Why Does Korea Have a Word for People Who Drink Iced Coffee in Winter?
Meet “Eoljukah” — when a simple drink preference becomes a personality.
Imagine Seoul in January.
People are wrapped in long padded coats.
Their hands are buried in gloves.
The temperature has dropped below freezing.
And the person walking next to you is carrying a clear plastic cup filled with…
ice.
Not hot coffee.
Not tea.
An iced Americano.
If you spend enough time in Korea, you will see this often enough that eventually someone will teach you the word for it:
얼죽아 — Eoljukah.
It is short for:
얼어 죽어도 아이스 아메리카노
Roughly:
“Iced Americano, even if I freeze to death.”
Koreans actually created a nickname for people who refuse to give up iced Americanos just because winter arrived.
Which raises an obvious question.
Do people outside Korea not drink iced coffee in winter?
Of course they do.
That is not what makes Korea interesting.
The interesting part is that Korea turned the preference into a cultural identity.
First: Iced Coffee Is Not Uniquely Korean
This needs to be said before anything else.
Cold coffee is huge around the world.
Starbucks says roughly two-thirds of beverages sold at its U.S. company-operated stores are cold, while cold drinks account for roughly 60% of its international beverage sales.
So if someone tells you:
“Koreans are the only people who drink iced coffee when it is cold.”
That is simply not true.
Americans drink plenty of cold coffee.
So do customers in many other countries.
The Korean difference is more specific.
It is the remarkable dominance of one very simple drink:
espresso + water + ice.
The iced Americano.
And the willingness to keep ordering it all year.
Korea Has Another Name for It: “Ah-Ah”
Walk into a Korean café and you may hear someone order an:
아아 — Ah-Ah.
It is simply Korean shorthand for:
아이스 아메리카노 — iced Americano.
Korean loves abbreviations.
Words get shortened.
Phrases get compressed.
Long descriptions become two or three syllables.
So one of the country’s most common café orders became “Ah-Ah.”
And people particularly devoted to it became Eoljukah.
That alone tells you something.
This is no longer just a beverage on a menu.
It has developed its own vocabulary.
How Serious Is Korea About Iced Americanos?
Serious enough for one of the world’s largest coffee companies to use Korea as a test market.
In February 2026, Starbucks launched its new Aerocano in South Korea before anywhere else in the world.
And February was not an accident.
It was still winter.
Starbucks specifically pointed to Korea’s year-round iced-coffee culture when explaining why the new cold drink debuted here first.
The numbers explain the decision.
During each of the three years from 2023 through 2025, more than 70% of Americanos sold by Starbucks Korea were iced.
Not 70% of summer Americanos.
More than 70% across the year.
Starbucks’ own 2026 announcement said iced Americanos remain dominant even during Korea’s coldest months.
That is where “Eoljukah” stops looking like just an internet joke.
There is real consumer behavior behind it.
But Why the Americano?
This is another interesting Korean coffee question.
Why not iced lattes?
Why not cold brew?
Why not sweet coffee?
Why specifically the Americano?
Part of the answer may be simplicity.
An Americano requires little more than espresso and water.
Add ice and it can be made quickly, served quickly and consumed quickly.
That fits unusually well with another famous Korean expression:
빨리빨리 — ppalli-ppalli.
Literally:
“Quickly, quickly.”
The phrase is often used to describe Korea’s preference for speed and efficiency in daily life.
Workers interviewed about Korea’s iced-Americano culture have described the drink in almost functional terms: something they can grab after lunch, drink quickly and use to wake themselves up before returning to work.
A hot coffee asks you to wait.
An iced Americano does not.
Take a large sip immediately.
Carry it back to the office.
Leave it on the desk.
Drink it over the next hour.
The temperature is not a problem.
It was cold from the beginning.
In Korea, Coffee Is Often Doing a Job
There is a cultural difference hidden here.
Of course Koreans enjoy coffee for taste.
Korea has an enormous specialty-coffee and café scene.
But the ordinary Americano also performs a practical function.
It is the coffee you buy after lunch with coworkers.
The coffee sitting beside your laptop.
The coffee you carry into an afternoon meeting.
The coffee university students put next to their books.
The coffee someone orders because there are three more hours of work left.
A Korea University sociology professor interviewed by the Korea JoongAng Daily described the Americano as something many Korean students and workers consume functionally for caffeine rather than purely as a leisurely social drink.
That does not describe every Korean coffee drinker.
But it helps explain why the simplest form of coffee became so powerful here.
And an Iced Americano Is Conveniently Boring
This may sound insulting.
It is actually one of the drink’s strengths.
There is no whipped cream.
No syrup decision.
No complicated recipe.
No seasonal flavor.
No dessert disguised as coffee.
Espresso.
Water.
Ice.
Done.
You can find some version of it almost everywhere.
Luxury café?
Iced Americano.
Neighborhood coffee shop?
Iced Americano.
Budget franchise?
Iced Americano.
Convenience store?
Probably several versions.
The drink does not demand much attention.
And perhaps that is precisely why it fits so easily into everyday Korean life.
