If you’ve watched Korean dramas, you’ve seen it, that small paper cup of instant coffee, stirred quickly, sipped between scenes of office drama or late-night convenience store visits. Korean instant coffee is everywhere: in office break rooms, university common areas, hospital waiting rooms, subway station vending machines, and the bottom drawer of basically every Korean grandmother’s kitchen. What most visitors don’t realize is that Korea didn’t just adopt instant coffee, Korea invented the modern instant coffee mix packet. In 1976, a Korean company created the sachet format that combines coffee, sugar, and powdered milk in one tear-and-pour packet. That single invention changed how the country drinks coffee and spawned an…