Hero image: Mega MGC Coffee House Milk Latte, via Mega MGC Coffee.

If you’ve scrolled Korean Instagram or Threads this month, you’ve seen a lot of people saying one thing: they want a nutty latte. The word they keep using is 꼬숩다 (kkosupda), and the drink it’s attached to, the 꼬숩라떼 (kkosup latte), has turned into fall 2026’s biggest coffee trend in Korea.

What “kkosup” means

고소하다 (gosohada) is one of those Korean taste words English doesn’t have a clean match for. It’s the toasty, nutty richness of sesame oil, roasted grain tea, peanuts, or really good whole milk. 꼬숩다 is the softer, slightly playful, dialect-tinged version of it: think “nutty” said with a smile.

So a kkosup latte isn’t a flavor you add. There’s no nut syrup. It’s a latte where the milk itself tastes rich, dense, and a little savory, with enough body that it doesn’t fall apart as the ice melts.

A thick, creamy iced latte in a clear glass on beige linen, surrounded by small bowls of toasted sesame seeds, roasted peanuts, and roasted barley, with a small bottle of sesame oil

The 고소한 family: sesame, peanuts, roasted barley, and sesame oil. A kkosup latte aims for that same toasty richness with no nuts in it at all. AI-generated illustration.

Why now: the watery iced latte problem

Korea runs on iced coffee. 아아 (a-a, iced americano) is the default order even in January. Iced lattes are just as popular, and they share the same flaw: ten minutes in, the ice has melted and you’re drinking beige water.

Two iced lattes side by side in clear plastic cups: on the left, a pale, watery latte with melted ice and condensation; on the right, a thick, creamy latte with dark espresso swirling into dense milk

Left: a regular iced latte ten minutes in. Right: what kkosup fans are after. AI-generated illustration.

This trend didn’t start with a brand campaign. Home baristas started posting their fixes online:

  • Freeze-concentrating milk. Freeze a carton of milk, turn it upside down over a cup, and let it thaw slowly. The first half that drips out is the milk solids, fat, and sugar. Most of the water stays behind as ice. The technique got famous when Canadian barista Ben Put used it at the 2017 World Barista Championship.
  • Cutting the milk with heavy cream.
  • Adding a spoon of 연유 (yeonyu), condensed milk, for body and sweetness.

Posts about the “nutty latte you can’t stop thinking about” kept multiplying, and Kang Min-kyung of the duo Davichi gave the trend a push by posting about it herself.

The chains caught on fast

By September, Korean coffee chains had put their own versions on the menu:

  • Mega MGC Coffee — House Milk Latte (하우스밀크라떼). Launched September 3 for the fall latte season. It uses Mega’s own “house milk” blend, is iced only, and costs ₩3,500 for a 591ml cup (about $2.50). It sold over one million cups in its first two weeks.
  • Ten Percent Coffee — Signature Latte, built around a denser milk base.
  • Oozy Coffee — Deep Cafe Latte, pitched on its deep, nutty flavor.

Korean reviews of the Mega version are split. Plenty of people love how rich it is. Others find it mild on the coffee side and add a shot (샷 추가, syat chuga), which is ₩300 extra. If you like your latte coffee-forward, order it that way from the start.

Ordering one in Korea

  • Easiest: any Mega MGC Coffee. There’s one on nearly every block in Seoul, and most have a kiosk with an English option. Look for 하우스밀크라떼.
  • Say it out loud: “하우스밀크라떼 하나, 샷 추가요” (hauseu milk latte hana, syat chuga-yo) is “One House Milk Latte, with an extra shot, please.”
  • Watch the caffeine if you’re sensitive: the Mega cup lists 118mg, and more with the extra shot. A decaf swap is ₩500.
  • Independent cafés in Seongsu, Yeonnam-dong, and Mangwon are putting “고소한 라떼” (nutty latte) and “농축우유 라떼” (concentrated-milk latte) on their chalkboards. Those are the ones to try if you want the freeze-concentrated version done by hand.

Make it at home

You don’t need to fly to Seoul for this:

  1. Freeze a 1L carton of whole milk solid (overnight).
  2. Set it upside down on a jar in the fridge and let it thaw slowly.
  3. Stop once about half has dripped through. That’s your concentrated milk. Throw out the pale, icy remainder.
  4. Pour it over ice with a double shot of espresso. Stir.

It keeps for a few days in the fridge, and it stays thick even when the ice melts, which is the whole point.

Espresso being poured from a small glass pitcher into a tall glass of ice and thick, creamy milk, with dark coffee swirling down through the milk

Step 4: espresso over concentrated milk. AI-generated illustration.

Why it matters

Korea goes through a new food craze every few months, from dalgona coffee to Dubai chocolate. Most start in a café or a brand campaign and spread from there. The kkosup latte went the other way. Regular people complained about their coffee online, figured out a fix at home, and within a few weeks the biggest budget chain in the country was selling a million cups of it. In Korea’s crowded coffee market, that’s how quickly customers can now set the menu.

Sources: The Korea Times, Nate News, CoffeeTalk, Mega MGC Coffee menu.