Coffee Myungga (커피명가)

Coffee Myungga dates its founding to 1990, when An Myeong-gyu and Jung Eun-kyung began roasting in Daegu at a time when Korea barely had a specialty-coffee category to belong to. The company now claims that founding moment outright, describing itself as the beginning of Korean specialty coffee — a claim that rests less on marketing than on more than 30 years of continuous roasting under the same name.

That longevity shows up in how deliberately the company has built out its footprint since. Rather than scale fast, Coffee Myungga runs a franchise system it frames as quality over quantity, aiming to make each location feel individually cared for rather than a stamped-out copy. Several Daegu cafes carry the name, including the museum-style La Finca location in Dalseong-gun, which doubles as a showcase for the roastery's history rather than a plain retail counter.

The company also formalized its early-mover status into education, running a barista training program in partnership with Kyungpook National University — passing the founders' three decades of roasting knowledge to a new generation rather than keeping it in-house. Its product range spans micro lots, single origins, blends, drip bags and green beans for other roasters, headquartered in Gyeongsan in North Gyeongsang Province, a working base for what is now one of the country's longest-running names in specialty coffee.