Sulbing (설빙) - Korean Dessert Cafe

Sulbing...What I believe is the best dessert cafe in S. Korea.

설빙 빙수 맛있어요~

One thing that I have learned during my time here in South Korea is that bingsu is one of the most delicious deserts ever. I mean, it is like eating fresh clean snow, but with delicious toppings all thrown on top and sweet milk to mix it all together. What could be better than that?

While I am aware the Sulbing offers more on their menu than just bingsu, I haven't tried anything but this delicious dessert. It may be a bit on the pricey side, but it is well worth the taste. However, it is a dessert that is meant to be shared, as one bowl would be a huge serving to eat by yourself. Often times it is a dessert best shared between friends, family, or your significant other. 

If the satisfying taste wasn't enough to make bingsu a dessert that makes your mouth water, it is also an extremely visually appealing dessert. Anyone who knows food understands that the visual appeal of it is sometimes just as important as the taste, as we usually eat with our eyes first. Just one look at a fresh bowl of bingsu and your taste buds will be screaming, I NEED IT!

The Instagram section of your brain also usually will begin screaming... "I need a picture of it!"

So allow me to take you with me on my Sulbing journey, as I taste as much bingsu as I possibly can.

First up is the chocolate bingsu...an extreme chocolaty explosion for your taste buds. There is nothing more satisfying to a chocolate lover than a pile of chocolate snow with chocolate shavings, chocolate chunks, brownie pieces, cheesecake, and chocolate syrup.

Next up is the strawberry bingsu - I have had the strawberry flavor multiple times as well. It is naturally sweet, with fresh Korean strawberries (which in my personal opinion are some of the sweetest, juiciest strawberries I've ever eaten in my whole life) and cheesecake. Depending on the type of strawberry bingsu that you order you may also be blessed with a generous supply of whipped cream to top it off also. 

Don't forget the condensed milk for that extra sweet touch. Mixing in condensed milk as you eat makes it all the better!

Yummy delicious chocolate bingsu - topped with some classic green tea ice cream and powder.

Yummmy deliciousness

Not entirely sure what this flavor was honestly, as we just picked one off the menu and tried it. I am pretty sure it is the traditional kind, with bean powder and red bean ice cream as the topper. I do remember that it was good, but not as sweet as some of the others, as it had a more natural and subtle sweetness.

I got this one a second time. I really do think I like this one a lot. Living in Korea has made me come to appreciate a natural and subtler sweet taste in desserts. 

Nothing adds some health to your dessert quite like half of a honeydew melon on top. This one was delicious but somewhat more difficult to eat. In my opinion, it was the only type I tried that I felt was too expensive and difficult to eat to buy again. 

Yummmmm Blueberry Cheesecake flavor. These were some quality blueberries too. They were nice and big and very sweet in a blueberry syrup. 

This was Peach Cheesecake flavor, with some vanilla ice cream on top. The peaches were, once again, very fresh and ripe off the farm tasting. The freshness of the fruit is what I think makes the bingsu so delicious. Even though it is a big bowl, it feels light because most of the dessert only consists of shaved ice and fresh fruit. It's still an indulgence, but its one you don't feel quite as guilty for eating.

Stay tuned - I will update this one with more bingsu varieties as I try them! :)

Seoul's Themed Cafes

In this post I would like to summarize all of Seoul's themed cafe's that I have been to so far, and as I visit more I will continue to update.

Hello Kitty Cafe - Myeongdong
My very first themed cafe was the Hello Kitty Cafe in Myeongdong. I didn't order at this cafe; I only met my friends there. However, let me tell you I have never seen such a PINK place in my life, and pink just isn't my color. Haha. If you love the color pink or are one of those Hello Kitty obsessed people then this place is definitely for you, but it wasn't for me. It felt too upscale childish for me, which sounds funny considering I am fairly childish...but just wow...it really isn't my style. I will give it some credit though, the decorations were well done and the menu did seem very creative and followed the theme well. There must have been hundreds of stuffed Hello Kitty dolls in that cafe too.

또옹카페 - Seoul's 'Poop' Cafe - Insadong
My next themed cafe was staggeringly different from my first - Seoul's Poop Cafe. Now, maybe I am just strange, but this was much more my style. It was incredibly amusing to me. The waffles and other foods are shaped like the poop emoticon, the meals are served in troughs that resemble the squatter toilets, and the coffee comes in toilet shaped mugs. It was brilliant. I felt like if I tried to eat fried rice from a squatter toilet trough that it would make me a bit squeamish, but it made me giggle seeing others doing it. If you want to go here, it is located on the 4th floor of the Ssamzigil Mall (쌈지길) in Insadong. You can get there by taking subway line 3 (Orange Line) and getting off at Anguk Station (안국 역), exit 6. Careful, this entire area is an amazing wonder of Korean tourists traps mixed with traditional and shiny things, all of which you will want to buy.

My gorgeous toilet Mojito Latte :)

The Menu - just look at the dishes hahaha

Where you order

I went with two other friends. This menu was posted next to our table, and it all looked so fun and delicious that we each decided to try a different one. We ordered one of each, which are pictured next (Front - back: Rose Latte, Flower Ade, Mojito Latte). We all tried each others drink, and while I loved mine, the other two were also delicious. The flower ade was especially refreshing and good, since it had a much different taste than the coffee.

