How to Order Coffee in Korean

Visiting a café in Korea is a delightful experience. And you’ll have many choices with all the coffee shops on every corner.

Here’s a guide to help you navigate the menu and order like a local.

Table of Contents

Quick Summary

The easiest way to order coffee at a Korean café is “____ hanayo” like “Americano hanayo” for “One Americano, please.”
Drink sizes in Korean are Small (smol), Medium (midi-eom) or Regular (regyulleo), and Large (laji).
To specify hot or iced, it’s tteugeoun for hot and aiseu for iced.

Most Korean cafés offer a variety of coffee drinks, similar to those found in Western cafés.

Here are some popular options:

Americano: Espresso diluted with hot water.
Café Latte: Espresso with steamed milk.
Cappuccino: Similar to a latte but with more foam.
Caramel Macchiato: A sweet coffee drink that’s made with espresso and steamed milk drizzled with caramel syrup. Different from the European one!
Café Mocha: A latte with chocolate syrup.
Vanilla Latte: A latte with vanilla syrup for a sweet twist.

Coffee: Koreans pronounce coffee as keopi. The “f” sound is replaced with a “p” sound.
Iced Americano: It’s pronounced aiseu amerikano. We also say “ah-ah” as a shortened version.
Vanilla Latte: Pronounced banilla latte. Koreans replace “v” with “b.”
Java Chip Frappuccino: It’s jaba chip peurapuchino. No “v” and “f” sounds.
Whipped cream: It’s hwiping keurim.
Decaf: Koreans say de-caffeine, but pronounce it as dikapein.
Tall/Grande/Venti: It’s tol, geurande, and benti.

Size: Most cafés offer Small (smol), Medium (midi-eom) or Regular (regyulleo), and Large (laji).
Hot/Iced: To specify hot or iced, you can say tteugeoun for hot and aiseu for iced.
Additional Customizations: An extra shot of espresso is syat chuga. More syrup is sireop chuga. No syrup is sireop bbae juseyo. Leaving out of the whipping cream is hwiping keurim bbae juseyo.

When ordering, you can follow this simple structure:

Greet the barista: Say “Annyeonghaseyo.”
Barista will say: “Jumun Hashigesseoyo?” meaning “Are you ready to order?”
Order the size and type of coffee: “Aiseu Banilla Latte, Laji Saijeu Hanayo” to order one large, Iced Vanilla Latte.
Barista will ask: “Deushigo Gaseyo?” as in “Is it for here?”
Answer: “Neh” or “Aniyo” for yes or no. For to-go, you can specify, “Teikeu Aushiyo“
Barista will ask how you want to pay: “Gyeoljeneun Eotteoke Hashigesseoyo?”
Answer: To pay by card, “Kadeuro Gyeoljehalgeyo” or simply say “Kadeu-yo.” To pay by cash, “Hyungeumeuro Gyeoljehalgeyo” or simply say “Hyungeumiyo.”
Finish by saying thank you: “Gamsahamnida“

When you want to order more than one item, you can say:

Ordering coffee at a Korean café is easy once you know the basics.

Next time you visit a Korean café, don’t hesitate to try out these phrases and enjoy your coffee!

Feel free to ask a question in the comments about your customized drink!