The Honey Shop in My Neighborhood

Honey Store in my town — The Honey Shop in My Neighborhood

The story of honeybees, flying over rough, treacherous mountains in search of flowers even in faraway lands, unfolds at Ape Seoul, tucked away in the heart of the city.

Words Parc Jinmyoung
Interviewee Lee Jaehoon (Honey Sommelier, Ape Seoul)

Urban beekeeping began drawing attention in major cities around the world—London, Paris, Hong Kong, New York—in the early 2000s, as concerns grew over the rapid disappearance of honeybees. It emerged as part of the urban agriculture movement, an attempt to protect the vanishing species, and also gained popularity as a hobby among those pursuing self-sufficiency. Around 2010, people in Korea began trying it too. As Einstein reportedly said, ‘If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left.’ Is the survival of bees really tied so closely to our own? And if so, can urban beekeeping help save us from a looming food crisis?

Leaving the tangle of busy roads behind, I ducked into a side street leading toward the Seoul City Wall trail. Tucked among the houses of Hyehwa-dong, Ape Seoul is a shop that sells honey harvested on-site. It offers honey-based drinks and desserts, and on the roof of the building out front sits an actual beehive. ‘Ape’ means ‘bee’ in Italian—true to its name, this is a space built entirely around everything bees can offer.

📝 Note 1. How far can something that started as simple curiosity go?

You ran a mobile coffee stand called ‘BC Coffee’ on a bicycle before you started keeping bees on a rooftop.
I used to tow a wooden box-shaped trailer behind a minivelo bike and sell coffee around Seoul. I was inspired by young baristas in New York who rode bicycles while brewing and selling coffee from mobile bars. It started purely out of curiosity and interest. Beekeeping came about the same way—I saw a video clip about an urban beekeeper and thought it looked fresh and fun.

What kind of place is Ape Seoul?
Ape Seoul is actually both a café and a honey shop. You can find not just honey but drinks and desserts made with it. We also occasionally host an ‘It’s Honey! Tasting Class,’ introducing honey with a range of different flavors. Ape Seoul itself is a kind of content designed to present bees in an appealing way. Both ‘It’s Honey!’—where we showcase products made through various experiments with our harvested honey—and ‘Ape Seoul,’ the bees’ café, are brands run together under our parent company, Ingredients Company.

Earlier this year, the ‘missing honeybee’ phenomenon drew public attention, with many pointing to it as evidence of the climate crisis.
I got a lot of questions too, like ‘Are the bees on your rooftop okay?’ I’ve been keeping bees since 2012, but honestly, before I started raising them myself, I didn’t know much about this issue. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), where bee colonies vanish, first appeared around 2006–2007 on beekeeping farms in the US. The causes are believed to include newly emerged pathogens, bee parasites, stress, and pesticides, though researchers are still studying it. As I got more involved in making honey, I naturally became more interested in these issues too.
When you start paying attention to something, you gradually find meaning in it. If managing honeybees in the city can be part of a sustainable way of living—and even a key to addressing the climate crisis—wouldn’t that be good for everyone?

📝 Note 2. What it means to raise bees in the middle of the city

Is keeping bees in the city very different from doing it in the countryside?
In cities across Europe and the US, there’s a lot of green space—forests and parks—so urban beekeeping doesn’t feel that out of place. Seoul, on the other hand, often conjures images of a dense metropolis surrounded by high-rises and apartment complexes, which can make urban beekeeping seem unnatural. But it turns out Seoul actually has a lot of mountains, and roughly 38 percent of the city is green space—similar to Manhattan. That makes it a surprisingly good environment for bees, with plenty of nectar sources. Bees typically forage for pollen and nectar within a two-to-three-kilometer radius. In rural areas, nearby rice paddies or fields might be sprayed with pesticides, creating a harsher environment for bees—something that’s far less likely in the city.