All the little poop messages people can leave stuck to the wall. No better memo than one in the shape of a cute little pile of sh*t .... LOL

So much fun.

Cat Cafe - Insadong
Coincidentally, this cafe is practically across the street from the last one I went to. I adore cats and have always had them growing up, however unfortunately I am mildly allergic to them. Since I had lived with cats my whole life, it was just a bit like living in a fog, but ever since I moved and lived away from the furry felines coming into contact with them again has made my reaction stronger. I had been wanting to visit a cat cafe since coming to Korea; I was deeply in need of some fuzzy cuddles, but worried it would just make me sick. Then came the weekend of my birthday, and I went to Seoul to spend it with my friends. Somehow, we ended up at a cat cafe. Everything inside was cat themed...and it was adorable. There were cats either roaming about or just laying around chilling throughout the room. The price for drinks was a bit higher, maybe closer to 10,000 won, but that includes getting to play and pet the cats for as long as you'd like. We drank our lattes and petted the cute cat asleep on the ledge near our table. Not all the cats at the cafe were nice.  A couple of the cats swatted at me when I tried to pet them, and one even snapped at me once. I assume this kind of behavior can come about if you are constantly being petted and pulled around all day though. At some point the cats have had enough love. Some cafes are better than others and this one was good in the way it treated their cats. They were not supposed to be picked up, petted in certain ways and etc, but you know that sometimes families with children probably terrorize them. The cafe also rotated them out, and would put the cats in a different room for privacy if they seemed to need it, so that was good. I thought that the munchkin cat that they had was irresistibly cute, with its short, pudgy legs. My favorite cat was the sleepy one at our table though. We stuck around until our drinks were empty, the cats seemed uninterested in us, and my allergies kicked in and I began sneezing. That was the sign it was time to get some fresh air and wash my hands. It was nice to be able to pet the cats and toss toys around for them though, and seeing various cat breeds was cool too. :)

The message's meaning meant well, however the translations...were a bit off.

I think I giggled about the "Don't smash their ass" part for about a good three hours after reading the sign. I just could not forget it, it was too funny. 

Edible Cafe

The Edible Coffee Cafe I had heard about from a friend of mine, and he really wanted to visit and try this cafe's menu. The reason being...it's a cafe where the menu contains edible insects. Naturally nearly anyone would understand why I was hesitant to join him. However I met with two of my friends and we went to check out this 'edible bug cafe'.

Since we were unsure of the taste or our ability to be brave enough to drink anything on the menu, we decided to get two drinks and split them between the three of us. The drinks we chose were the 300 meal-worm shake and the grasshopper tea. I was skeptical; I didn't want to drink it. Everything in me shouted...that's a bug...don't you dare drink it, but I did. AND I SURVIVED. It was actually quite delicious. I will say that the grasshopper tea was my favorite. It tasted very fresh and natural but it didn't taste well...like a bug. It was a greenish-yellow tea containing a tea bag filled with grasshoppers. Once my friend took the tea bag out and hid it from our sight, we drank it happily. Unless you look at the the tea bag, you would never guess it was grasshopper tea.

The meal-worm shake was a little different. Its taste screamed protein. I knew that bugs contained lots of protein but wow, it really tasted like a hard core protein shake. I can only imagine what the 500 meal-worm shake tasted like. I think if you're one of those people that are into protein shakes then this would be a good choice for you. It not only was heavy on protein flavor, but oddly enough it also tasted somewhat like cookies. It was a strange combination, but it was delicious. My only issue with this drink was that after a while the taste got to be too much for me. I don't think I could have finished off an entire drink on my own, especially since the taste seemed to grow stronger towards the bottom of the shake. In my opinion, it was the perfect shake to share with two of my close friends. It was just the right amount of protein for the three of us. So if you are ever in the mood for some protein filled bug drinks, Edible Coffee Cafe may be a place for you to visit.

Edible Inc. About Us Page

DropTop Cafe

DropTop Cafe is one of the endless cafe's that a traveler will come across if they are in South Korea. With so many cafes it is a wonder that they all successfully operate. How do so many cafes maintain enough business to enable themselves to stay open? Well, I think it is how well each cafe caters its own atmosphere to its customers. Some cafes are great for being social, others for getting work done, and others for that delicious drink, toast, or dessert.



Upon my move to Naju, DropTop Cafe became my go-to place for all of these things. As I adjusted to my life in Korea, I found myself visiting this cafe consistently. At first it was because of the free WiFi, since I had not set up a phone yet, had no WiFi in my apartment, and was starting the life of an English teacher: an Internet connection was something I could not live without. As time moved on I realized that the atmosphere of the cafe kept me coming back. It was always clean, relatively quiet and relaxing, and the staff always tried just as hard to communicate with me as I did with them. We worked together to get over the language barrier so that I could order their delicious drinks. Sometimes it took some embarrassed laughs and apologies, but I was never disappointed in my service. Their service was beyond expectations, or maybe it just seemed that way to me because I am a foreigner...

