Seochon café for choco cute spitzen and cold brew latte: The Baum

The Baum Gyeongbokgung Branch is a baumkuchen specialty café near Gyeongbokgung Palace.

• Address: 13-2 Jahamun-ro, 1st and 2nd floors, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Hours: Daily 10:00–22:00
• Group seating available, gift wrapping, vegan menu, Wi-Fi, separate men's/women's restrooms, reservations possible

Today I want to introduce a dessert spot near Gyeongbokgung Station in the lovely neighborhood of Seochon! Do you all know baumkuchen? It's a type of German dessert shaped like tree rings, like a tree trunk cross-section — apparently it's traditionally eaten around Christmas.

And guess what — there's a baumkuchen specialty café near Gyeongbokgung where you can enjoy this dessert in so many different ways! Did you know that? Let's go take a look together!

Where is The Baum Gyeongbokgung Branch, and what does it look like?

The Baum Gyeongbokgung Branch sits near Exit 2 of Gyeongbokgung Station (Line 3), right next to Gyeongbokgung Palace itself. It's a great spot to stop by on a Jongno date, or after a stroll around Gwanghwamun and the palace grounds.

The exterior is a building decorated in ivory-colored brick like this. Both the 1st and 2nd floors are part of The Baum café.

You can tell just by looking that it's a baumkuchen specialty shop. Let's head inside!

Inside The Baum: first- and second-floor seating

This is the interior of The Baum Gyeongbokgung Branch. It felt cozy, matching the vibe of Seochon really well.

The 1st floor also had quite a lot of seats, mostly 2- to 4-person tables, and it looked like tables could be pushed together for group use too.

The interior was designed to leave a bit of a hanok (traditional Korean house) feel on the ceiling. The wooden pillars scattered here and there also evoke a hanok.

This is the 2nd floor space. It looks like this can be used by reservation. One long table seems able to seat around 7 to 8 people. This spot had a great vibe too.

If you go further past the 2nd floor group table area, there's another space with 4-person and 2-person tables set up. I took a seat right here.

The Baum menu: which baumkuchen can you choose?

The showcase that caught my eye the moment I walked in. The Baum's baumkuchens were on display. That watermelon-shaped baumkuchen was so fascinating.

They were also selling Chuseok gift sets. These days, it's apparently more trendy to give a gift the recipient will genuinely like rather than an expensive one no matter what. For anyone who loves desserts, wouldn't a gift set like this be perfect?

There was an incredible variety of baumkuchen. Cheese baum, chocolat baum, strawberry baum, green tea baum, custard baum, choco cute spitzen, white choco cute spitzen, red bean jelly baum, red bean jelly cream baum, brûlée dark choco baumkuchen, brûlée matcha baum, brûlée passionfruit baum, mini watermelon baumkuchen, and more. Choosing which one to eat among all these was a happy dilemma!

It wasn't just the baumkuchen — the drink menu was really varied too. Seasonal specials, espresso, cold brew, smoothies, tea-ade, ice cream, milk tea, fruit tea-ade, and more — a place with plenty of options even for people who can't drink coffee.

They said if you pick something tasty and leave a Naver receipt review, The Baum will give you a baumkuchen as a gift! Don't miss out on this event.

What we ordered at The Baum: custard baum, choco cute spitzen, yanggaeng cream baum and a cold brew latte

I tried three kinds of baumkuchen — red bean jelly cream baum, custard baum, and choco cute spitzen. And for a drink I ordered a cold brew latte, since the desserts were so sweet that something like this seemed like it would pair better than a sweet coffee.

Choco cute spitzen: how does it taste?

A small cylindrical premium baumkuchen, carefully baked and coated luxuriously in chocolate. There was fun in slicing it along the grain to eat. This would make a great gift too.

On the left is the custard baum, on the right is the red bean jelly cream baum.

Custard baum at The Baum

The most popular item among their signature baums. The soft baumkuchen is packed full of custard cream inside, topped with a sweet, crisp brûlée coating. I could see exactly why it's the best-selling menu item.

Yanggaeng cream baum (red bean jelly and choux cream)

This is a chilled baumkuchen — inside the baumkuchen there's red bean paste, plus a cool, sweet cream puff filling. This one seemed like something people of all ages and genders would love. The cool cream also went really well with the baumkuchen.

Cold brew latte with baumkuchen

The cold brew latte that went perfectly with all of these desserts. The cold brew here was delicious. I think I'd order this again next time!

For anyone near Gyeongbokgung wanting to try premium, authentic German baumkuchen, or looking for a Gyeongbokgung date course spot, this is a place I recommend.