Pokémon baked goods booming in South Korea, boosted further by BTS

Those BTS guys have impeccable taste.

If you’ve ever been to the baked goods section of a Japanese supermarket before, you’ve likely come across a range of baked goods such as pancakes and donuts with various Pokémon on the package. Each item comes with a random Pokémon’s sticker inside as a way to recreate the magic of catching them while enjoying some cakes.

▼ Japanese Pokémon baked goods

Conventional thinking would suggest that when a food ties in so heavily with an established IP like Pokémon, it probably isn’t very good. At least that’s what I assumed until one day when I tried one leftover from my daughter and was blown away by how tasty these things are. They’re really a lot better than they have any right to be and match up just as well with conventional brands of baked goods.

▼ Granted, pancakes and chocolate are hard to screw up, but they really over-achieve with these things

As such, they’ve been around a long time in Japan, enjoying steady sales along with the popularity of each game’s release. However, it appears that Pokémon-baked-goods fever has really caught on in South Korea too.

On 23 February, South Korean food producer SPC Samlip announced that they’d be selling Pokémon baked goods for the first time in the country in years. It turned out to be a huge success, and on 3 March the company boasted sales of 1.5 million units in a single week.

▼ South Korean Pokémon baked goods

Image: SPC Samlip

SPC Samlip also reported that the Team Rocket Chocolate Rolls were the most popular item. Other reports have said people have been waiting outside convenience stores for delivery shipments to arrive and showing up at stores at dawn to find some. This craze got even crazier when on 10 March BTS member RM posted his love of Pokémon baked goods on Instagram asking to “please sell more.”

▼ The fleeting post was made to Instagram Stories but luckily everything BTS does is well-documented

✎ᝰ ── ⎙ 𝖨𝗇𝖿𝗈𝗋𝗆𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗈𝗇 ──

RM IG STORY

[ENG TRANS]

🐨: I raid 8 convenience stores
I am requesting 10x more production of choco roll / ghastly

the relaunched pokemon bread is really popular & comes with a sticker. it’s been selling out in Korea#BTS #RM pic.twitter.com/UhFf5uly02

— SUGA (@AUGUSTD16343452) March 8, 2022

With the backing of BTS and their army of fans, there’s no telling how many more units SPC Samlip can move in South Korea, or by extension even in Japan where similar Pokémon baked goods are produced by Daiichi Pan. Netizens in the breads’ home country were happy it was well received, but worried that with all the rabid fans buying them up, they might not reach their target market of children.

“That takes me back. I miss collecting the stickers when I was a kid.”
“Once celebrities support a product, it can become difficult to buy. I hope that doesn’t happen to the kids.”
“I heard sometimes people buy it just for the stickers and throw away the bread. I hope that doesn’t happen too much.”
“I usually buy one when I go shopping with my child. I hope it’s not going to be sold out now.”
“I always only buy the older half-priced ones at the supermarket so there’s always some left for the kids.”
“I could go for one of those right now…”

It’s a reasonable reminder to look out for the little ones when buying Pokémon baked goods and not getting carried away ourselves. I actually do the same as the one comment suggested and only get the discount bin ones. They always taste just as good anyway.

▼ And stickers never go bad

Hopefully the companies can keep up with the supply and demand of their respective countries so that everyone can enjoy these unusually tasty cakes and breads. And if anyone has a Mew sticker they’d like to trade for that lovely one above, please contact me through this website. Thank you.

Source: SPC Samlip 1, 2, Daily, Hachima Kiki
Top image: SPC Samlip
Inset images: © SoraNews24 (Unless otherwise noted)
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