Gangneung, the coastal city already known for its Anmok Coffee Street, has added another chapter to its caffeinated story: the Gangneung Coffee Botanical Garden, a new tourism and leisure destination where the history, ecology and culture of coffee come together.
Rare even by global standards, the facility doubles as a coffee-specialist botanical garden and a space for humanistic reflection.
Some 30 years ago, five or six vending machines stood at Anmok Port to offer tired fishermen a quick break after long days at sea. A paper cup of hot, sweet coffee was enough to wash away the fatigue.
Anmok, a short walk south of the busier Gyeongpo Beach, was a quietly charming destination for travelers who wanted a peaceful stroll along the shore.
It was there that visitors began encountering those weathered vending machines — and as tourists started savoring the sweet coffee they dispensed, the phrase "Anmok coffee" entered the local lexicon.
Even when perfectly good vending machines existed closer to home, young people from Gangneung and beyond made a point of seeking out the Anmok machines. On breezy days and gloomy ones alike, and on those evenings when couples simply wanted to walk in silence, Anmok and its coffee machines were there.
"Anmok coffee" was, at its core, instant mix coffee from a machine — yet it quietly became a brand in its own right, steeped in sentiment. Perceptive baristas recognized the lyrical appeal of that brand and moved to claim it.
When the first generation of South Korean baristas set up shop in Anmok, the neighborhood's identity shifted: what had been a vending-machine curiosity became a destination for quality coffee.
The city earned a new nickname — "coffee city" — and the opening of the coffee botanical garden on Thursday marks the latest, and perhaps most striking, expansion of what might be called the Gangneung imagination.
One wonders whether a coffee village dedicated to Ethiopian farming communities — who fought alongside Korea during one of its darkest hours, with Gangwon Province at the center of that history — might be next, staffed by Arabica baristas.
The creative leap surpasses even the celebrated reinvention of Gwangmyeong Cave, where a disused mine was transformed into a winery and a fantasy attraction complete with a dragon from "The Lord of the Rings." Anmok's vision no longer surprises — it feels inevitable.
The Gangneung Coffee Botanical Garden was built as part of a smart coffee tourism farm development project in Daedong 1-ri, itself a component of a special support program for communities surrounding the Anin Thermal Power Plant Units 1 and 2.
The project came to fruition with the active involvement of local residents from the outset, led by Han Jeong-ho, the head of Daedong 1-ri.
The Gangneung Coffee Botanical Garden is designed to be more than a display space for coffee plants. It will operate as a multipurpose cultural venue combining ecological education, environmental experiences, tourism and leisure.
For residents, it offers a place to unwind in nature; for children, a hands-on learning environment where they can explore coffee plants and the natural world firsthand. Tourists, meanwhile, can expect a coffee culture experience unique to Gangneung.
Gangneung city held a completion ceremony Thursday morning at 47-5 Wonjangbong-gil in Daedong 1-ri, Gangdong-myeon. Attendees included Kim Man-ho, vice mayor of Gangneung; Park Ho-gyun, a Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province lawmaker; Gangneung city council members Shin Bo-geum and Ham Eun-seon; Cho Won-gyun, president of Gangneung Eco Power; and Jeong Dong-jin, head of the Yeongdong Eco Power headquarters, along with local residents.
"We expect the Gangneung Coffee Botanical Garden to serve as a new starting point where the coffee industry and cultural tourism can grow together," Vice Mayor Kim said. "We will continue to enhance the brand value of Gangneung as a coffee city and do our utmost to build a sustainable tourism city where nature and culture thrive in harmony."
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