There’s a Korean word for people who order iced Americano in January: eoljuka (얼죽아), short for “iced Americano even if I freeze to death.” The other camp has one too. Jjeojukdda (쪄죽따) means “hot Americano even if I’m steamed to death.” Both are jokes about stubbornness, and only one side is winning.
At Starbucks Korea, more than 70% of the Americanos sold each year from 2023 through 2025 were iced. In February 2026, in the middle of winter, the chain launched an iced-only drink called the Aerocano in Korea before anywhere else, at 4,900 won for a tall, 200 won more than a regular Americano.
It’d be easy to read that as the national order and stop there. Honestly, I don’t think that’s quite right. The more telling number is who’s holding the cup.
The line runs through age
Hollys, another coffee chain, went through its sales for January 2023, a month of hard cold. Iced made up 55% of its Americano sales, and on days below minus 10°C it still averaged 51%. What stands out more to me is the age split. Customers in their 20s and 30s picked iced Americano as their top drink. From the 40s up, the favorite was hot Americano, with plenty of hot lattes too.
Twosome Place found the same shape across three winters, 2023 to 2025. Iced drinks averaged about half of its winter sales overall, but 64% among customers in their 20s. Over a whole year, people in their 20s bought iced 82% of the time, against 69% for everyone.
So if you’re 25 and asking for an a-a (아아, short for “ice Americano”) in December, you’re squarely with the majority of your age group. At 50, going by the Hollys numbers, your age group leans hot.
What the coffee is for
My read is that age is standing in for something else, which is the job the coffee’s doing. The head of a coffee business, quoted in a 2026 food-media piece, said office districts with lots of young people and office workers sell far more cold drinks, because people take the coffee out and drink it on the move or just want the caffeine fast. Neighborhood cafés, where middle-aged and older customers sit with a drink for a while, sell relatively more hot ones.
A Twosome staffer said something similar about younger customers picking iced coffee they can gulp in an office or a lecture room. And CU, which started delivering freshly brewed coffee in September 2025, said 88% of the coffee it delivered in January 2026 was iced. That’s about as far from lingering as coffee gets.
Korean coverage offers other explanations too. AFP framed it as a product of Korea’s hurry-hurry culture, and a consumer-studies professor pointed to how well Korean cafés are heated in winter. I find the heating argument convincing, but I think it explains why the habit survives winter, not who has it. If the 20-somethings ordering a-a now still order it at 45, jjeojukdda is going to run short of new members.
Sources
- Kyunghyang Shinmun: Starbucks launches the Aerocano in Korea first (Korean, 2026)
- Hankook Ilbo: Why Koreans drink iced Americano in winter, with Hollys sales data (Korean, 2023)
- Real Foods: Half of winter café drinks are iced (Korean, 2026)
- Segye Ilbo: A-a vs. tteu-a, and how much Koreans love coffee (Korean, 2024)
- Sports Seoul: Eoljuka keeps winter iced-drink sales up (Korean, 2024)