Every June, something shifts at the Korean table. The heat arrives, the menus change, and the conversation turns to what's cold, what's light, and what everyone is eating right now. This month, the table is getting hotter — and considerably cooler — at the same time.
(From left) Oldies Taco, one of Seoul's most popular taco spots, collaborated with Emart24 to bring Mexican flavors home — perfect for watching the match. Pizzamall's World Cup special: pizzas inspired by participating nations. Doritos launches a new Mexican Taco flavor.
Image: No Brand Instagram, Pizzamall Instagram, Lotte Wellfood
When Soccer Becomes a Food Trend
The 2026 FIFA World Cup runs from June 11 through July 19, hosted across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. And this year, watching it from Seoul feels different.
Korea's default soccer food is chimaek — fried chicken and cold beer, consumed late at night with the volume up. But the games this tournament air at 10 or 11 in the morning Korea time, a 15-hour gap from the stadiums in North America. The old playbook doesn't apply. Brunch cafés are opening early for match days. People are watching with coffee, non-alcoholic drinks, and light bites instead of beer and wings. The post-game crowd disperses before lunch. It's a quieter kind of watching — and a different kind of eating. Morning soccer calls for morning food: lighter, finger-friendly, easy to eat on the couch.
Which is part of why Mexican food is everywhere right now. Korea and Mexico ended up in the same group — Group A — and the two countries share a history that makes the matchup feel like more than a scheduling coincidence. In 2018, South Korea knocked out Germany in the final group stage match, inadvertently saving Mexico from elimination. The moment went viral. Mexican fans sent flowers to the Korean embassy in Mexico City. It became one of those rare sports stories that crossed into actual goodwill — and it hasn't faded.
The food industry moved fast. Convenience stores rolled out birria ramen, nachos, nacho-style corn chips, Mexico-flavor Doritos, and guacamole-topped burgers — Emart24 even collaborated with Oldies Taco, the cult taco stand tucked into the printing alleys of Euljiro that's had a line out the door since it opened, to bring Mexican flavors into the convenience store aisle. Pizza chains released country-by-country World Cup menus. McDonald's brought back limited-edition match-day cups with player illustrations. Partly the World Cup venue effect, partly the Korea–Mexico connection — and partly because Korean palates, shaped by fermented heat and bold seasoning, don't find chili and lime all that foreign.
Cold Noodles Season Has Officially Begun
Alongside the tacos, something more familiar is happening: Korea has switched into naengmyeon mode.
Cold buckwheat noodles — served either in icy clear broth (mul naengmyeon) or tossed in a spicy sauce (bibim naengmyeon) — are one of those dishes that signals summer in Korea the way iced coffee does in the West. Supermarkets stack it by the entrance. Restaurant lines double. The question shifts from what do you want for lunch to mul or bibim.
Not ready to commit to a full restaurant bowl? Convenience stores across Korea have already rolled out their seasonal cold noodle lineups — including yeolmu naengmyeon made with young radish kimchi broth. Summer bibimmyeon is also worth picking up while you're there: boil for two to three minutes like instant noodles, toss in the sauce, done. Light, cheap, and genuinely refreshing. The full naengmyeon story — including how to tell your Hamhung from your Pyongyang — is coming soon.
(From left) The 2026 Four Seasons Seoul apple mango bingsu, delicately layered with Jeju-grown apple mango — 149,000 won(around $98). Mega Coffee's cup bingsu, available for around 4,000 won(around $3). Both are limited to the summer season.
Image: Four Seasons Hotel Seoul, Mega Coffee
Bingsu Season Is Here
If cold noodles are Korea's savory answer to summer, bingsu is the sweet one. Shaved ice topped with sweetened red beans, rice cake, and condensed milk has been a Korean summer staple for generations — but every June, it kicks off with a particular kind of theater.
Seoul's luxury hotels open their apple mango bingsu season like an annual event. Shilla, Lotte, Signiel, and Four Seasons all run their versions built around Jeju-grown apple mangoes — the sweetest, most intensely flavored variety Korea produces. Prices run 120,000 to 150,000 won a bowl, and they sell out regardless. The apple mango bingsu has become its own cultural moment: something people plan around, wait for, and photograph extensively.
But the real bingsu war is being fought elsewhere. Coffee chains across Korea have been expanding their cup bingsu lineups, turning shaved ice into something portable, affordable, and everywhere. Classic red bean and injeolmi (roasted soybean powder rice cake) still anchor the menus, but mango, watermelon, tomato, and persimmon versions are pulling their weight. Same summer, different price point — and honestly, the cup bingsu from a coffee chain on a hot afternoon holds its own.
