"I've tried the Dubai jjondeuk cookie in several places, and this is the best."
A shop in Geumcheon District, Seoul, that sells the Dubai jjondeuk cookie on a delivery application (app) had dozens of reviews like this. But the shop's main menu is hamburgers, not desserts. Sushi restaurants, chicken feet places and other eateries far from desserts are also selling the Dubai jjondeuk cookie.
A dessert cafe in Sokcho, Gangwon, posted a notice on social media (SNS) saying it would stop selling the Dubai jjondeuk cookie once it ran out of ingredients on hand. Although the craze for the Dubai jjondeuk cookie brought in crowds and daily sellouts, the burden of ingredient costs reached an unmanageable level. The cafe owner said, "To put it bluntly, the Dubai jjondeuk cookie was a menu item that lost money the more we sold it."
As the Dubai jjondeuk cookie's popularity soars, self-employed business owners are making different choices. More places are using the cookie as a so-called "loss leader" to boost sales, while dessert shops are cutting back or quitting sales altogether, citing cost pressures.
The Dubai jjondeuk cookie is a dessert adapted to Korean tastes from the globally popular "Dubai chocolate." It fills the center by mixing white chocolate with paste (a food ground or mashed until sticky and smooth) made by grinding and toasting pistachios with the Middle Eastern dough "kadaif," then wraps it in marshmallow and dusts it with cocoa powder. Most of the process is done by hand, so production time is long, and the price is expensive at up to 10,000 won.
Even so, the Dubai jjondeuk cookie's popularity is not cooling. Shops known for the cookie draw hundreds of people a day, and waiting one to two hours has become common. On Instagram, as of 4 p.m. on the 9th, there were 80,000 posts related to "Dubai jjondeuk cookie."
Amid this mood, more shops are selling the Dubai jjondeuk cookie regardless of their business type. Even places with no direct connection to desserts, such as gukbap shops or sashimi restaurants, are keeping their main menus while adding the cookie as a side item.
These shops commonly set the Dubai jjondeuk cookie price low, in the 3,000 to 6,000 won range, and limit purchases to one per person. Some are promoting that they make it "in-house," not from ready-made products.
On delivery apps, the Dubai jjondeuk cookie is used as an option to meet the minimum order amount. An office worker surnamed Kwon, 27, said, "If the minimum order is 20,000 won, you might feel it's better to order the Dubai jjondeuk cookie together rather than ordering two bowls of gukbap alone," adding, "It's also appealing that you can try a trendy dessert without waiting."
By contrast, dessert cafes and bakeries called the Dubai jjondeuk cookie a "white elephant." It draws customers, they said, but the cost burden has become excessive.
The ingredient that accounts for the largest share of the Dubai jjondeuk cookie's cost is pistachios. According to the app Polcent, which tracks price changes on online marketplaces, the price of 1 kilogram of pistachios on Coupang jumped from 18,500 won in early December last year to 50,000 won on the 6th of this month.
Pistachio paste, which is cleaned and relatively easy to cook with, also rose from 20,829 won to 49,500 won for 190 grams over the same period and is currently out of stock.
The characteristics of pistachios, which heavily rely on imports, appear to have influenced the sharp price rise. Imports of in-shell pistachios nearly doubled from 621 tons (t) in 2020 to 1,203 t in 2024. Last year, the total reached 1,310 t from January to November, a record high.
Prices for other ingredients, including kadaif, marshmallows, flour, sugar and eggs, also rose across the board. Calculated at 30 grams of filling for the Dubai jjondeuk cookie, the cost is estimated at about 2,880 won. If the sale price is set at 6,000 won, the material cost ratio alone is about 48%. Adding rent and labor makes it hard to turn a profit, industry officials commonly said.
A dessert cafe owner said, "As consumers compare filling weights by shop, some put in as much as 40 to 50 grams," adding, "That said, it's not easy to raise prices further."
Some owners buy pistachios with shells and process them themselves to cut costs, but critics note that longer work hours inevitably increase labor costs.
Lee Eun-hee, a professor of consumer studies at Inha University, said, "If cost increases continue, it's a structure where it's hard for owners to generate revenue," noting that they should consider strategies such as lowering the Dubai jjondeuk cookie's share of total sales or diversifying pistachio suppliers.
There are also forecasts that the craze for the Dubai jjondeuk cookie could be a flash in the pan. Choi Cheol, a professor of consumer economics at Sookmyung Women's University, said, "For the Dubai jjondeuk cookie to take root in the long term, the structure must be sustainable given materials and supplies prices," adding, "In a high inflation environment, with the current recipe and reliance on imported ingredients, it won't be easy to run long, as with past overseas desserts."