# Coffee Prince (2007 TV series)
**Coffee Prince** (커피프린스 1호점, *Keopi Peurinseu 1hojeom*, literally "Coffee Prince Flagship Store"), also known in English as *The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince*, is a South Korean television romantic comedy that aired on the MBC network from July 2 to August 28, 2007.[1](https://world.kbs.co.kr/service/contents_view.htm?board_seq=271404&id=&lang=e&menu_cate=moviedrama&page=36) Directed by Lee Yoon-jung and written by Lee Jung-ah and Jang Hyun-ju, it stars [Gong Yoo](https://www.edgepedia.org/gong-yoo) and [Yoon Eun-hye](https://www.edgepedia.org/yoon-eun-hye) as a coffee-shop owner and the tomboyish woman he mistakes for a man.[2](https://content.mbc.co.kr/program/drama/2604525_64284.html) The series is remembered for its treatment of gender performance and same-sex attraction within a mainstream romance.[3](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pcr4.12007)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Native title | 커피프린스 1호점 (*Keopi Peurinseu 1hojeom*)[2](https://content.mbc.co.kr/program/drama/2604525_64284.html) |
| Network and run | MBC, July 2 to August 28, 2007[1](https://world.kbs.co.kr/service/contents_view.htm?board_seq=271404&id=&lang=e&menu_cate=moviedrama&page=36) |
| Format | 17 episodes of about 60 minutes each; romance genre[2](https://content.mbc.co.kr/program/drama/2604525_64284.html) |
| Main cast | Gong Yoo (Choi Han-gyul), Yoon Eun-hye (Go Eun-chan), Lee Sun-kyun, Chae Jung-an[2](https://content.mbc.co.kr/program/drama/2604525_64284.html) • [4](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/a26895105/best-korean-dramas/) |
| Ratings peak | 29.9% national rating at episode 12, up from 14.4% at the premiere[5](https://www.asiacinefil.com/proiecte-asia-team-forum/coffee-prince-2007/) |
| Awards | 8 nominations and 3 awards at the 2007 MBC drama awards[5](https://www.asiacinefil.com/proiecte-asia-team-forum/coffee-prince-2007/) |
| Availability | Streaming on Rakuten Viki, Kocowa, OnDemandKorea, and WeTV[6](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/coffee-prince-2007) |
## Premise
The story centers on Choi Han-gyul, the heir to a food conglomerate that popularized coffee in Korea, and Go Eun-chan, a tomboyish food-delivery worker who has been the breadwinner of her family since she was 16 and is often mistaken for a man.[4](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/a26895105/best-korean-dramas/) • [7](https://www.tving.com/contents/P001782551) Not realizing Eun-chan is a woman, Han-gyul hires her to pretend to be his gay lover so that he can escape the blind dates his grandmother arranges for him.[4](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/a26895105/best-korean-dramas/)
Han-gyul, reluctant to inherit the family business, is given the mission of running a coffee shop. He takes over a derelict café, renames it Coffee Prince, and staffs it exclusively with good-looking male employees; Eun-chan keeps up her gender disguise to keep the job.[4](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/a26895105/best-korean-dramas/) According to MBC's program description, Han-gyul is a clever, witty but rootless individualist who, once forced into the coffee business, falls for coffee itself and for the guileless Eun-chan, learning real love along the way.[2](https://content.mbc.co.kr/program/drama/2604525_64284.html) The supporting cast includes [Lee Sun-kyun](https://www.edgepedia.org/lee-sun-kyun) as Choi Han-sung and Chae Jung-an as Han Yoo-joo, whose on-off relationship forms the second romantic thread, along with [Kim Dong-wook](https://www.edgepedia.org/kim-dong-wook), Kim Jae-wook, and Lee Eon as the café's "princes".[8](https://www.cinnamondb.com/tv/coffee-prince-2007)
## Production and source
The series was directed by Lee Yoon-jung, later known for *The Lies Within*, with scripts by Lee Jung-ah and Jang Hyun-ju.[2](https://content.mbc.co.kr/program/drama/2604525_64284.html) • [9](https://www.koreaseen.com/coffee-prince/) Lee Jung-ah was already known as a writer before adapting Lee Sun-mi's novel, *The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince*, for television with screenwriter Jang Hyun-ju.[9](https://www.koreaseen.com/coffee-prince/) • [15](https://library.ltikorea.or.kr/originalworks/102719) MBC lists the drama as a 17-episode romance with 60-minute episodes.[2](https://content.mbc.co.kr/program/drama/2604525_64284.html)
## Broadcast performance
The series premiered on July 2, 2007, and ran through August 28.[1](https://world.kbs.co.kr/service/contents_view.htm?board_seq=271404&id=&lang=e&menu_cate=moviedrama&page=36) Its national ratings climbed steadily: 14.4% for episode 1, 18.1% for episode 3, 19.3% for episode 5, 23.2% for episode 6, and a series peak of 29.9% at episode 12.[5](https://www.asiacinefil.com/proiecte-asia-team-forum/coffee-prince-2007/) That same year MBC also aired *The Great King*, which averaged a 29.5% rating and peaked at 35.7% with its final episode; at the network's 2007 awards ceremony Coffee Prince received eight nominations but took home three awards, overshadowed by its stablemate.[5](https://www.asiacinefil.com/proiecte-asia-team-forum/coffee-prince-2007/)
