KINTEX Cafe&Bakery Fair Yakgwa: Why Traditional Korean Sweets Fit the 2026 Dessert Trend

The KINTEX Cafe&Bakery Fair yakgwa angle is a small but telling snapshot of where Korean cafe desserts are headed. At 2026 Cafe&Bakery Fair Season 1, held from June 4 to 7, 2026 at KINTEX Exhibition Center 2, Hall 10, yakgwa appeared within a broader dessert and bakery field that also covered coffee, tea, beverages, alcohol, cafe start-up items, interiors, and franchises.¹

For readers tracking the rise of the Yakgwa Croffle and other hybrid Korean sweets, this matters because the fair was not just a consumer dessert showcase. It was positioned around cafe operations, franchise opportunities, business matching, seminars, and item comparison for prospective founders and buyers.² In other words, yakgwa was part of a marketplace where cafe-friendly products, ready-made desserts, and menu ideas could be evaluated side by side.

KINTEX Cafe&Bakery Fair Yakgwa in Context

The 2026 Cafe&Bakery Fair Season 1 brought together categories that naturally overlap in modern Korean cafe culture: specialty coffee, bakery, dessert, beverages, alcohol, and cafe start-up items. The event was also held at the same time as the MyFranchise Franchise Startup Fair, bringing F&B brands and franchise brands into the same setting.³

That combination helps explain why a traditional sweet like yakgwa belongs in the conversation. Yakgwa is not being treated only as a ceremonial or nostalgic food. In the fair’s official bakery and dessert exhibitor listings, Ohwadang was shown at booth B-146 with items including juak, yakgwa, Nuguna Oranda, and rice financiers.⁴ The list places yakgwa beside other dessert products that can speak to modern cafe merchandising, gifting, and menu development.

The official lineup notice for the fair, published on May 18, 2026, framed the event around product categories rather than a single trend: coffee, dessert, bakery, tea, beverages, alcohol, cafe start-up items, interiors, and franchises.¹ That broad framing is useful. It shows that yakgwa did not need a separate spotlight to be relevant; it sat naturally inside a dessert ecosystem where traditional Korean sweets, Western-style bakery items, and cafe business ideas all meet.

Why Yakgwa Works for Cafe Dessert Culture

Yakgwa’s appeal has been growing for several years, especially through what Korean media has described as the “halmaennial” trend, where younger consumers rediscover foods associated with older generations. Donga Ilbo reported in 2023 that yakgwa had become popular among people in their 20s and 30s, with related products such as yakgwa cookies and yakgwa croffles spreading into the market.⁵

That same report cited SSG.com figures showing that sales of yakgwa and other traditional Korean sweets from January to April 2023 rose 50% year over year, while sales among consumers in their 20s increased 165%.⁵ Those numbers help explain why cafe operators and dessert brands might see yakgwa as more than a passing novelty. It has a recognizable flavor identity, a nostalgic story, and enough flexibility to be paired with contemporary formats.

The Yakgwa Croffle is a good example of that flexibility. A croffle already sits between a croissant and a waffle, so topping or pairing it with yakgwa brings together crisp pastry culture, chewy-syrupy traditional sweetness, and a visual style that fits cafe menus. The source material does not say that a specific Yakgwa Croffle product was sold at the 2026 KINTEX fair, so the careful takeaway is narrower: yakgwa was represented among dessert exhibitors, while yakgwa croffles are part of the wider hybrid-dessert trend reported in Korean media.⁴⁵

There is also a global angle. Energy Economy reported that, based on eBay Japan’s Qoo10 Japan data, K-dessert category sales in February 2026 increased 54% compared with the same period a year earlier. The report’s popular product rankings included butter croffles and a Golden Piece Red Box yakgwa set, showing overseas demand for both croffle-style and yakgwa-style Korean desserts.⁶

Kim Soo-a, head of Korean sales at eBay Japan, described the shift this way: interest in Korean food in Japan “has gradually expanded to desserts” after initially centering on foods such as ramen and gimbap.⁶ That short quote captures the larger movement behind the fair’s dessert lineup: Korean food curiosity is no longer limited to meals or snacks. It now includes sweets that are photogenic, textural, and easy to translate into cafe experiences.

What Buyers and Cafe Watchers Could Take Away

For cafe founders, buyers, or dessert fans reading the KINTEX lineup after the event, the practical signal is clear: yakgwa belongs in the same commercial conversation as coffee, bakery, ready-made desserts, and franchise concepts. The fair’s buyer and prospective founder registration notice emphasized new supplier discovery, comparison of start-up items, seminars, and 1:1 business matching.² That makes a product like yakgwa relevant not only as a finished sweet, but also as a potential menu component, packaged gift item, or traditional-Korean accent for modern desserts.

For casual dessert watchers, the charm is simpler. Yakgwa has enough history to feel rooted, but it also adapts well to new formats. When paired with cafe staples such as cookies, croffles, financiers, or coffee, it can move between nostalgia and trend without losing its identity.

작성자 소개

joanna jang

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