The Story
Fritz Coffee Company began in 2014 when six friends with complementary expertise—including a roaster, green buyer, baker, and award-winning baristas—came together with a vision to create “the best coffee experience in Seoul.”
These co-founders were already highly skilled and well-known before starting the company, including a famous green coffee buyer, a winner of the South Korean barista championship and a roaster.
The five co-founders, who had long been good friends, started to think about starting a business together after they won a barista championship as a team. Later on, they were joined by a baker friend, and the six of them started out by discussing what would be the meaning of them running a company together.
This common goal led them to found Fritz Coffee Company and open their first café in Seoul, located in a renovated Korean Hanok house.
This project, combining tradition and innovation, quickly gained popularity, and soon after, the roastery itself was established in Paju, near Seoul.
What was remarkable about Fritz Coffee Company was that it also grew a cult of followers among the general public, who at the time were new to specialty or “direct-trade” and “relationship-based” coffee. Behind the exceptional growth of Fritz was the brand identity with its iconic seal, often seen drinking coffee or eating bread, that gathered interest amongst an audience thirsty for great coffee paired with attractive branding.
With a network of four cafes across Seoul, the company also wholesales coffee beans to around 850 mainly domestic clients, making a great impact on the South Korean coffee industry.
They have collaborated with tech-giant Samsung and South Korea-based cosmetics company Hera. In 2018, Audi Korea, in partnership with Magazine B, chose Fritz Coffee Company as the most “Korean” brand in Seoul.
Sourcing & Relationships
Fritz’s philosophy is sustainability and that “great coffee starts with great green beans.” The roastery purchases over 90% of its green beans directly from growers and roasts them in its own roastery in Paju. Through direct purchasing, the company builds direct relationships with growers and ensures they are fairly compensated.
Their approach to coffee is simple—they believe that good ingredient is everything and it starts with the green bean they buy. They’ve established long-standing direct relationships with coffee producers around the world and deal directly with them, roasting their coffees to bring out their best characters.
Fritz wants to build a community of mutual support that connects producers, fellow roasters, business clients and customers. For example, they offered free coffee beans for one month to clients in Taegu, a region among the hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
When prices of green coffee rose sharply, Fritz Coffee took every possible measure and decided to keep their prices unchanged without compromising the quality of products, with no intention of raising coffee prices at their cafes either. These decisions may cost them around 15 to 20 percent in sales.
The roastery strives to apply this approach to its own Korean team as well. Approximately all 90 employees of Fritz Coffee Company are employed full-time. For Fritz, sustainability means not only caring for the environment, but also caring for people and the system as a whole. They believe that a long-term motivated team is the key to maintaining high quality in service, roasting, and customer experience.
Roasting Philosophy
As someone responsible for Fritz Coffee’s taste, Kim Dohyun places top priority on consistency. Though green coffee tastes different from lot to lot, bean to bean, he tries to bring out the same taste with his roasting skills.
Coffee can taste different depending on various factors, such as the farm, the variety, the processing method and the timing of harvest. These unique characters seemed artistic to him, and he wanted to make coffee something more artistic. However, he now knows that making the world’s most delicious coffee is impossible because the same coffee can taste different depending on who drinks it.
At Fritz Coffee, they switch their single-origin lineup every two weeks. There are two options with their regular taste profiles, plus some coffees of unique varieties or processing methods. They also make experimental products three to four times a year.
For instance, they once sold 100% robusta coffee to challenge the widely accepted theory that arabica is tastier than robusta. To everyone’s surprise, it turned out very flavorful and sweet with heavy body.
The company emphasizes accessibility and approachability in their coffee program. Offerings include simple coffees and bread anyone can enjoy.
They developed “Easy Coffee” capsules when they saw that consumer behaviors had changed and many people started having capsule machines at home.
What to Try
Fritz’s best-selling coffee blends include Everything is Good (잘 되어 가시나), Old Dog (올드독) & Seoul Cinema (서울 시네마).
Old Dog features India, Costa Rica and El Salvador origins with reserved body, bittersweet character and a bouquet of flavor. Everything Good combines Guatemala, Costa Rica, India and Ethiopia for balanced, sweet coffee with a long aftertaste. Seoul Cinema blends Costa Rica and Ethiopia for bright acidity, clean sweetness, and intrinsic flavor.
Beyond their signature blends, Fritz offers an extensive single-origin selection. Their current offerings include Ethiopia Gedeb Chelbesa (washed/heirloom) with acacia honey, lemon, apricot and herb notes; India Harley (natural/selection 9) featuring blackberry, whiskey, green grapefruit, black sugar and cacao; and Colombia El Diviso (natural/chiroso) with mangosteen, raspberry, chocolate fudge, banana, nutmeg and hibiscus notes.
Co-founder Kim Dohyun’s personal favorite is Villa Sarchi honey from the Herbazu farm in Costa Rica.
The cafes are equally known for their bread program. Varieties include Walnut Cranberry Country Bread, Fig Country Bread, Yellow Peach Brew, Peanut Bun, Croissant, Pain Au Chocolat, and Cream Cru.
Their “Chief’s Special Yellow Peach” is noted as a perfect balance of flavors that pairs beautifully with coffee.
Fritz offers extensive single-origin pour-overs alongside espresso drinks, with coffee priced between 4,200-7,000 Won.