## Gender, sexuality, and critical reading
The drama's central device, a woman passing as a man in a male-only workplace, made it a frequent subject of academic discussion. A 2025 study in *Popular Culture Review* argues that the series engages with the visuality of homosexuality and aligns with the growing popularity of yaoi or boys-love (BL) media, webtoons and cartoons focused on relationships between gay men; Eun-chan's masquerade is necessary because only men can be employed at the café, and even after her identity is revealed she does not change her masculine presentation until the final scene.[3](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pcr4.12007) Korean-language scholarship has similarly read the drama as revealing the constructedness of gender and the fluidity of sexuality, portraying a love relationship built on shared masculinity and homosocial intimacy between a man and a woman.[10](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART001952361)
Contemporary coverage noted the same point. A UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies report described the series as bringing homosexuality into the spotlight through gender-bending mix-ups, while observing that it ultimately returns to a conventional straight coupling.[11](https://www.international.ucla.edu/cnes/article/78211) A later reviewer for the KoreaSeen database placed the show in the lineage of the Japanese "trendy drama" genre and noted that some critics advance a feminist reading in which Eun-chan keeps her integrity and self-determination while Han-gyul must mature and question his own masculinity to deserve her.[9](https://www.koreaseen.com/coffee-prince/) The series also departs from genre convention in one respect: not all of its romantic threads end in marriage, and Eun-chan's ambition to train as a barista in Italy, maintained as a long-distance relationship, is cited as evidence of her independence.[9](https://www.koreaseen.com/coffee-prince/)
## Reception and legacy
Viewer ratings have remained strong over time. IMDb records an 8.1/10 score from about 8,300 users for the 2007 series.[12](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772685/) On AlloCiné, French-speaking viewers give it 3.9 out of 5 from 79 ratings, with reviews ranging from dismissive to enthusiastic; one recurring observation is that the show's handling of homosexuality was unusual for Korean television of its period, when the subject was heavily taboo.[13](https://www.allocine.fr/series/ficheserie-4756/critiques/) It appears on contemporary curated lists of recommended romantic K-dramas alongside series from the 2020s.[4](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/a26895105/best-korean-dramas/) • [14](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/tv-shows/best-romantic-k-dramas/)
The series remains commercially available: as of the most recent checks it streams on Rakuten Viki, Kocowa, OnDemandKorea, and WeTV, with a free ad-supported option on Rakuten Viki.[6](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/coffee-prince-2007)
## References
1. [Keopi Prince ilhojeom / Coffee Prince, KBS World](https://world.kbs.co.kr/service/contents_view.htm?board_seq=271404&id=&lang=e&menu_cate=moviedrama&page=36)
2. [커피프린스 1호점 (Coffee Prince), MBC Global Media](https://content.mbc.co.kr/program/drama/2604525_64284.html)
3. [Reclaiming Korean queerness through the gender bender drama: Analyzing gender fluidity in "Coffee Prince" and "Secret Garden", Popular Culture Review (Wiley, 2025)](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pcr4.12007)
4. [Ready to Dive Into the World of K-Dramas? Here's Where to Start, Marie Claire](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/a26895105/best-korean-dramas/)
5. [COFFEE PRINCE (2007), Asiacinefil](https://www.asiacinefil.com/proiecte-asia-team-forum/coffee-prince-2007/)
6. [Coffee Prince - streaming tv show online, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/coffee-prince-2007)
7. [커피프린스 1호점 1화, TVING](https://www.tving.com/contents/P001782551)
8. [Coffee Prince (2007), Cinnamon DB](https://www.cinnamondb.com/tv/coffee-prince-2007)
9. [Coffee Prince, KoreaSeen](https://www.koreaseen.com/coffee-prince/)
10. [A Study of the Revised Romance Script and Representations of Gender/Sexuality in The First Coffee Prince (2007) and Wild Romance (2012), KCI](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART001952361)
11. [The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince, UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies](https://www.international.ucla.edu/cnes/article/78211)
12. [The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince (TV Series 2007), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772685/)
13. [Critiques de la série The First Shop of Coffee Prince, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/series/ficheserie-4756/critiques/)
14. [The 15 Best Romantic K-Dramas Available to Stream Right Now, Marie Claire](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/tv-shows/best-romantic-k-dramas/)
15. [커피 프린스 1호점](https://library.ltikorea.or.kr/originalworks/102719)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › East Asian drama series › Korean contemporary drama › Romance and melodrama series › Romance melodrama miniseries › Romantic comedy series › Workplace romance series*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license