You must learn a lot from keeping bees.
Worker bees live for about a month, while a queen bee can live around four years. As a queen’s egg-laying ability declines or her pheromones weaken, the worker bees communicate among themselves and decide what to do next—this is sometimes called ‘bee democracy.’ They then form a new colony around another queen to continue reproducing. Some people think this aspect of bee life is quite cruel, but I think that’s really just a human perspective. Beekeeping itself is, after all, an artificial act. But unlike keeping a dog or a cat, the point is to understand their instincts and follow them—without trying to make them adapt to the human world.

I see you have a honey sommelier certification from London. What does that training involve?
I completed a two-week program. Over those two weeks, you develop your sensory skills by tasting honey. You learn everything from the scientific theory to methodology, including the honey Flavor Wheel. Like wine or cheese, honey has different flavors, characteristics, and stories depending on where it’s produced. In Korea, the climate and vegetation are fairly similar across regions, so honey tends to taste pretty similar too. But tasting honeys derived from plants grown in a variety of climates was a truly special experience in Europe. Honey isn’t always just sweet—some varieties can taste pungent and sour like cheese, or even salty, bitter, or tart.

Ape Seoul showcases a range of honey flavors using ingredients like truffle, vanilla bean, and lavender. Is that meant to help people move past the idea that ‘honey is always sweet’?
Lavender honey actually exists. Even in places like Provence in southern France, where lavender fields stretch endlessly, only a small amount can be produced. In Korea, the climate isn’t suited for lavender to thrive the way it does in Europe or North America, so naturally, lavender honey doesn’t occur here. To recreate that flavor, we infused lavender into honey we harvested ourselves. After that came spicy, truffle, and vanilla bean versions. Our signature dessert, the canelé, is baked in molds coated with beeswax, giving it a crisp exterior and a moist interior. We’re constantly developing any menu item that can tell a story about honey and bees. We want to show, in a fun and approachable way, that honey pairs well with almost anything.
That’s also why we named the company Ingredients Company. It reflects our aim to dig into ingredients like honey—each carrying its own history and story—and expand that into new products.

📝 Note 3. The growth journal of a neighborhood honey shop

What direction should Ape Seoul take to remain sustainable within the neighborhood?
I think it comes down to a choice. I can’t predict exactly how the future will unfold, but from a business standpoint, I’d love to see Ape Seoul branches open in Jeju, Gangwon-do, and Garosu-gil. I imagine each location having its own distinct character, something that could become part of the appeal for people who visit. For instance, at the original location, it’s a special treat to occasionally run into the owner tending the bees himself. The key challenge is preserving Ape Seoul’s unique identity, authenticity, and original spirit.
There’s also another path: staying rooted in the neighborhood for the long haul, like a beloved local gathering spot. Ape Seoul has been in Hyehwa-dong for five years now, and there’s still so much content I want to fill it with.

From your days brewing coffee on a bicycle to becoming a honey sommelier, what’s been the biggest driving force behind keeping your career going?
Fun. But fun alone is hard to sustain—once the excitement fades, you have to keep finding something new. In my case, it went from bikes and coffee to beekeeping. Now, I’m continuing to search for what’s sustainable within the theme of honey.

What are your plans going forward?
We’re planning to launch an NFT based on our canelés, called ‘Canelé Universe.’ It gives the canelé its own world and characters, with stories unfolding within that universe. There’s a beeswax station to keep the canelés crisp, a club of beekeepers who supply the wax, and of course, the honeybees themselves. In this universe, consumers receive a 3D-rendered honey jar, and the bees that fill that jar are actually raised on their behalf at Ape Seoul. Once we iron out a few technical details, it should be ready to launch soon.

📝 Note 4. Who knew you could indirectly take part in urban beekeeping by purchasing a 3D honey jar as an NFT? It’s amazing how many different kinds of content can be created around a bee theme, beyond just honey-related products. I got a sneak peek into the Cannele Universe, packed with cute and fun illustrations, and I think it’s safe to look forward to its official launch.