Korean Candy: The Complete Guide to South Korea’s Best Sweets (Traditional, Modern & What’s Worth Buying)

You’ve been down a K-drama rabbit hole, ordered your first Korean snack box, or wandered through an Asian grocery aisle staring at packaging you can’t read — and now you want to know: what is Korean candy actually like, what’s worth trying first, and how did South Korea become one of the world’s most creative candy markets?

Here’s the short answer: Korean candy spans everything from 400-year-old royal honey confections to chocolate-dipped pretzel sticks that now sell globally. The market was valued at approximately USD 231 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 319 billion by 2033. That’s not a niche category. That’s a full-scale candy culture — and it’s one that rewards people who take the time to understand it rather than just grab whatever looks familiar.linkedin+1

A Brief History of Korean Candy (It Goes Back Further Than You Think)

Korean candy doesn’t start with Lotte or Pepero. It starts in the Goryeo Dynasty, with a confection called Yumilkwa — an oil-and-honey pastry referenced in historical texts as a popular medieval treat. Honey-based sweets were a cornerstone of early Korean confectionery, and they remained central to celebration food through to the Joseon Dynasty, when hangwa (traditional Korean confectionery) was served at royal banquets, Lunar New Year celebrations, and weddings.flipkorea+1

The modern Korean candy industry, as we understand it today, began in 1945 with significant influence from U.S. forces following liberation. Haitai Confectionery — still one of the most recognized names in Korean candy — was among the first producers, with a product called Yeon yang gang as one of the earliest commercial confections. Through the 1970s and 1980s, as South Korea’s broader economy expanded rapidly, the confectionery sector grew with it. Many products launched during that period are still sold today.[koreascience]​

That continuity is part of what makes Korean candy interesting: it’s not a market that abandoned its roots. Traditional formats like yakgwa, yut, and gangjeong exist alongside modern chocolate lines, jelly strips, and K-pop branded limited editions — often from the same company.

Traditional Korean Candy: The Classics That Still Matter

Traditional Korean candy — broadly called hangwa (한과) — covers a wide range of textures and ingredients. Most use combinations of grain flour, honey, sesame oil, malt sugar, or puffed grains. These aren’t “old-fashioned” in a dusty sense; they’ve experienced a genuine culinary revival tied to Korea’s growing interest in food heritage. Here are the ones worth knowing:[flipkorea]​

Yakgwa (약과)
A honey cookie made from wheat flour, honey, sesame oil, and ginger juice, then deep-fried and soaked in honey syrup. Dense, slightly chewy, fragrant — traditionally served at Chuseok (harvest festival) and weddings. Yakgwa has recently gone viral as a street snack and café menu item among younger Koreans.[flipkorea]​

Yut (엿)
A type of Korean taffy made from malt sugar, often stretched and pulled until it turns golden and develops a slightly nutty, deep-molasses flavor. The word yut literally means “candy” in older Korean usage. It’s one of the oldest forms of Korean candy still in commercial production.

Kkul-Tarae (꿀타래)
Thin, hand-pulled strands of honey and malt sugar wrapped around a filling — typically mixed nuts. It was historically a royal treat; today it’s primarily a street food sold in traditional market areas like Insadong in Seoul. The technique involves pulling the sugar threads hundreds of times to create fine, silk-like strands.[facebook]​

Gangjeong (강정)
Puffed rice or puffed grains coated in malt syrup and shaped into bars or balls. Light, crunchy, naturally sweet. Popular during Lunar New Year, and increasingly finding a market as a “clean label” snack due to its simple ingredients.[flipkorea]​

Dasik (다식)
Pressed confections made from rice flour, sesame seeds, or pine pollen, shaped in intricate wooden molds. More artisan than mass-market — these are the Korean candy that looks like it belongs in a museum and tastes like it belongs at a tea ceremony.[flipkorea]​

 Traditional Korean Candy at a Glance

Modern Korean Candy: The Brands That Built the Market

Modern Korean candy is dominated by a handful of conglomerates whose products have become household names — not just in Korea but increasingly across Asia, North America, and Europe. Understanding the brands helps when navigating an unfamiliar aisle.[historyofcandy]​

Lotte Confectionery

Lotte is the largest name in Korean candy and one of the most recognized Asian confectionery brands globally. Key products include:[historyofcandy]​

• Lotte Choco Pie — A chocolate-covered sponge cake with marshmallow filling, first sold in 1979. It has strong cultural significance; during the early 2000s, Choco Pies were famously used as a form of currency in North Korean factories where they were introduced by South Korean businesses.[bokksumarket]​

• Pepero — Chocolate-dipped pretzel sticks, launched in 1983. Pepero Day (November 11, written as 11/11 for the stick shape) is a legitimate commercial holiday in South Korea.[bokksumarket]​

• Dream Cacao — A dark chocolate line positioned at health-conscious consumers.

