The Times blog City Room reported on Friday that Think?s K-fame is due to a 2009 appearance on a Korean TV show called ?Infinite Challenge,? a competition equal parts Amazing Race and Hooked On Phonics.
In the video, several teams of wacky-suited Korean TV personalities are challenged to find the Mercer Street Think from Washington Square Park and then order semi-complicated espresso drinks (double-shot soy latte, anyone?), interrupted by little pronunciation-correcting thought bubbles and an irritatingly smug host who explains that ?think? is pronounced like ?thank you.?
City Room wasn?t sure exactly why Think was IC?s coffee shop of choice, but the show has sent Korean tourists rolling through the cafe en masse.
Just as a Sex and the City tour would be nothing without the requisite trip to Magnolia, South Korean tour groups make it a point to stop at Think. The barista featured on the show, Dave Beck (whose name you might recognize from the password to the shop?s shoddy Wi-Fi), is even riding his TV celebrity and moving to Korea to teach English and perform folk music.
It?s no wonder that Think has left an impression on Koreans: South Korea is in the midst of a coffee boom. A report from KB Financial Group shows that from 2010 to 2011, coffee sales there increased by 59.7%. In the past five years, the number of coffee shops in the country has increased by 887.3% from 1,024 to 12,381 last year and counting. Think was courted to open a branch in Korea after Infinite Challenge aired, which it has since done through a brand called Seoul Food.
For Koreans, coffee culture has come to symbolize an elegant and urbane lifestyle. For instance, the lyrics to the runaway K-Pop hit??Gangnam Style??describe an ideal woman who is a ?classy girl who is good at enjoying free time to get a cup of coffee?, and the narrator boasts that he is ?a man who drinks coffee bottoms up before it cools down.? Psy is employing the archetype of a ?doenjangnyeo,? or ?soy bean paste woman,? a wannabe-sophisticate who eats cheap ramen for lunch and then drops serious cash at Starbucks later in the afternoon.
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