There are supposedly a few Coco Brunis around town but my efforts to find them were unsuccessful. So I moved onto the next location on my list. But you know that saying When you aren’t trying it will happen for you. Well that was Coco Bruni for me. On my way back to the subway station after a visit to nearby Cacao Boom I found it, right there in front of me. It almost gave me one of those “what took you so long” looks, like it had been expecting me or maybe it was more of a “seriously, you can’t leave Seoul without trying me”.
Coco Bruni was my last hot chocolate in Seoul and a very nice one. Unlike many of the locations I had visited before, specialty spots where I was strangely alone in savouring their beautiful creations, here I was accompanied by my whole class at university and their friends too. This is obviously where all the students get their fuel during the day, a fuel that consists not just of hot chocolate but a very popular cold chocolate, a lot of very decadent looking desserts, some frozen, some oozing with more chocolate. The hot chocolate is made using single origin chocolate from the Dominican Republic which is a very very good way of impressing me and getting a good review. I did have a moment where I wondered why they wouldn’t use a single origin from a little closer, there are quite a few good options in the Asia Pacific region, but hey, a little piece of home is always much appreciated especially when it is prepared so well. It isn’t as rich and decadent as you might expect given the dessert case, it is lighter, very easy to drink, a little bit on the sweet side but still very nice.
The café is fun with large empty (luckily) birdcages hanging throughout from the ceiling. Today they are advertising a tea and chocolate pairing event which, if I wasn’t flying out, I would definitely sign up for even though I wouldn’t understand a word, I’m sure I could just learn by the absorption method (Step 1. Eat chocolate and drink tea Step 2. Listen to teacher making various foreign sounds Step 3. Look at the faces of the students Step 4. Learn some things).
Once again I know very little about Coco Bruni because they have made a website that doesn’t work with Google Translate. They do mention natural and handmade a lot from what I can tell which doesn’t actually mean anything really (without context at least). I didn’t realise until looking through their website that they have a chocolate sampler where you can taste a little bit of the single estate, the dark (using cacao from Madagascar) and the milk chocolate (which has added honey for a bit of sweetness). Next time.
Once you are done you can hop across the street and rent out your own private karaoke booth and have a try. This area has lots of bars, clubs, shopping, people you name it. In the evenings there is a steady stream of students playing in their bands on street corners, some very well could be the next k-pop phenomenon.
Verdict: A crowd pleaser. Make sure you learn how to say “not in a paper cup please” in Korean. I must have said the opposite because I was the only one with a hot chocolate in a paper cup. Coco Bruni, 166-12 Donggyo-dong, Seoul, Korea
