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| Instant coffee mix is on display at a supermarket in Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap |
By Park Jae-hyuk
Dongsuh Foods and other food firms producing instant coffee mixes have drawn public attention, since it was confirmed that two miners, who walked out alive of a collapsed zinc mine in Bonghwa County, North Gyeongsang Province, last Friday had survived on instant coffee mix, when they were trapped in the mine for more than nine days.
Their doctor told reporters on Saturday that the miners survived as they had been able to drink coffee for the first three days of the accident by mixing groundwater with 30 packs of the mixture of instant coffee, sugar and cream.
Most instant coffee mix sold in Korea is a high-calorie food containing essential nutrients.
Around 50 kilocalories are in a 12-gram pack of Dongsuh Foods' Maxim Mocha Gold Mild Coffee Mix, which occupies over 80 percent of the market share. The product contains 5 milligrams of sodium, 1.6 grams of fat, 9 grams of carbohydrates, 6 grams of sugar and 1.6 grams of saturated fat.
A 10.9-gram pack of French Cafe instant coffee mix by Namyang Dairy Products contains 45 kilocalories. It also contains 5 milligrams of sodium, 8 grams of carbohydrates, 5.1 grams of sugar, 1.5 grams of fat and 1.5 grams of saturated fat.
Although most instant coffee mixes do not contain protein and an adult male needs around 2,000 kilocalories a day, coffee mixes helped the rescued miners maintain their body temperatures in extreme conditions.
Some internet users commented jokingly that Dongsuh Foods should hire the miners as spokesmodels.
There is also a speculation that instant coffee mix will regain popularity among mountain hikers in Korea, as the recent mining accident proved that the product can be used as an emergency food.
Dongsuh Foods invented the world's first instant coffee mix in 1976, and the product was once considered a necessity in offices and houses. However, concerns over the high amount of sugar in the instant coffee mixes led more Korean consumers to avoid drinking them.
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