and to be off-grid. South Korea, like many other Western countries, was being driven by techological innovations and found itself with a fast-changing society that was more and more online. When visiting producers at their remote farms, Pil could get offline and let his mind absorb new knowledge and learn more about the peoples’ different ways of life.
He even set up a business in Guatemala, since sold, that opened a local roastery and various coffee shops in the country to allow locals there to enjoy their own finest specialty coffees. Like in many coffee producing countries, until relatively recently, most of the best locally produced specialty coffee was exported, thus depriving locals from getting a taste of their own culture. Luckily, this has now changed. In addition, Coffee Libre runs a free Geisha seedling program in Central America to help farmers grow better coffee and it supports other great initiatives such as funding Indian school girls.
These days, Coffee Libre has various outlets in Seoul as well as Shanghai and it is by some measure one of South Korea’s most daring and pioneering specialty coffee brands. In this month’s Coffeevine box, it will be making its debut with a really yummy washed Kenyan coffee from the Kariru washing station in Kirinyaga. This coffee stood out to us on the cupping table thanks to its super clean and crisp mouthfeel, pronounced berry-like flavours and vibrant acidity. We’re excited to bring you a slice of Coffee Libre this August!
To receive this excellent coffee or to order any of our other offerings, just visit our shop now.
Pre-orders close on 15.08.2024 / Ships globally on 20.08.2024
