The most popular way to drink Korea's best-known flavoured milk was not invented by a cafe. Foreign tourists figured it out while standing at convenience store counters.
The drink combines Binggrae Banana Flavored Milk with a pouch-style hazelnut black coffee over a cup of ice, and it costs less than a cafe latte.
Foreign visitors turned it into a recipe, working it out at convenience store counters, filming it and posting it on social media. It reached most Korean shoppers only after that, under the nickname "ttungba latte," after the squat container the milk comes in.
Celebrity attention followed. Hailey Bieber, who visited Seoul in May, posted about the drink on Instagram after trying it at a convenience store, saying she could not stop drinking it. Emma Roberts also tried the drink during a visit to Korea.
Retailers have noticed. GS25 now sells the components together as a set, pairing the banana milk with a shot from its in-store espresso machine and an ice cup at a discount off the separate prices.
The counter version also opened the door to other combinations. Once the milk was understood as a base rather than a finished drink, it started turning up in ice cream floats and matcha.
Three variations follow, all of them built from what a Korean convenience store or a home kitchen already stocks.
Banana latte
Fill a cup with ice, pour in one container of banana milk, then pour two shots of espresso over the top.
The sequence matters for the finished look. Adding the milk first and the coffee last leaves a clean line between the pale yellow base and the dark coffee, which collapses if the coffee is poured in first.
One pump of hazelnut syrup rounds out the banana note and pushes the drink closer to what a cafe would serve.
Coffee bar banana latte
This version replaces the coffee with a coffee-flavored ice bar, sold at most convenience stores under the name Deowi Sanyang.
Break half a bar into a cup and crush it, then pour one tub of banana milk over it. The bar melts slowly and keeps the drink cold without watering it down. The result tastes like an affogato made with banana ice cream.
It leans sweet. A shot of espresso on top corrects that for anyone who wants the coffee to lead.
Matcha banana milk
Whisk a strong matcha latte over a small amount of ice, then add half a container of banana milk.
Swapping the dairy base of the matcha latte for unsweetened oat or almond milk makes the drink nuttier and lighter, and cuts the sugar without flattening the banana flavor.
Half a container is enough. A full one buries the matcha. – The Korea Herald/Asia News Network
