Choco pies (초코파이) are a ubiquitous Korean snack. If you’ve at all visited an Asian supermarket in the last decade and wandered down the sweets section of the snack aisle, there is more chance than not that you’ll encounter choco pies. The snack consists of two round cakes sandwiching a marshmallow filling, and coated with chocolate.

Supposedly, as history (or Wikipedia) outlines, the snack was first developed by Tongyang Confectionery after one of their development technicians sampled a similar sweet sold in an American hotel, and the resulting product was so good that the company rebranded to name itself after the product it had created in 1973. Cue Orion, one of the most recognised brands of choco pie alongside the conglomerate giant Lotte (Choco Pie, and its classier counterpart Mon Cher (몽쉘)), and the popular confectionery brand Haitai (Oh! Yes Choco Cake).

Though initially popular with children and the elderly, it’s now consumed globally, sold in 60 countries worldwide. Orion has been ranked at the top of China’s Brand Power Index for consecutive years, measured through the strength of brand loyalty, preference, and recognition of its consumers. It even has a complex political history, with many factories close to the Demilitarised Zone between North and South Korea employing citizens from both countries. This resulted in exposure of North Koreans to the sweet treat, and as they smuggled home their daily allowance of choco pies, created a black market for the bootlegged confectionery.

Jeonju’s Choco Pie Market

While Korean conglomerate Lotte was scrambling to develop its own competing choco pie, Jeonju bakery PoongNyeon JeGwa (풍년제과), more commonly known as PNB, had created its own. PNB is the oldest bakery in Jeonju, opening in 1951. Though originally popular for traditional handmade Korean crackers (전병) and red bean jellies (양갱), they expanded the scope of their products and introduced their choco pie in 1978.

Jeonju’s choco pie is a handmade confection consisting of two wheels of a firm cocoa cake, sandwiching a dollop of jam, a swirl of whipped cream, and chopped walnuts. The sandwiched cake is then dipped shallowly in chocolate, creating a pattern (commonly a square) of uncoated cake to result in its distinct appearance. Dozens of bakeries now offer a variation of this treat, with a range of flavours such as white chocolate, fruit-flavoured, and tea-flavoured choco pies, depending on which store you might visit.

We’ve found that prices for a standard choco pie is ₩1,900 (US$1.55) when we visited in May of 2019. Though they generally consist of the same components, we wondered if there was much difference between PNB and its biggest competitors – most notably, the similarly-named PoongNyeon Bakery, and Jeonju Choco Pie. Of course, we made it a mission to check them out for comparison.

*Please note that despite the same Korean name of PNB and PoongNyeon Bakery (풍년제과), we are not sure of their relationship. PNB is said to have started in Jeonju in 1951, and PoongNyeon Bakery opened in 1969, supposedly named after a bakery in Seoul who shared the same name.

PNB

It’s best to start choco pie tasting with the first Jeonju-style choco pie. They have a handful of stores in the Hanok Village alone, or are available for purchase in the Lotte Department store in Myeong-Dong, Seoul, if you’re unable to visit Jeonju. They also sell other Korean confectionery, which are worth trying out.

We took PNB’s choco pie as the control; the choco pie is larger than the size of the manufactured ones, and rather than the fluffy sponge cake-like sandwich, has a fairly dense cake, a little drier in texture like soft, cakey cookie. The chocolate is of better quality than the manufactured version, less waxy in texture. Despite the cocoa in the cake, it isn’t very evident in the flavour.

The cream is more of a mock cream, with a filmy mouthfeel and concerningly white in colour. The dollop of jam is generous, and while strangely liquid adds a good flavour. The chopped walnuts also add good texture. Though the cake is not sweet, the chocolate, cream, and jam contribute to this for a good balance.

It’s a delicious snack on its own. The handmade confectionery is full of flavour and with all the components make for a great eat, and a nice souvenir to share with friends.

Check out their website (Korean only) for more details.

Poongnyeon Bakery (풍년제과)

Poongnyeon Bakery has more stores than PNB, located all throughout the country and also a handful in the Hanok Village area. Like PNB, they also sell a selection of other Korean confectionery, as well as (according to their website), dried seaweed laver snacks. They have a range of interesting flavours for each.

Right off the bat, we noticed that the choco pie for Poongnyeon Bakery is larger than PNB’s, with a lighter colour and a more open crumb, as if it had risen more with the same amount of batter. It had a toastier flavour and a drier texture, a little like the toastier flavour of the crust of the cake compared to the middle. There’s less cream and much less jam, which seems to be a very condensed strip in the centre almost like a fruit leather. This choco pie is undeniably a lot sweeter.

Overall there is a lacking quantity of cream, jam, and chocolate to cake, especially as the cake is much bigger in this case than PNB’s. It does seem a little cheaper, but the enjoyment of eating is still there, so it mostly depends which one you’d prefer.

Check out their website (English available) for more details.

Jeonju Choco Pie (전주초코파이)

Jeonju Choco Pie seems like the one who jumped the trend and ran with it entirely; compared to the first two bakeries, it sells nothing but different flavours of choco pies (except for their chocolate brownies). Once more, we opted for their standard choco pie to see how it matched up with the first two.

This choco pie seems like a combination of the two, making for a midway mark between the dense PNB and the light, sweet Poongnyeon Bakery versions. Its cake is lighter, the chocolate making up the sweetness where the cake does not. It also has a malty flavour and seems more like a milk chocolate compared to the dark chocolate used for the other two, tasty nonetheless.

The jam is also a bit bland but less sweet, the cream less waxy. For the same price, it’s also as delicious as the first two, so it really depends on what kind of flavour you like most.

Check out their website (Korean only) for more details.

Chunil Bakery (천일베이커리)

Outside of the Hanok Village, Jeonju is your typical town, with all the everyday merchants operating for the locals of Jeonju. On the outskirts of the village is a bakery called Chunil Bakery (천일베이커리), whose bags we saw floating around the city touted by locals who seemed like they knew more about who had good stuff than the tourists flocked in the village. It’s hard to miss; on the main road between the village and the PungNam-Mun Gate in the northern direction is a bakery with a fairly large shopfront and a panda as its logo. It’s easy to spot by its round, red BREAD sign (빵) that hangs above its front door.

This bakery is more of a standard shop, selling fresh bread, cakes, and pastries that all look delightful if not just a touch rustic. The menu is usually on rotation, influenced by the seasonality of fruits as well as the whims of the head baker himself, resulting in a selection of interesting variation. They seem to boast choux balls (슈볼), choux pastries filled to bursting with flavoured pastry cream. Everything was eyecatching, but the moment we spotted the choco pie we were on our way to the till with money in hand.

At ₩2,500 (US$2.05), it is noticeably more expensive than those of the bigger bakeries, though also noticeably more hefty. When we ate it, we knew why – like how PNB revolutionised Orion’s choco pie, as did Chunil with Jeonju’s. The cake was truly cake – a rich, dense chocolate cake with decadent chocolatey flavour, and all filling replaced with a smooth, thick ganache. While sweet, all the chocolate used was dark, making for a good balance and a death-by-chocolate experience.

While Chunil’s choco pie wouldn’t be a fair contender against the true Jeonju-style choco pies, it makes for an interesting interpretation that we really loved – handheld chocolate cake. Next time we’re in Jeonju, we’ll try their other products for sure.