Convenience Store Desserts That Overcame COVID-19... CU Passes the Baton with 'Dalgona Series'

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] As the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) situation prolongs, convenience store desserts are experiencing a sudden boom, leading to a flood of new products.

According to convenience store CU on the 19th, dessert sales have maintained high growth rates for three consecutive years: 33.1% in 2017, 331.8% in 2018, and 23.1% in 2019. In particular, dessert sales growth rate in the first quarter of this year recorded 36.8%. This is 13 percentage points higher than the growth rate in the first quarter of last year, before the outbreak of COVID-19.

The continuous increase in dessert sales is due to more customers seeking sweet desserts as a mood booster to soothe the depression and lethargy known as ‘coronablue.’ Instead of visiting crowded cafes or bakeries, more customers are opting to satisfy their dessert cravings through convenience stores or delivery services, which has also driven strong sales.

In response, CU is sequentially launching the Dalgona dessert series to strengthen its dessert lineup. This series is designed to allow anyone to easily enjoy the famous Dalgona cream, which is known to require stirring over 400 times to achieve its taste. It is available in various forms such as macarons, cream cakes, roll bread, and candies.

The first product, ‘Chewy Dalgona Macaron,’ features CU’s special shell that is crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, filled with three flavors of cream: milk, latte, and dalgona. Eating from the lighter-colored shell to the darker-colored shell allows for a delicious experience without getting tired of the taste. The ‘Dalgona Cream Cake’ is a petite cake topped with rich dalgona cream on moist and fluffy sponge cake.

Kim Seok-hwan, head of the snack food team at BGF Retail, said, “As more customers enjoy desserts at home due to COVID-19, CU dessert sales continue to rise steadily. CU will continue to strengthen a variety of trendy desserts that home cafe enthusiasts practicing social distancing can find at nearby stores.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.