Overview
There are meat theme parks in Japan. Eataly are building the 'Disneyland of food' in Italy. But it looks like caffeinated bevvies are getting tired of going without their own themed digs, with a brand new US$100 million coffee-themed resort park set to begin development in South Korea.
Korean specialty coffee giant Tom N Toms have shaken hands with South Korea's Gangwon Province in a multi-million dollar deal to plonk a 64-acre coffee theme park and production HQ smack bang in the industrial realms of Chuncheon on Nami Island. According to Daily Coffee News, the park will create of over 1000 jobs; both on the theme park side of things and the roastery/distribution half.
While finite details haven't been released about the innards of the park — we propose steamed milk river rides, some kind of spinning rollercoaster called The Grinder, latte art galleries — the park will sit right beside a proposed Legoland (in the top pic), because all Great Things clearly need to be theme park neighbours.
Commercial eyes are squarely focused on the area of PyeongChang, which is rapidly developing in the leadup to its hosting of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, according to Korea Bizwire. Gangwon Governor Choi Moon-soon and Chuncheon Mayor Choi Don-yong have given their John Hancocks on a deal for the park, geared up to be environmentally-friendly and finished by 2017.
This isn't the first coffee theme park in the world, with Colombia's National Coffee Park taking those bragging rights clean away. But with a sweet hundy-million behind it and an actual roastery and distribution facility on site, this park's sure to be full of beans (#sorrynotsorry).
Via Korea Bizwire and Daily Coffee News. Top image: Proposed Legoland, South Korea — via DCN.