Then Why Drink It When It Is Freezing Outside?
Ask an Eoljukah and you may discover there is no grand philosophical answer.
They simply prefer it.
Some say hot coffee is too slow to drink.
Some say they dislike the taste as coffee cools down.
Others spend most of the day inside heated offices, apartments, buses, subways and cafés anyway.
In earlier interviews, Korean office workers pointed out that they may only be outdoors briefly before entering a warm building.
So the image of someone suffering outside for two hours while holding an iced coffee is a little misleading.
A more realistic winter routine might be:
Leave a heated office.
Walk three minutes to a café.
Buy an iced Americano.
Walk three minutes back.
Spend the next two hours drinking it inside.
Suddenly, “Eoljukah” seems slightly less insane.
Slightly.
Korea Is Also Comfortable With Cold Food
There may be another cultural layer.
Korean cuisine has a surprisingly strong cold-food tradition.
Naengmyeon, buckwheat noodles served in chilled broth, can arrive with actual ice floating in the bowl.
Dongchimi, a watery radish kimchi, is served cold.
Sikhye, a sweet rice drink, is usually chilled.
And while naengmyeon is strongly associated with summer today, some Koreans enjoy it in winter too.
Food writers have suggested that Korea’s familiarity with very cold foods and drinks may help make iced coffee feel less seasonally strange than it does in some cultures.
It is probably not the whole explanation.
But it fits.
The Funniest Part Is the Name
This is where HEAF becomes more interested.
Because the coffee itself is not the most Korean part of this story.
The nickname is.
Koreans love turning everyday behaviors into compact labels.
Someone behaves a certain way often enough?
Give it a name.
Someone refuses hot coffee even in January?
Now they belong to a category:
Eoljukah.
And once a behavior has a name, people can start using it as a tiny identity.
“I’m Eoljukah.”
“My friend is Eoljukah.”
“I can never understand Eoljukah people.”
Suddenly, ordering a drink becomes almost like saying whether you are a morning person or a night owl.
It is not a serious identity.
That is exactly why it works.
The Word Is More Interesting Than the Drink
Imagine the same phenomenon elsewhere.
Millions of Americans drink iced coffee.
But there is no nationally recognizable phrase meaning:
“I will drink iced coffee even if I freeze to death.”
That is where the Korean version becomes distinctive.
Not necessarily in what people consume.
But in the way the culture notices, names and jokes about the habit.
The joke then reinforces the behavior.
Someone orders an iced Americano during a snowstorm.
Their coworker laughs:
“역시 얼죽아네.”
“Of course. You’re Eoljukah.”
The person smiles.
And keeps drinking.
A Global Company Actually Noticed
This is perhaps the best evidence that Eoljukah has moved beyond a meme.
When Starbucks introduced the Aerocano worldwide for the first time in 2026, it chose South Korea.
Not California.
Not Singapore.
Not another hot-weather market.
Korea.
In February.
Starbucks said Korea’s passionate customers and distinctive coffee culture made it a meaningful place for the product’s first launch.
A Korean internet expression about refusing hot coffee in winter had effectively become visible enough to influence global product strategy.
That is quite a journey for a cup of espresso, water and ice.
Does Every Korean Drink Iced Americano?
Of course not.
Some Koreans prefer hot coffee.
Some do not drink coffee at all.
Some want lattes.
Some want sweet drinks.
Some think Eoljukah people are ridiculous.
And Korea’s café culture is far more diverse than one beverage.
But that is not really the point.
A cultural expression does not require every person in the country to participate.
It only needs to be familiar enough that almost everyone understands the joke.
Say “얼죽아” to many Koreans and you will not need to explain the concept.
That is what makes it culture rather than merely a menu preference.
So What Should You Order in Korea?
If you visit a Korean café in winter, order whatever you actually want.
There is no requirement to prove yourself.
But if you want to try the classic experience, order:
아이스 아메리카노 하나 주세요.
“Iced Americano hana juseyo.”
“One iced Americano, please.”
Or you may hear Koreans simply call it:
아아.
Then walk outside wearing your thickest winter coat while holding a transparent plastic cup packed with ice.
Congratulations.
For the next few minutes, at least:
you understand Eoljukah.
It Is Not About Who Drinks Cold Coffee
That is the important distinction.
People all over the world drink iced coffee.
Cold beverages now make up the majority of Starbucks beverage sales in both the United States and its international business.
Korea did not invent winter iced coffee.
What Korea did was something much more Korean.
It looked at an ordinary habit.
Turned it into an abbreviation.
Turned the abbreviation into a joke.
Turned the joke into a personality type.
And eventually became famous enough for an international coffee company to launch a new iced drink there first — in February.
So the next time you see someone walking through a freezing Seoul winter with ice rattling inside a plastic coffee cup, do not ask:
“Why are Koreans drinking cold coffee?”
Ask the more interesting question:
“Why did Korea need a word for the people who refuse to stop?”
Because in Korea, iced coffee is not unusual.
Having a name for refusing to give it up might be.