If you’ve been in Korea this autumn and wondered why people are lining up outside a chocolate shop in a Jamsil mall before sunrise, the answer is a chewy, glutinous one: tteok (떡), Korea’s traditional rice cake, is the dessert of the moment.
This is the next chapter of a story we covered earlier this year, when the Dubai chewy cookie (두쫀쿠) took over Seoul’s cafes and convenience stores. Korean media now describe tteok as the item that “picked up where the dujjonku left off”, complete with the open run (오픈런, queuing before a shop opens) culture that comes with it. Here’s what’s happening, what to look for, and how to try it as a visitor.
A note on timing: Korean dessert crazes move in weeks, not seasons. Stock levels, queue rules and prices below reflect Korean press coverage from early to mid-October 2026, so treat them as a snapshot.
In this guide:
- What Is Happening: Tteok Is Now a Dessert
- The Three Tteok Items Everyone Is Talking About
- Why Tteok, and Why Now?
- How to Try It as a Visitor
- The Backlash: When Open Run Gets Out of Hand
- Quick Reference
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Is Happening: Tteok Is Now a Dessert
For most of its history, tteok was food for ceremonies, holidays and the occasional street snack. In 2026 it has been rebranded as a trendy dessert. Korean social-listening data cited in the press shows posts pairing tteok with the word “dessert” up more than 40% year on year, and the pattern is familiar: a viral clip, a limited drop, an open run, then a copycat on every shelf.
The shift has been building all year. Butter tteok (버터떡), a baked, crisp-edged rice cake that reinterprets a Shanghai-style sweet, took off in early 2026 as the Dubai cookie cooled, with Korean coverage reporting roughly 970,000 portal searches in the first three weeks of March alone. Then came yogurt mochi, fruit-filled glutinous rice cakes and chocolate-ganache versions. Young Koreans now plan trips around famous rice cake shops, a habit the press calls 떡지순례 (tteok-jisunrye, “tteok pilgrimage”).
The Three Tteok Items Everyone Is Talking About
1. Hanjeongseon Yogurt Chapssaltteok at GS25
The easiest one for visitors. Hanjeongseon (한정선) is a dessert brand from Seoul’s Seongsu neighbourhood whose yogurt-cream glutinous rice cakes drew long lines at the original shop. In September, convenience chain GS25 launched a collaboration version, a soft rice-cake shell filled with yogurt cream, for ₩3,900.
Korean outlets report it passed 700,000 units sold within weeks, with one headline noting it out-sold canned beer in the chain’s rankings. GS25 followed up in October with a pistachio version, also ₩3,900: 20,000 were pre-sold through the chain’s neighbourhood app from 7 to 10 October, and general in-store sales began on 15 October. Pistachio is a deliberate nod to the Dubai cookie crowd.
2. Godiva Mochi at Lotte World Mall (Jamsil)
The extreme end of the craze. Godiva sells a mochi made with chocolate ganache and fruit such as strawberry or mandarin, only at its Lotte World Mall (Jamsil) store, limited to 150 per day, at roughly ₩7,500 to ₩9,000 each. According to press reports, in-store payment opens at 9 a.m. and pickup starts at 10:30 a.m., so people began queuing the night before. Some reports describe lines forming around 4 a.m. and even earlier. Search interest peaked right around 1 October. Godiva has said it is considering expanding beyond the one store.
The appeal is the pull shot: cut or tear the mochi and the fruit and cream are revealed, the exact kind of clip that spreads on Reels and Shorts.
3. Fruit Chapssaltteok and Butter Tteok at Specialist Shops
Fruit-filled glutinous rice cakes are the other big look this month, with Korean outlets reporting weekday waits of around 90 minutes at popular specialists. Butter tteok, meanwhile, has moved from viral to ordinary: bakeries and cafes across Seoul now sell their own versions, and it tends to be cheaper and less of a gamble than the headline items.
Why Tteok, and Why Now?
The dessert cycle is brutally short. Analysts quoted in Korean business media say that low entry barriers make dessert trends burn out fast, so the market keeps hunting for a fresh base ingredient. Tteok is familiar, cheap to produce, endlessly fillable and already has a built-in nostalgia that feels new.
It looks great on camera. Stretch, cut and cream-reveal shots are the core of the format, and chewiness is the point.