Every time I get up to leave and throw out my trash, the staff comes, takes my tray, and disposes of everything for me. This is extremely kind of them, but I think it boils down to the fact that they don't trust me to properly separate and dispose of things considering Korea's extensive trash/recycling protocols. Either way, the fact that those types of things occur to them just goes to show how dedicated they are to their job.

I also like the design of the cafe. I love how the walls are glass, and that in the summer the walls fold and open nearly the entire cafe up to the summer breeze. Or if it is too hot, they can keep them closed and simply crank up the air conditioning. They also have an assortment of seating, from bench seating, tables, bar-style seats, and several larger tables. They even have a patio with tables and umbrellas on the rooftop for customers to enjoy the weather and the view overlooking the park nearby. The decoration of the cafe is simple and classy, with some rustic murals on the walls, woodwork, and a bookshelf for a dividing wall between areas of the cafe.

Wall Mural

I go to DropTop to use their free internet. I go there to sample all their drinks and toast. I go there to chat with friends when I should be lesson planning. I study Korean there. I watch dramas there. I lesson plan there. I see a vast majority of my students pass by as they head home...as the knock on the windows just to get my attention and wave at me. It is my place to both escape responsibilities and to dive into them, based on my mood.

Of course, with each visit I attempt to try something new from their menu. They have quite the span of drinks available, with everything from coffee, tea, fruit juices, ades, and more.

Here are some of the things I have tried:

First there is the Honey Almond Toast with whipped cream on top. By far some of the most delicious toast I have eaten in a cafe so far. The toast was already cut, allowing it to be easily eaten. The outer crust was nice and crunchy, while the inside was soft and sweet. The light whipped cream added that extra layer of texture that tied the flavors together really well. The green tea lattes were also delicious. I have ordered their green tea lattes countless times. They are probably my favorite thing to drink if I want something simple. The green tea lattes is of course, green...but it also is great for people who prefer their green tea sweet. I never liked green tea, until I discovered the sweetened version. The taste of green tea is fantastic once it is not so bitter, yet it still has that healthy and natural taste. It isn't overpoweringly sweet.

Sweet Potato Latte

This was the second drink that I tried at DropTop, a sweet potato latte. When it arrived I was really surprised, because it was purple. It was a really pretty color. It was not one of my favorite drinks, but I did like it. It was refreshing, and tasted starchy. Since it is a latte based on a starch, it also did taste healthy and more natural than artificial.

Vanilla Latte

The vanilla latte offered at DropTop is delicious as well. It had good vanilla flavor and was nicely balanced. 

Chocolate Latte 

The chocolate latte was one that surprised me when I first tasted it. I expected something that was sweet and chocolate flavored like chocolate syrup. However, what I tasted when I took that first sip was not chocolate syrup, but cocoa. The drink tasted much more like true cocoa and so it was more bitter than chocolate drinks I've had in the past. It wasn't that it was bad tasting, but it was a taste that I hadn't expected. It tasted more fresh and natural than an artificial drink. It was good, but I think it made me thirstier in the long run, longing for water. 

Strawberry Juice with whip and gelato

As you can probably tell, I like sweet drinks. This one was one of those drinks that I liked a lot because it was sweet. The strawberry juice was really fresh and authentic. The gelato was sweet, mixed with light whip cream and all together it was a very satisfying drink. 

Garlic Cheese Bread

The garlic cheese bread has an inside which is soft and buttery while the outer crust is crisp. It is cheesy and sprinkled in garlic, but is sweet at the same time. I found it very satisfying, as I've missed my garlic and cheese fix since coming overseas.

Peach Ade

The peach ade had a surprising tang to it which was refreshing with the hot summer days. It had small peach chunks in it too. I would suggest giving it a brief stir when you first drink it to sort of mix the flavors together more thoroughly.

Black Tea Latte

Creamy, milky, cold black tea in latte form. Yummy.

Not like American lemonade. If you are looking for a balanced sweet and sour lemonade this is not it. The taste is very sour and pure lemon; it was good, but as a lover of sweets it was something I had to drink really slowly. Oh wow was it sour, that first sip made me pucker up real quickly. I was unable to finish off the entire drink.

This was a seasonal cake that they began offering during the winter. It was January when I went and tried it,  it's a red velvet and green tea cake. It was good and the flavor profile was unlike the usual flavors offered. It tasted like a mix of home and Korea together: Red Velvet + Green Tea. I liked it, but I think it is something that I wouldn't eat often. Definitely it was something you'd need to eat when you were in the mood for it, it was fairly rich. I also loved the presentation of it. The employees always make the orders look so beautiful before serving them. So if you are the type of person to Instagram your food, DropTop is an Instagram-worthy cafe. Feed your subscribers. 

Ladies and gentlemen I give you the double chocolate mint Dropucino! Yayyyy. Satisfying all my winter blues with delicious minty goodness topped with whip, this seasonal beverage hit the spot. It was perfectly chocolaty and infused with mint flavor, perfect for a cold and snowy day.

As I try more of the menu, I will update this post and let you know what I think!

For the Korean website click here.