Following the early-year surge of Dubai chewy cookies (Dujonku), which swept the dessert market, unique snacks utilizing rice cakes have emerged as a trend. Centered on social media, items such as pizza seolgi and chapssaltteok have gained popularity, leading to phenomena like "rice cake pilgrimages" to famous rice cake shops and "open runs." In response, the convenience store industry has swiftly moved to commercialize these products.
According to industry sources on the 6th, convenience stores are reinterpreting rice cakes that have become topics of conversation on social media into products that can be easily enjoyed at convenience stores. CU will launch "Pizza Jeolpyeon" on the 8th, a product utilizing jeolpyeon (a type of Korean rice cake). Inspired by existing pizza seolgi, which uses baekseolgi (white glutinous rice cake) like pizza dough, this product uses chewy jeolpyeon as the base. Tomato sauce is spread over the jeolpyeon, topped with mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, corn, and olives. In particular, when heated in a microwave for about 20 seconds, the jeolpyeon becomes soft and chewy, enhancing the flavor of the pizza jeolpyeon.
GS25 will launch "Han Jeong-sun Pistachio Chapssaltteok" in collaboration with dessert brands Loro Mello and Han Jeong-sun. This is a follow-up product to the "Han Jeong-sun Yogurt Chapssaltteok" introduced last month. This product features ground roasted pistachios inside the chapssaltteok. Pre-orders for 20,000 units will be accepted via the Our Neighborhood GS app from the 7th to the 10th of this month, with in-store sales beginning on the 15th.
The previously launched Han Jeong-sun Yogurt Chapssaltteok took first place overall in GS25 Quick Commerce delivery and pickup sales for September, surpassing canned beer. The number of searches for related products on the Our Neighborhood GS app also reached a cumulative 6 million. Cumulative sales volume stands at 700,000 units.
E-Mart24 sold 11 popular items from Yeongdo Bridge Rice Cake Shop and Iksan Nonghyup Rice Cake Shop at its Trend Lab Seongsu store in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, and Dessert Lab Seoul Forest store from the 17th to the 20th of last month. Customers lined up in front of the stores before sales began, showing high interest, and the prepared stock of approximately 26,000 units sold out completely.
In particular, "Bulgogi Pizza Seolgi" saw its initial day's stock sell out by mid-morning. On the following day, despite increasing the prepared stock, most of it sold out by mid-morning, prompting additional inventory to be arranged for the afternoon.
The industry has noted the elevated status of rice cakes in this year's dessert market. According to big data analysis platform SumTrend, an analysis of online posts from January to August this year showed that posts mentioning "rice cake" as a "dessert" increased by more than 40% compared to the same period last year. Pizza seolgi originated at Yeongdo Bridge Rice Cake Shop in Busan and is a product made by topping baekseolgi with tomato sauce, cheese, ham, and other ingredients. Gaining attention through social media, various modified menus topped with bulgogi, corn cheese, and others flooded the dessert market. The phenomenon of "open runs," where dozens of people line up to get pizza seolgi or Han Jeong-sun, has occurred, and maps of pizza seolgi gourmet spots have been shared on social media.
A distribution industry official stated, "Since rice cakes are a familiar food, there is a high possibility that consumers will accept them as fresh when new ingredients or combinations are added," adding, "The convenience store industry's movement to quickly commercialize products that become topics of conversation on social media and connect one-time trends to actual purchases is expected to continue."
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