• White Grape Cheongpodo Candy — A fruit-flavored hard candy beloved for its unusual clean sweetness.[historyofcandy]​

Orion Confectionery

Orion’s most iconic product is the Orion Choco Pie, which actually predates Lotte’s version and launched in the 1970s. Beyond that, Orion is notable for its strong international presence — its snacks are widely distributed across China, Russia, and Vietnam. In April 2025, Orion announced a $580 million investment over three years to expand its manufacturing capacity.90daykorean+1

Haitai Confectionery

Haitai specializes in jelly and gummy candy and is the company behind Haitai Grape Jelly Candy and the Jadu range — plum hard candies that have been produced for nearly 50 years. Jadu has earned a kind of “classic Korean candy” status similar to what Jolly Ranchers carry in the US — polarizing flavor, extremely loyal following.[seoulinspired]​

Crown Confectionery

Crown is known for innovation within the Korean candy space. Their My Chew chewy fruit candies have been a steady seller since the early 2000s. Crown also produces Kancho biscuit snacks — small hollow chocolate-filled crackers that cross the line between candy and biscuit in the most satisfying way.[historyofcandy]​

Korean Candy by Texture: How to Find What You’ll Actually Like

One of the most useful ways to navigate Korean candy — especially for first-time buyers — is by texture, because Korean confectionery has a genuine obsession with texture variety that Western candy markets haven’t replicated to the same degree.[chowhound]​

 Korean Candy by Texture Profile

Industry Applications: Where Korean Candy Shows Up Beyond the Candy Aisle

Korean candy isn’t just a consumer packaged goods story. It appears — and performs — in several other commercial contexts that are worth understanding if you’re sourcing, retailing, or building content around it.

K-culture gift boxes and subscription services
The Korean Wave (Hallyu) created an export market for Korean candy that is largely driven by cultural interest rather than traditional grocery distribution. Subscription boxes like Bokksu have made Korean candy accessible to consumers in markets where Korean grocery stores are rare, and they’ve documented which products drive the most engagement — chocolate-coated sticks and novelty formats consistently outperform plain hard candy in foreign markets.[agoda]​

Travel retail and duty-free
Korean candy is one of the most purchased souvenir categories among tourists visiting South Korea. Items like Pepero, Choco Pie varieties, and premium yakgwa packaged in traditional gift boxes are specifically produced for the duty-free and tourist gift market.[agoda]​

Convenience store culture (편의점)
South Korea has one of the highest convenience store densities in the world, and Korean candy moves significantly through this channel. GS25, CU, and 7-Eleven Korea regularly release limited-edition Korean candy collaborations with entertainment IP (K-pop groups, webtoons, games), which drives impulse purchasing and secondary resale markets.[90daykorean]​

Halal market expansion
The Korean confectionery industry has been actively developing Halal-certified products since the mid-2010s, targeting markets in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Haitai and Lotte both have Halal-certified Korean candy lines. This is a growth segment that’s been specifically identified in industry research as an “underdeveloped market” with significant upside.[koreascience]​

Premium gifting (선물세트)
In Korea, confectionery gift sets — beautifully packaged collections of premium candy and chocolate — are a standard part of major holidays like Chuseok and Seollal (Lunar New Year). This “gift set” culture means the Korean candy market has a genuinely premium tier that operates quite separately from everyday snack purchasing.[flipkorea]​

Korean Candy and the Chocolate Market: What the Numbers Say

The South Korean chocolate market — a significant subset of the broader Korean candy category — was worth USD 732 million in 2026 and is projected to reach USD 824 million by 2031 at a CAGR of 2.41%. The major players are Lotte Wellfood, Orion Confectionery, Crown Confectionery, Ferrero, and Mars.[mordorintelligence]​

A few data points that reveal where the market is actually moving:

• Milk and white chocolate currently dominate with 63.12% market share in 2025.

• Chocolate escuro is the fastest-growing segment at a projected 3.60% CAGR through 2031, driven by health-conscious purchasing.[mordorintelligence]​

• Sugar-free Korean candy lines are advancing at 3.44% CAGR — not dominant yet, but growing faster than the overall category.

• O luxury/artisanal tier is expanding at 3.62% CAGR, outpacing mass market growth.[mordorintelligence]​

• South Korea’s candy and snack market overall is projected at approximately ₩12.94 trillion in 2025.[sweetsandsnacks]​

The viral “Dubai chocolate” trend — pistachio cream and kadaif-filled chocolate bars — hit South Korea in 2024 and accelerated consumer openness to unexpected flavors and textures in the Korean candy space.[mordorintelligence]​

Common Mistakes When Buying Korean Candy (Especially Online)

These errors show up repeatedly among first-time buyers and small retailers alike:

Confusing Korean candy with Japanese candy
They share shelf space in Asian grocery sections and overlap in some flavors (both markets love milk, red bean, and matcha). But the flavor profiles, sweetness levels, and formats are distinct. Korean candy tends to be less subtly sweet and often bolder in fruit flavor compared to the more restrained Japanese wagashi tradition.

Buying novelty over repeatability
K-pop branded Korean candy packaging is designed to catch attention. That’s its job. The actual candy inside is often a standard format (usually a barra de chocolate ou goma). If you’re building a repeat-purchase product line, prioritize flavor and texture first.