Eating Light This Summer
Korea's low-sugar obsession didn't start this season — it's been building for years, quietly reshaping shelf after shelf. The domestic zero-sugar market has grown nearly eightfold since 2018. Soju went low-sugar years ago. Yeokgi Tteokbokki — one of Korea's most beloved spicy rice cake chains — has a low-sugar version now. When the tteokbokki goes low-sugar, the wave has gone everywhere.
This summer, the cold food category joined in. Myonsarang released a low-sugar naengmyeon broth — cold noodle soup, not exactly a dessert, getting the zero-sugar treatment anyway. Pulmuone launched a low-calorie dongchimi naengmyeon. Gong Cha, a brand built entirely on sweet milk teas, rolled out a dedicated zero-sugar summer lineup. Coffee chains are pushing low-sugar juice options alongside their iced drinks. The logic isn't sacrifice — it's having both.
(From left) The still-sold-out Chokchokhan Hwang-Chijeu chip. Matcha Hetbahn — steamed rice made with matcha. Sulbing's Ube Berry Cheese Bingsu, from the shaved ice chain that leaned fully into the ube moment.
Image: Orion, CJ, Sulbing
The Dessert Wave That Never Quite Ended
Korean dessert trends have a reputation for burning fast and disappearing — the two-jjon cookie craze, the butter rice cake moment, the sweet bun obsession that swept cafés and then vanished. But some things keep going.
Hwang-chijeu — the intensely sharp, savory yellow cheese flavor that triggered near-nationwide sellouts last year — is fading from its peak, but the original hwang-chijeu chip is still nowhere to be found. New iterations keep arriving — hwang-chijeu Pepero, hwang-chijeu cream puffs, a GS25 Basque cheesecake — but the chip itself remains stubbornly absent from shelves.
Matcha hasn't peaked. Yonsei Milk matcha drinks, a matcha almond spread from Emart, GS25's matcha Hetbahn, a matcha Bizchobi cookie — new products keep arriving. Some trends are a season. Matcha appears to be a permanent resident.
And ube — the purple Filipino yam that arrived in Korean desserts a few seasons ago — is still showing up in shaved ice, cream puffs, soft-serve, and now convenience store iced coffee. Sulbing launched an ube berry cheese bingsu this month; Homeplus has ube ice cream in two varieties. The color is the point, and the color is still everywhere.
June is a good time to eat in Korea. The cold noodles are out, the bingsu lines have formed, and convenience stores are stocked with things that didn't exist last month. If you're visiting Seoul this summer, a walk through any convenience store is its own kind of cultural briefing — a snapshot of what Korea is eating, craving, and experimenting with right now, all in one refrigerated aisle. Add a bowl of naengmyeon at lunch and a cup bingsu in the afternoon. And if you happen to catch a World Cup match in the morning, bring coffee. That's Korea in June.
What's chimaek?
Chimaek is the combination of fried chicken (chi-ken) and beer (maek-ju) — Korea's go-to pairing for late-night watching, whether it's a drama finale or a soccer match. The ritual is so established that chimaek restaurants operate as a category unto themselves, with delivery being the default. The 2026 World Cup's morning kickoff times have thrown a small wrench into the tradition — but the chicken is still there. It just comes with coffee now.
What's the difference between mul naengmyeon and bibim naengmyeon?
Mul naengmyeon is served in cold, clear broth — typically beef-based, sometimes with dongchimi (radish water kimchi) added for extra chill and tang. Bibim naengmyeon skips the broth entirely; the noodles are tossed in a spicy, slightly sweet sauce. Both use buckwheat noodles. More on naengmyeon — including the Hamhung vs. Pyongyang debate — in our deep-dive coming soon.
Is hwang-chijeu an actual Korean ingredient?
Not traditionally. The "yellow cheese" trend refers to a sharp, intensely savory cheese flavor — somewhere between aged cheddar and Parmesan — that started appearing in Korean snacks and breads. It's a flavor profile, not a specific product. The reason it resonated is that the umami-forward intensity isn't far from flavors already familiar in Korean cooking. It landed, and it stayed.
What's ube?
Ube is a purple yam native to the Philippines, with a mildly sweet, slightly nutty flavor and a vivid violet color. It's been a fixture in Filipino desserts for generations and has since crossed into Korean café culture — and from there, into American dessert trends as well. This summer in Korea, you'll find it in shaved ice, soft-serve, and convenience store drinks. The color is unmistakable.
Why has low-sugar been such a sustained trend in Korea?
It's been building for years. Korea's zero-sugar market crossed the one trillion won mark in early 2025, growing 32% year-on-year, driven by rising diabetes awareness, an aging population, and a generation of consumers who want health and taste at the same time. The trend started in drinks, spread to snacks, condiments, and ready meals — and this summer, cold noodle broth. At this point, low-sugar isn't a niche. It's the expectation.