Vista al Valle Villa Sarchi Yellow Honey

In 2014, six friends pooled their talents to create what they called the best coffee experience in Seoul. Among them were a national barista champion, a green coffee buyer, a roaster, and a baker. Their first cafe occupied a renovated Hanok, a traditional Korean wooden house, setting the tone for Fritz's signature aesthetic: a retro style rooted in Korean cultural identity that earned the brand the title of most Korean brand in Seoul in a 2018 collaboration between Audi Korea and B Magazine. The roastery in Paju, near Seoul, directly imports over 90 percent of its green coffee from producers worldwide. Fritz now operates multiple cafes across Seoul and into Jeju, wholesales to around 850 domestic clients, and employs roughly 90 people, all on full time contracts. The single origin lineup rotates every two weeks, with three to four experimental releases per year, and the company has deliberately held prices steady even as green coffee costs have risen sharply.