Using the color and technique that Lee Gang-bin - co-owner of the Cafe C.THROUGH brand in Seoul (Korea) - calls "kem art", Lee transformed regular cups of coffee into unusual works of art.
"Coffee is a fairy tale to me," Lee told CNN. "It helps me express exactly what I want and bring my dreams into life. People who specialize in composing with latte (a product of the wonderful combination of Espresso and milk-PV) often only use two colors: Black and white. But I want to break that color limitation."
His "crazy" creativity has attracted nearly 200,000 followers on Instagram. In particular, Lee's coffee paintings are mostly repaints of world-famous works including: "The Starry Night" by Van Gogh, "The Scream" by Edvard Munch and "Mona Lisa" by Leonardo DiVinci. In addition, he also painted according to customer requirements.
The requirements are very diverse, from comic book characters like Little Prince to cover models for Korean Vogue. The Lee is not the real work of art or not, the important thing is whether customers like and sell coffee.
"My rule is not to make cups of coffee that people can't drink," Lee said. "I only compose on cold coffee. If I heat up the coffee, the flavor will change when it cools. But I don't want the taste of coffee to change."
The cost of a cup of ice cream coffee is 7,500 won (150,000 VND). Each work in such a cup of coffee would take about an hour to compose. Therefore, he only creates once every 3 days and customers have to order in advance.
The shape of a creamed bear is an exception, taking only 40 seconds to paint.
Lee has been making coffee for 10 years. He switched to composing with latte 7 years ago. Up to now, he has only slept for a few hours a day. But "like many Koreans, I want to prove myself successful with coffee."
The key to his success is passion and perseverance.
"Some people say coffee is just coffee, but for me, it is a bridge that can connect one person to another," Lee said.
