Instant coffee mix is on display at a supermarket in Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap

By Park Jae-hyuk

Dongsuh Foods and other food firms producing instant coffee mixes have drawn public attention, since it was confirmed that two miners, who walked out alive of a collapsed zinc mine in Bonghwa County, North Gyeongsang Province, last Friday had survived on instant coffee mix, when they were trapped in the mine for more than nine days.

Their doctor told reporters on Saturday that the miners survived as they had been able to drink coffee for the first three days of the accident by mixing groundwater with 30 packs of the mixture of instant coffee, sugar and cream.

Most instant coffee mix sold in Korea is a high-calorie food containing essential nutrients.

Around 50 kilocalories are in a 12-gram pack of Dongsuh Foods' Maxim Mocha Gold Mild Coffee Mix, which occupies over 80 percent of the market share. The product contains 5 milligrams of sodium, 1.6 grams of fat, 9 grams of carbohydrates, 6 grams of sugar and 1.6 grams of saturated fat.