I Ate All 5 GS25 Rice Hotteok Flavors So You Don’t Waste ₩1,500 on the Wrong One

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Three winters ago, I stood outside a GS25 in Hongdae at 11pm eating something that tasted like street food but cost ₩1,500 and came in a clean little wrapper. That was my first GS25 rice hotteok. I’ve eaten roughly 40 of them since — all 5 flavors, two heating methods, and one genuinely embarrassing roof-of-mouth burn I’m not proud of.

Here’s what nobody tells you upfront: the flavor you pick matters less than how you heat it. And out of the 5 flavors currently on shelves, one is a gimmick, one is genuinely limited-edition special, and the rest fall somewhere in between.

Rice Hotteok vs. Street Hotteok: What’s Actually Different

Traditional hotteok — the kind you see at Myeongdong market stalls — is yeasted wheat dough, fried fresh in oil, filled with brown sugar and cinnamon. Hot, slightly greasy, messy to eat while walking. GS25’s version swaps wheat flour for glutinous rice flour, which makes the outer layer chewier and more elastic. Think less bread, more mochi.

It’s not a replacement for street hotteok. It’s its own thing. Same soul, completely different eating experience — and it reheats far better than any wheat-based version I’ve tried.

Microwave vs. In-Store Hot Plate: This Changes Everything

Microwave (40–50 seconds): Soft all the way through, molten filling, zero crispness on the exterior. Fine if you’re eating at a desk. Honestly undersells the product.

GS25 in-store hot plate (2–3 minutes): The bottom crisps up just enough to close the gap with actual street food. Most GS25 locations have one near the hot food station. This is the move, every time.

If you microwave your first GS25 rice hotteok, you’ll wonder what the fuss is about. The hot plate version makes sense immediately. One honest warning either way: the filling gets dangerously hot. Wait 60 seconds after heating before you bite in. I did not do this. My mouth paid for it.

All 5 GS25 Rice Hotteok Flavors Ranked Worst to Best

GS25 rotates flavors seasonally, so not all of these are available year-round. Prices ranged from ₩1,200–₩2,000 (roughly $0.90–$1.50 USD) when I bought them.

#5 — Red Bean Paste (팥) | ₩1,200

The classic, and also the most forgettable in this lineup. Earthy, subtly sweet, not cloying — it does exactly what it promises. The problem is that traditional red bean filling does nothing interesting with the rice flour base. You could eat this and have no idea why GS25 rice hotteok is worth talking about.

Honest downside: The filling-to-dough ratio feels off compared to the newer versions — more dough, less going on inside. Buy it only if the others are sold out.

#4 — Brown Sugar & Walnut | ₩1,500

The closest thing to traditional street hotteok in this lineup. The walnut adds real texture and a slight bitterness that keeps the brown sugar from tipping into cloying. Solid comfort food.

Honest downside: Predictable. If you’ve eaten street hotteok before, this won’t surprise you once. Worth buying on your first visit; not the one you’ll specifically crave on your third.

#3 — Corn & Cheese | ₩1,500

Savory all the way — salty, slightly sweet from the corn, genuinely melty. Tastes like Korean street corn got compressed into a hotteok. Polarizing: I’ve watched people take one bite and put it down. I find it excellent.

Honest downside: The cheese-to-corn ratio varies by batch. I had one where cheese dominated, one where I could barely taste it. Inconsistent — but when it’s balanced right, it’s the most interesting savory snack in the lineup.

#2 — Mozzarella & Sweet Potato | ₩1,800

This one genuinely surprised me. The cheese pull is real, and the sweet potato filling has a gentle earthiness that plays well against the milky mozzarella. More filling per piece than the sweet versions.

Honest downside: The sweet potato flavor gets completely lost if you microwave it — hot plate only for this one. Also ₩300 more expensive than most flavors, which adds up when you’re buying multiples. That said, this is the flavor I’d hand a first-timer. It shows exactly what makes the GS25 format worth caring about: a traditional shape with a filling that didn’t exist at street stalls a decade ago.

#1 — Truffle & Mushroom (Limited) | ₩2,000

Yes, this sounds pretentious. It works anyway. The truffle aroma is subtle — not the fake-truffle overload that ruins most truffle-branded snacks — and the mushroom filling is savory, rich, and genuinely satisfying. This one feels more like something from a bakery than a convenience store.

Honest downside: Limited seasonal availability — I’ve only seen it October through January — and at ₩2,000 it’s the most expensive option by a margin. Also, if you dislike truffle, there is absolutely nothing in this for you.

If you see it in stock, buy two. I’ve gone back specifically for it and found it sold out more than once.

Why GS25 Can Charge ₩2,000 for a Snack and Still Sell Out

Korean convenience stores figured out something other food retailers are still catching up to: seasonal comfort food drives foot traffic better than discounts do. When temperatures drop, GS25 ramps up the hot food station with hotteok, hoppang (steamed buns), and gyeran-ppang (egg bread). People walk in specifically for the seasonal menu — not because they needed something from the store.

The pricing is the other half of it. At ₩1,200–₩2,000 per piece, trying a new flavor costs nothing. That zero-friction price point is exactly why limited-edition items blow up on Korean social media within days of launch. Red bean paste held 54% of GS25 steamed bun sales in 2022, according to Asia Economic Daily. Savory and fusion fillings have been gaining ground ever since.

How to Make GS25-Style Rice Hotteok at Home

The GS25 product is a Korean-market item. GS25 has expanded into Vietnam and Mongolia, but the seasonal hotteok doesn’t always travel with it. For everyone outside Korea, here’s what actually works at home.

What you need:

• 1 cup glutinous rice flour (찹쌀가루) — not regular rice flour, this is the key difference
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• ¾ cup warm water
• 1 tbsp neutral oil

Brown sugar & walnut filling:

• 3 tbsp dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp crushed walnuts

Method:

1. Mix dry ingredients. Add warm water gradually and knead until a soft, slightly sticky dough forms. It should feel more elastic than bread dough — that’s the glutinous rice flour working.
2. Cover and rest 45 minutes at room temperature.
3. Divide into 6 balls. Flatten each in your palm, add 1 tsp filling in the center, pinch tightly closed.
4. Heat a non-stick pan on medium-low with a thin layer of oil. Place hotteok seam-side down.
5. Press flat with a spatula — or a hotteok press (around $8 on Amazon, genuinely worth it). Cook 2–3 minutes per side until golden.

The homemade version gets crispier than the packaged GS25 one. Texture is slightly denser, and you control the filling ratio. For a mozzarella version, use 1 tbsp cubed low-moisture mozzarella plus 1 tsp mashed sweet potato per piece — it melts cleanly and won’t leak if you seal the dough tightly.

Warning: glutinous rice flour dough is stickier than regular dough. Oil your hands before shaping or you’ll spend 10 minutes trying to peel yourself off the bowl. Ask me how I know.

3 Ways to Buy GS25 Rice Hotteok Outside Korea (None of Them Perfect)

• H Mart / Lotte Plaza / Zion Market: These carry frozen hotteok from CJ and Pulmuone — not the GS25 product specifically, but similar concept and comparable quality. Widely available across the US.
• Gmarket Global / Seoul Box / Wooltari: Korean import and subscription services occasionally carry GS25-adjacent convenience snacks. Availability is inconsistent — search October through February for the best chance at hotteok.
• Make it yourself: Glutinous rice flour is at every H Mart and most Asian grocery stores. The recipe above gets you 80% of the way to the real thing.

Honest answer: the best way to eat GS25 rice hotteok is to be in Korea in November. Everything else is a workaround — a decent one, but still a workaround.