It’s an affordable treat. One consumer quoted in coverage said butter tteok was less of a burden than the Dubai cookie, whose prices rose steeply at its peak. A Korean professor cited in the same reporting described dessert as a small reward people reach for when budgets are tight.
The numbers back it up. Herald Economy reported tteok sales growing about 70% to roughly ₩962 billion, with tteok imports also rising in 2026. Online grocer Kurly has reported rice cake and traditional sweets sales roughly doubling year on year over the summer, and a Changeok tteok pop-up reportedly drew more than 10,000 visitors, mostly in their 20s and 30s.
How to Try It as a Visitor
You do not need to queue overnight. In rough order of effort:
- Walk into a GS25. Look in the chilled dessert section for the Hanjeongseon yogurt or pistachio chapssaltteok (₩3,900). Stock can run out, so check a second branch if the first is empty. Branches near offices and universities tend to restock on a predictable schedule.
- Try a neighbourhood tteok cafe or bakery. Butter tteok and cream rice cakes are now in dessert cafes in Seongsu, Mangwon and elsewhere. Our Mangwon-dong cafe guide and Seongsu dining guide are good starting points.
- Visit a traditional shop. Classic tteok shops in places like Jongno sell injeolmi (roasted soybean powder rice cake), kkul-tteok and mugwort versions for a few thousand won, often just for takeaway. Go in the morning; many sell out by early afternoon. After your visit, our Jongno 3-ga neighbourhood guide covers what to see nearby.
- Go for the Godiva line only if you want the story. If you do, expect a very early start, cash and card ready, and a plan B. It is a limited-release experience rather than a must-try.
Tip: Ask for items “to go” and eat within a few hours. Fresh tteok hardens in the fridge; if it does, a few seconds in the microwave brings back the chew.
The Backlash: When Open Run Gets Out of Hand
Not everyone is enjoying the frenzy. Korean consumers have asked why a ₩9,000 dessert requires an overnight queue instead of an online reservation, and some press coverage raised safety concerns over crowds gathering in the dark before dawn. Commentators have also pointed to the cycle itself, noting that once a hit moves to convenience stores, the shine tends to fade. For travellers, that argues for the easy route: the convenience-store and cafe versions deliver the same flavour with none of the sleep loss.
Quick Reference
| What | Details |
|---|---|
| The trend | Tteok (rice cake) reinvented as a viral dessert, following the Dubai chewy cookie |
| Easiest to try | Hanjeongseon x GS25 yogurt chapssaltteok, ₩3,900 (pistachio version from 15 Oct) |
| Hardest to get | Godiva mochi, Lotte World Mall Jamsil, 150 per day, ~₩7,500 to ₩9,000 |
| Also trending | Butter tteok, fruit chapssaltteok, tteok pilgrimages to regional shops |
| Why it’s viral | Cream-reveal and stretch clips, low price, nostalgic ingredient |
| Expect | Fast sell-outs, changing rules, and a trend that could cool within weeks |
| Related reading | Dubai chewy cookie, Korean snacks to bring home, Korea trending now |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is tteok? Tteok (떡) is Korean rice cake, made from steamed or pounded rice flour. Types range from chewy glutinous cakes (chapssaltteok) and soybean-powder-coated injeolmi to the stir-fried tteokbokki variety.
What is the tteok dessert trend in Korea? It is a 2026 craze in which rice cakes are filled with cream, fruit, yogurt, chocolate or pistachio and sold as trendy desserts, often in limited quantities that create queues.
What is the cheapest way to try it? The GS25 Hanjeongseon yogurt or pistachio chapssaltteok, at ₩3,900 from convenience stores, with no queue in most cases.
What is an “open run”? An open run (오픈런) is queuing before a shop opens in order to buy a limited item. For the Godiva mochi, some people began lining up the night before.
Is the trend going to last? Probably not in this form. Korean dessert crazes typically peak and fade within weeks to months, but tteok has deeper roots than most, so expect cream-filled rice cakes to remain on menus after the headline items disappear.
Whatever happens to the queues, the tteok boom is a neat snapshot of modern Korean food culture, where a centuries-old staple can become the country’s most-photographed dessert in a matter of weeks. For a visitor, the best plan is also the simplest: grab one from a convenience store, find a bench, and see what the fuss is about.
