CU, Buy Naengmyeon or Chogyeguksu and Get a Free Ice Cup... Also Launches Special Bibimbap

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] CU has launched a summer snack series including cold buckwheat noodles (naengmyeon), Chogye noodles, and special bibimbap on the 14th to mark the Boknal season. The quantity of related products has also been increased more than twice compared to previous years.

Cold buckwheat noodles consist of chewy buckwheat noodles and broth served with green onions, radish juice, and fresh wasabi. Chogye noodles are a summer health food made by wrapping thin noodles and chicken in a broth made from chicken stock and dongchimi (radish water kimchi) soup. To maximize the coolness, a Delafe ice cup is given free with the purchase of the product.

Special bibimbap is a healthy bibimbap featuring young radish kimchi as the main ingredient along with seasonal ingredients for the summer. When mixed with stir-fried pork belly kimchi, perilla leaf sprouts, spinach seasoned with soybean paste, stir-fried zucchini, egg garnish, and strong soybean paste sauce, it offers the authentic flavor of countryside bibimbap.

At the end of last month, the first-ever convenience store industry launch of Ilpum Kongguksu (premium soybean noodles) and Kimchi Mari Guksu (kimchi rolled noodles) became CU’s top-selling products ranking first and second in the cooked noodle category. As sales of summer products increased, CU’s total cooked noodle sales also rose significantly by 121.4% compared to the previous year. Previously, health foods targeting single-person households were launched, including Deokbune (愛) set meal and Ori Power-up rice bowl made with duck meat, and whole grilled domestic sea eel with sauce.

Jung Jae-hyun, product planner (MD) of BGF Retail’s ready meal team, said, “With summer temperatures recently exceeding 30 degrees Celsius, demand for cool menus has sharply increased, so this year we greatly expanded the lineup of summer limited products centered on cooked noodles.” He added, “We are commercializing foods with high seasonal preference to capture changing consumer tastes according to the season.”