A dujjonku-inspired served because the dessert for all course menus by February at Pierre Gagnaire à Séoul, the French restaurant at Lotte Lodge Seoul / Courtesy of Lotte Lodge & Resorts
A dessert pattern that started behind cafe counters is now breaking out — and reshaping Korea’s retail market.
Often known as “Dujjonku” — brief for “Dubai chewy cookie” — the deal with has turn into an immediate sell-out at comfort shops and has even begun showing on the dessert menus at luxurious accommodations.
At Pierre Gagnaire à Séoul, a French restaurant at Lotte Lodge Seoul in central Seoul, dujjonku-inspired petit 4 are being provided because the dessert for all course menus by February, in line with the lodge business on Tuesday.
The dish substitutes kataifi — skinny Center Jap pastry strands which have turn into troublesome to supply amid the pattern — with Pailleté Feuilletine, a crispy crepe flake providing an identical texture. Pistachio is added, earlier than the dessert is wrapped in a skinny marshmallow layer and completed with cocoa powder.
“For lodge eating places, that are sometimes gradual to mirror developments, to launch one thing this shortly exhibits how sturdy the dujjonku craze has turn into,” a lodge business official stated.
Dujjonku is a Korean reinterpretation of the Dubai chocolate pattern that gained reputation in 2024. It blends crispness with sweetness and nuttiness, and regardless of being labeled a cookie, its chewy texture is nearer to that of rice cake.
Its rise was accelerated by celeb social media posts, spawning on-line “dujjonku maps” that observe cafes promoting the dessert and their remaining inventory. With provides disappearing shortly after opening, early-morning visits shortly grew to become the norm.
Comfort shops rush to seize demand
CU private-brand desserts impressed by dujjonku (Dubai chewy cookie), together with the Kataifi Chocolate Chewy Rice Cake / Courtesy of BGF Retail
Comfort retailer chains had been fast to capitalize on the pattern, discovering notable success with private-brand merchandise based mostly on dujjonku. CU, which launched objects like Kataifi Chocolate Chewy Rice Cake, Dubai Chocolate Brownie and Kataifi Chewy Macaron in late October final 12 months, offered greater than 1.8 million models of the rice cake alone over three months. Cumulative gross sales of Dubai-themed merchandise surpassed over 8.3 million models.
The corporate additionally plans to roll out the Dubai Model Towel Cake beginning Wednesday. First launched final December, the product’s preliminary batch of 40,000 models offered out shortly, adopted by one other sell-out of 21,000 models by preorder this month. CU can be getting ready to introduce two new Dubai themed objects within the close to future.
GS25 additionally joined the pattern, releasing a collection of Dubai chocolate desserts since final October, together with chocolate bars and chocolate balls. The merchandise have offered greater than 1 million models, with sell-through charges reaching 97 %, shortly turning them into immediate sell-outs.
Common month-to-month gross sales of the merchandise are actually greater than 4.3 instances larger than within the first month. As extra shoppers strive making dujjonku at dwelling, gross sales of marshmallows — a key ingredient — have additionally surged practically fiftyfold.
Visible attraction fuels social media demand
GS25’s Dubai Chewy Chocolate Ball, left, and 7-Eleven’s Kataifi Chewy Ball, each impressed by dujjonku / Courtesy of GS Retail and 7-Eleven
Earlier this month, 7-Eleven additionally adopted go well with by introducing the Kadayif Ball. Inside simply 11 days, dessert-category gross sales jumped 250 %. Inspired by the response, 7-Eleven plans to launch new desserts utilizing kataifi.
Emart24 has additionally benefited from the craze. After releasing two Dubai-inspired desserts final month — Chocolate Kataifi Mochi and Chocolate Castella Kataifi Mochi — each merchandise recorded second-week gross sales will increase of 81 % in contrast with their first week. The momentum helped push month-to-month cumulative gross sales previous 180,000 models, inserting the 2 objects first and second within the dessert class.
The surge in demand was additionally mirrored on-line, the place associated search phrases ranked first and second on Emart24’s cell app, suggesting sturdy conversion from client curiosity to buy.
“Its attraction goes past style,” a retail business official stated. “The visuals make it extremely shareable on Instagram and different social media. In a difficult enterprise atmosphere, dujjonku is prone to stay a dependable income driver for a while.”
Emart24’s Chocolate Castella Kataifi Mochi and Chocolate Kataifi Mochi, launched final month / Courtesy of Emart24
This text from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Instances, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Instances.
