Convenience stores are releasing one rice cake dessert after another. The range has widened from traditional rice cakes such as injeolmi and baekseolgi to fusion products with chocolate and pizza toppings. As chewy-textured desserts gain popularity on social networking services (SNS), the industry appears to be expanding its related product lineups.
According to the convenience store industry on the 26th, GS Retail's GS25 will begin selling the 'Sulbing Pizza Seolgi' at stores nationwide on Nov. 5. It is a frozen dessert with pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni, corn and other toppings on baekseolgi. Baekseolgi takes the place of pizza dough to bring out the chewiness. It weighs 130 g and costs 3,900 won. Ahead of the official launch, GS25 will take pre-orders, limited to 5,000 units, on the mobile app 'Uri Dongne GS' from the 26th to the 31st.
BGF Retail's CU is targeting consumers with products that combine rice cake and chocolate. The 'Fresh Chocolate Mochi' and 'Fresh Chocolate Matcha Mochi' introduced in September passed 400,000 units in cumulative sales within a month. On the 22nd, CU newly launched the 'Mochi Pave Chocolate Matcha Flavor', which adds rich pave chocolate to chewy mochi. It costs 4,500 won.
CU's rice cake sales are growing every year. They rose 42.2% from the previous year in 2024 and 17.6% in 2025. Sales for January to September this year jumped 96.5% from a year earlier. For the 1st to 22nd, after the Fresh Chocolate Mochi series was released, the growth rate of rice cake sales reached 158.9% from the same period last year.
Korea Seven's 7-Eleven will release 'Pumpkin Injeolmi Tteok' and 'Black Sesame Tteok' on the 29th. The products drew ideas from the menus of popular rice cake specialty shops and cost 3,500 won each. The pumpkin injeolmi uses domestic glutinous rice and sweet pumpkin powder, with sponge cake crumbs on the surface. The black sesame rice cake adds a nutty flavor with black sesame powder coating injeolmi filled with red bean paste. Each product contains six pieces.
The growth rate of 7-Eleven's rice cake sales was 62% for January to September this year versus the same period last year, a wider increase than the 19% growth over the same period last year. Rice cake sales to foreign customers rose 80% during the period. Two mochi products from the Japanese chocolate brand Tirol, relaunched in September, sold 200,000 units through the 21st.
Cited as background to the rise in rice cake desserts is that more consumers want products that give familiar ingredients a different taste and texture. On SNS, the so-called 'tteok pilgrimage', in which people seek out and taste rice cakes at popular shops, is a hot topic. Products combining ingredients familiar to younger consumers, such as chocolate and matcha, are also becoming more common. As foreign tourists' rice cake purchases increase, product development targeting K-dessert demand also continues.
A convenience store industry official said, “As rice cake desserts boasting unique textures and flavors draw attention mainly on SNS, more customers are looking for related products,” adding, “We are widening customers' choices by introducing new products that incorporate various ingredients.”