S. Korea's Dongsuh to compete with Nestle in local coffee capsule market

Dongsuh Foods Corp. has launched its first capsule coffee brand Kanu Barista, rivaling global food and beverage giant Nestle in the South Korean capsule coffee market.

The Kanu Barista lineup is categorized as light, medium, and dark roasts as well as decaffeinated.

It is made with Dongsuh’s in-house triangle tamping technology, which t gets the best taste from the extraction by tightly compressing coffee grinds and removing air pockets.

South Korea’s No.1 instant coffee maker, Dongsuh Foods, is a 50:50 company between US-based Mondelez International Inc. and Korea’s Dongsuh Companies Inc.

Dongsuh Foods, well known for its instant coffee Maxim both in domestic and global markets, spent three years researching and developing its capsule coffee.

In 2011, the business introduced Kanu, which quickly rose to prominence as one of Korea's leading instant coffee brands.

In the same year, it also introduced Tassimo capsule coffee from US-based Kraft Heinz Company in Korea, although the product received little interest from consumers.

South Korea’s capsule coffee market is dominated by Nestle. Global coffeehouse chains Starbucks and Paul Bassett, and Korean coffee franchise A Twosome Place, make capsules compatible with Nespresso machines.