Ignoring regional convenience store exclusives
Some of the most interesting Korean candy releases never hit export markets — they live in Korean convenience stores for 8–12 weeks and disappear. If you’re sourcing for a review channel or gift box, Korean convenience store exclusives require a local contact or a specialized import agent.

Storing Korean candy incorrectly
Chocolate-coated Korean candy (Pepero, Choco Pie) blooms quickly in warm climates. Chewy candies like My Chew harden in cold, dry conditions. Traditional hangwa like yakgwa has a short shelf life without preservatives. Storage conditions matter more than most buyers account for.

Future Trends: Where Korean Candy Is Going in 2026 and Beyond

The Korean candy category is not static. Several clear trajectories are already underway:

Health-forward reformulation
Sugar-free, reduced-calorie, and functional Korean candy are all in active development. The market for sugar-free Korean candy is growing at 3.44% CAGR — small now, but that’s where category expansion investment is going. Expect more Korean candy to carry fiber, protein, or adaptogens as positioned additions rather than just novelty claims.[mordorintelligence]​

Traditional hangwa revival as premium product
Yakgwa has already gone through a social-media-driven revival among younger Koreans. The broader hangwa category — dasik, gangjeong, traditional yut — is following the same pattern. Premium hangwa packaged in design-forward gift boxes is an emerging export opportunity.[flipkorea]​

Global IP collaboration
Korean candy brands are increasingly partnering with entertainment IP not just domestically but for international markets. Pepero’s status as a “K-culture gift” has been deliberately cultivated through partnerships with K-pop labels. Expect this to deepen as K-drama and K-pop fanbases continue expanding in North America, Southeast Asia, and Europe.

Dubai chocolate spillover into Korean formats
The viral Dubai chocolate trend introduced Korean consumers to new texture expectations — specifically, the combination of crunch, creaminess, and unusual nut-paste fillings. Korean candy brands will likely incorporate these texture profiles into new product lines over the next 12–18 months.[mordorintelligence]​

Halal certification as a market-opening strategy
With domestic Korean candy market growth slowing due to saturation, international markets — especially Southeast Asia and the Middle East — represent the clearest growth runway. Halal-certified Korean candy is already in production at Lotte and Haitai; the scaling of that category is a strategic priority.[koreascience]​

Perguntas frequentes

What is the most popular Korean candy internationally?
Pepero is consistently cited as the most recognized Korean candy outside of Korea, followed by Orion and Lotte Choco Pie. Pepero’s recognition comes partly from its simplicity (chocolate + pretzel stick), partly from “Pepero Day” cultural visibility, and partly from its wide distribution through Asian grocery stores globally.[bokksumarket]​

Is Korean candy different from Japanese candy?
Yes, meaningfully. Korean candy tends toward bolder fruit flavors, firmer textures, and higher sweetness levels than Japanese candy, which more often emphasizes umami-adjacent or subtly sweet profiles. The packaging and marketing aesthetics are also distinct, with Korean candy leaning into bright, high-contrast branding while Japanese candy often favors pastel and minimalist designs.

What traditional Korean candy should someone try first?
Yakgwa is the most accessible entry point into traditional Korean candy. It’s widely available, pairs well with both coffee and tea, and its flavor — honey, sesame, subtle ginger — is genuinely unlike anything in Western confectionery. Kkul-Tarae is a close second if you’re in Seoul or visiting a traditional market.[flipkorea]​

Where can I buy Korean candy outside of Korea?
Asian grocery chains (H Mart, Lotte Mart locations in the US), Korean subscription boxes (Bokksu, Snack Fever), and Korean sections on Amazon all carry a range of Korean candy. For traditional hangwa, specialty Korean food online retailers and direct-from-Korea shipping services are the most reliable sources.

Is Korean candy vegan-friendly?
Traditional hangwa (gangjeong, dasik, yakgwa) is often naturally plant-based — primarily grain flour, honey, and sesame oil. However, the honey content makes strict vegan classification complicated. Modern Korean candy products like Pepero, Choco Pie, and most chocolate lines contain milk derivatives. Always check the ingredient list on individual products.[flipkorea]​

1. 13 Korean Candies You Need To Try At Least Once — Chowhound
   https://www.chowhound.com/1865865/korean-candies-to-try/[chowhound]​

2. Exploring Lotte’s Legacy: A Journey Through Korean Snacks and Drinks — Bokksu
   https://bokksumarket.com/blogs/magazine/exploring-lottes-legacy-a-journey-through-korean-snacks-and-drinks[bokksumarket]​

3. Korean Snacks: 24 Popular Traditional and Modern Treats — 90 Day Korean
   https://www.90daykorean.com/korean-snacks/[90daykorean]​

4. South Korea Chocolate Market – Size, Share & Trends — Mordor Intelligence
   https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/south-korea-chocolate-market[mordorintelligence]​

5. History of the Korean Confectionery Industry — Korea Science
   https://koreascience.kr/article/JAKO202027265524307.page[koreascience]​