Yogurt chapssaltteok craze sweeps convenience stores and cafes

GS25's Hanjeongseon yogurt chapssaltteok tops 600,000 units sold

Yoajeong, The Venti join trend; DIY recipes go viral on SNS

Customers wait in line at a GS25 store in Gangnam, Seoul, on Aug. 28 for a preview event for the Hanjeongseon yogurt chapssaltteok. [GS25]

A yogurt chapssaltteok craze is sweeping South Korea. The K-dessert brand that sparked the trend — Hanjeongseon — has seen demand outstrip supply, and a convenience store collaboration it launched has proven equally hard to keep on shelves.

GS Retail said Sunday that the Hanjeongseon yogurt chapssaltteok, which GS25 launched on Sept. 3, had surpassed 600,000 units in cumulative sales as of Thursday.

The product is a collaboration between Hanjeongseon — a K-dessert brand that started in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, and has since drawn lines of foreign visitors — and dessert manufacturer Roromelro, offered exclusively through GS25.

The treat replicates the in-store experience: a white rice cake filled with yogurt cream, designed to taste just like the original. Customers can also pair it with various fruits, as they would with Hanjeongseon's own menu items.

Word spread quickly on SNS because shoppers can pick it up at a nearby convenience store without waiting in line at the original outlet.

As consumers flocked to the GS25 app Woori-dong-ne GS to check store inventory, Hanjeongseon climbed to second place in the app's trending search rankings as of 10 a.m., trailing only Minumsa (Minumsa bread).

GS25 plans to sustain the buzz by releasing a second collaboration product — this time in a pistachio flavor — around mid-October. "We expect it to be a hit product following Minumsa bread," a GS25 official said.

The Hanjeongseon yogurt chapssaltteok released by GS25. [GS25]

A screenshot of the Woori-dong-ne GS app showing inventory searches for the Hanjeongseon yogurt chapssaltteok. [Woori-dong-ne GS app]

The yogurt chapssaltteok craze has caught the attention of other franchise brands. Yoajeong launched five varieties of its own fresh-fruit yogurt chapssaltteok at 250 locations on Sept. 19 and has been expanding the rollout since.

The Venti has also entered the space, unveiling a shop-in-shop Greek yogurt brand called Yogeobora and releasing a "Yogeobora Mochi" that combines yogurt cream with melon, Oreo and Yangzkanlou toppings.

On SNS, consumers who cannot find yogurt chapssaltteok in stores have been sharing homemade recipes that combine rice cakes, yogurt and fruit.

"Demand for yogurt chapssaltteok is so strong that it has become difficult to secure chapssaltteok — the key ingredient," an industry official said. "The popularity is expected to continue for now."

spa@heraldcorp.com