Momos Coffee

Momos Coffee began in 2007 as a 140-square-foot take-out coffee bar converted from a restaurant storeroom in Busan's Yeongdo district, founded by Hyunki Lee alongside Jooyeon Jeon, Jungsoo Park and Jueun Jeong. The shop pivoted toward specialty coffee after 2009 and has bought direct since 2011, traveling to origin and building relationships with more than 150 partner farms across over 20 countries. In 2019, co-founder Jooyeon Jeon won the World Barista Championship — the first Korean champion, the first winner from outside the capital region, and only the second woman to take the title in the competition's history. The brand added further expertise in 2021 when Charlie Chu, that year's World Cup Tasters Champion, joined to lead quality control, the same year Momos opened its Yeongdo roastery in a converted warehouse where roasting is visible from the counter. Momos now runs four stores across Busan and appears on the World's Best Coffee Shops list. Its menu still centers on the milk-and-espresso drinks that built the original stand's following, alongside single origins roasted on site and sold as retail bags. The line from a converted storeroom to a globally ranked roastery runs through direct trade and competition-level technique, not scale.