With Gently Cascading Autumn in New York Comes a Ramen Coffee Drink

A post shared by Korean Coffee Place In Newyork (@roundkny) on Aug 12, 2017 at 10:24pm PDT

Earlier this year, New York City’s Round K Coffee made headlines with what was a beverage foil to the activated charcoal latte trend that seemed inevitable with its “matte black latte.”

The drink eschewed charcoal in favor of coconut ash as the coloring agent, while the other ingredients included cacao powder, almond milk, and an espresso roasted and pulled within the Lower East Side roastery café’s cozy confines. As autumn brings in the cooler weather, Round K Owner Ockhyeon Byeon (who goes by Ock) has gotten even more experimental with the drink menu, now offering a ramen-inspired deconstructed drink called the Coffee-men that he says evokes his own memories of autumn in Korea.

The “coffee-men” ramen-inspired coffee drink. Photos and video courtesy of Round K Coffee.

The recipe begins with a marmalade-candied chestnut at the bottom of the cup, which is topped by layers of a sweet potato and chestnut purée with almond paste and cinnamon squeezed out to resemble a bed of ramen noodles, followed by another candied chestnut with two tiny pieces of crispy bacon. The bed is then drowned in broth, which in this case is actually a single-origin pourover.

According to Ock, when the cup is swirled a few times, the purée dissolves to combine with the coffee, resulting in not a bowl of ramen but a coffee beverage.

Here, you can watch the whole thing!