[Insta Walk] Malberg - Drinking the Years with a Chorus of 1,600 Coffee Grinders Collected Over 16 Years

Director Lee Seung-jae, who ran a business in Germany
Collected while touring European antique markets
First introduced in 17th-century Europe as copper plates
Evolved through wood, brass, and plastic
Ceramic products popular in early 1900s
Items engraved with lovers' names
Also offers usage lectures for coffee enthusiasts
Malberg = coffee grinder in German

Entrance of Malberg, a museum and cafe in Jangchung-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul. / Photo by Juhyung Lim @skepped

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Ju-hyung] As the culture of enjoying brewed coffee spreads, interest in coffee grinders, machines that grind coffee beans, is also increasing. Coffee grinders, found not only in professional coffee shops but also in homes, have become common household items.

A coffee grinder is a machine that grinds roasted coffee beans into fine powder. It has been manufactured in Europe since the 17th century and has undergone countless changes over time, remaining beloved worldwide. Particularly, the grinder’s internal grinding mechanism, known as the Conical Burr or in German, mahlwerk, determines its characteristics.

We visited a museum named after this term. Located in the heart of Seoul, near Dongguk University Station on Subway Line 3, the museum is run by curator Lee Seung-jae, who has been passionately collecting coffee grinders for nearly 16 years and is notable for establishing the first such museum in Korea.

The small two-story building with a sign reading ‘mahlwerk’ serves as both a museum and a caf?. The first floor houses a permanent exhibition hall and an experience room, while the second floor features a special exhibition hall. Over 800 coffee grinders are displayed here.

Some coffee grinder products displayed in Malberg. / Photo by Juhyung Lim @skepped

Before developing an interest in coffee grinders, curator Lee lived in Germany and worked in biomass material consulting. He happened upon the hobby of collecting coffee grinders by chance. In fact, he was not particularly interested in coffee itself but found it fascinating how coffee developed into a globally representative beverage. While exploring the coffee process, he learned about coffee grinders that grind beans into fine particles.

From then on, Lee began purchasing coffee grinders at flea markets in Germany. One day, introduced by a German grinder expert, he visited a vast grinder display and found it hard to resist the charm, which led him to become deeply engrossed in collecting grinders.

He found special meaning in collecting because dynamic history and countless stories were hidden inside coffee grinders. They were not just simple coffee bean grinding machines but “products accumulated through human technological development and history.”

For example, the evolution of machine materials is fascinating. The first coffee grinders in the 17th century were made using copper plates. However, after discovering that the metallic smell seeped into the beans, grinders gradually shifted to using wood. In the 18th century, as alloy technology advanced, brass grinders with elaborate decorations began to appear, and later, grinders made of plastic also emerged. The permanent exhibition hall displays these products in chronological order to help visitors understand this history.

European coffee grinders and ceramic products made in the 19th to 20th centuries. / Photo by Juhyung Lim @skepped

Coffee grinders also serve as mirrors reflecting the lives of people from their respective eras. In the early 1900s, ceramic-covered grinders became popular as coffee grinders started to be introduced into households, creating a custom of storing beans inside ceramic containers. They were also exchanged as wedding gifts, and many antique grinders are said to bear the names of lovers.

Curator Lee has traveled antique markets across various European countries to collect coffee grinders and currently owns over 1,600 pieces. About half of these are exhibited at the Mahlwerk Museum. Among the displayed items are 300 pieces from a series by the German company Renatz, collected over a lifetime by the late German collector York Friedrich.

A 17th-century coffee grinder made of metal. / Photo by Juhyung Lim @skepped

Since opening last year, the museum has attracted the attention of coffee enthusiasts on various social media platforms. It offers a rare opportunity in Korea to see coffee grinders, and curator Lee personally explains the history of coffee grinders and teaches the proper use of coffee grinders through various programs. In the experience room, visitors can purchase coffee, try different grinders firsthand, and brew drip coffee.

Curator Lee also dreams of expanding the museum. Paradise, located in Jung-gu, Seoul, provided the building site free of charge as part of its community contribution activities, and Jung-gu Office remodeled the existing building to give it new life, making the current museum meaningful. However, he emphasized, “If possible, I want to expand and operate it as Korea’s representative coffee museum within Seoul.”

His attachment to Seoul is closely related to the introduction of coffee in Korea. “In the past, Emperor Gojong first tasted coffee in Seoul, marking the beginning of coffee culture on the Korean Peninsula. In other words, Seoul is effectively the starting point of Korean coffee culture.” He added, “Establishing a specialized coffee grinder museum, where one can see the history of global coffee culture at a glance, in the place where coffee was introduced to Korea is meaningful.”