3,600 Won at a Convenience Store, 2,860 Won at the Supermarket! The Complete Guide to Bichobi, the ‘Must-Buy in Korea’ Snack — No. 1 Snack at the Seoul Station Lotte Mart, How to Tell the Korea and National Museum Editions Apart, and 37 Japanese Costcos in October

‘이건 꼭 사야해’ — ‘You have to buy this.’ The two-minute video MBC’s 14F posted on September 16, 2026 hit 660,000 views in two days. Its subject is a snack Japanese tourists spread on social media: Bichobi.

It is just a slab of chocolate between two whole-wheat biscuits. So how did it become the No. 1 snack at the Seoul Station Lotte Mart, make the Iksan plant double its output, and head for Costco in Japan and the US?

This article settles ‘how much, where and which edition’ first: 3,600 won at convenience stores versus 2,860 won at the supermarket, how to tell the Korea Edition from the National Museum Edition, and what to do when the shelf is empty.

Buy at the airport and you get no choice. Make the Seoul Station Lotte Mart your last shop before departure, and clear room in your bag for five boxes!

What Bichobi is: a whole slab of chocolate in whole-wheat biscuit, 125 g and five bars, with a palindrome name

✔ Launched October 13, 2022; ‘Bichobi’ is the initials of biscuit-choco-biscuit
Bichobi (비쵸비) is a sandwich biscuit Orion (오리온) launched on October 13, 2022. Instead of coating one side with chocolate, it puts a whole slab of chocolate between whole-wheat biscuits; the biscuit surface is brushed with maple syrup and the chocolate contains hazelnut pieces. The name strings together the initials of ‘biscuit, choco, biscuit’ and reads the same backwards, a palindrome. Orion says it combined the know-how of its whole-wheat ‘Dige’ biscuit and ‘To You’ chocolate.

✔ 125 g = five individually wrapped 25 g bars, each about 10 cm by 2 cm
A box is 125 g with five 25 g bars, each in its own wrapper. At roughly 10 cm by 2 cm a bar is small enough to hand out one by one at the office, one reason it spread among Japanese visitors. Japanese blogs describe the milk chocolate as ‘just sweet enough’ and the outer biscuit as light, not too rich, so it is easy to give even to people who do not like sweets.

From launch in 2022 to April 2026 it sold 55 billion won and 33 million boxes in total. In 2026 it reached 19 billion won by August, with average monthly sales up nearly 30% on the year (14F, Orion). In our Korean souvenir guide we called supermarkets the holy land of bulk gifts; Bichobi is the fastest-moving shelf in that holy land right now.

Bichobi at a glance (prices checked 2026-09-18; sales figures from Orion and press)

Item	Details	Source / notes
Launch	October 13, 2022, Orion	Whole-wheat biscuit + whole chocolate slab, palindrome name
Size	125 g = five 25 g bars, individually wrapped	Each bar about 10 cm × 2 cm
Convenience-store price	3,600 won	3,000 → 3,600 on 2024-12-01 (+20%)
Supermarket / online	2,860–2,890 won	Market Kurly / Lotte Mart Zetta
Korea Edition	King, scholar, maiden and young nobleman in hanbok	Autumn 2024; No. 1 snack at the Seoul Station store
National Museum of Korea Edition	Eight national treasures and treasures, explained on the back	On sale 2025-09-29; National Museum Foundation collaboration
Strawberry	Cocoa biscuit + strawberry cream	Limited 2025-09 → permanent 2026-04-13
Overseas	37 Japanese Costco stores (2026-10) / US Costco (early 2027)	Iksan plant capacity doubled (2026-04)

Read next: After snacks, cosmetics: the same 15,000-won instant refund applies in 『VAT Off on the Spot from ₩15,000! The Olive Young Korea Guide Where the Passport Matters More Than the Basket』.

Price: 3,600 won at convenience stores, 2,860–2,890 won at supermarkets, a gap of about 25%, after a 20% rise in December 2024

✔ Convenience-store list price 3,600 won (3,000 → 3,600 on December 1, 2024)
At CU, GS25 and other convenience stores the 125 g box lists at 3,600 won. On December 1, 2024 Orion raised 13 chocolate products by an average of 10.6%: Bichobi went from 3,000 to 3,600 won (+20%) and Chocosongi from 1,000 to 1,200 won. The stated reason was that ‘abnormal weather has pushed cocoa prices up more than fourfold in two years’ (Kyunghyang Shinmun). Because the rise applied only in Korea, consumer groups objected, but the price stands.

✔ Supermarkets and online 2,860–2,890 won, about 7,000 won less on ten boxes
Market Kurly lists 2,860 won and Lotte Mart Zetta online 2,890 won (September 18, 2026), roughly 25% below convenience stores. Lotte Mart and E-mart shelves are also in the high 2,000s. Buy ten boxes and you save about 7,000 won, a coffee and a half versus the convenience store. Tourist-area supermarkets do sell out on some days, though, so treat convenience stores as insurance for ‘one box right now.’

The tax refund applies from 15,000 won per store per receipt, so six boxes or more (about 17,000 won) qualify for an instant refund: just show your passport at the till. Convenience-store 1+1 deals and app discounts change by the day, as in our convenience store guide, so check the ‘1+1’ or ‘2+1’ tag on the shelf first.

Telling the editions apart: ‘Korea’ in hanbok, ‘National Museum’ with eight treasures, and Strawberry, now permanent

✔ Korea Edition: a king, a scholar, a maiden and a young nobleman in hanbok, from autumn 2024
This packaging is what lit the fuse with foreign shoppers. Bichobi’s character wears four traditional Korean outfits — 임금 (king), 선비 (scholar), 각시 (maiden) and 도령 (young nobleman) — and by November 2024 word of mouth in English, Chinese and Japanese was calling it ‘a recommended Korea-trip souvenir’ with ‘packaging pretty enough for gifts’ (Hankyung, 2024-11-22). At Lotte Mart Zettaplex Seoul Station it became the No. 1 snack, with sales more than doubling in September–December 2024 (JoongAng Ilbo, 2026-01-24).

✔ National Museum of Korea Edition: the Pensive Bodhisattvas, the moon jar and six more, explained on the back, on sale since September 29, 2025
An official collaboration with the National Museum Foundation of Korea, the package shows eight pieces from the National Museum of Korea: the gilt-bronze Pensive Bodhisattvas (National Treasures 78 and 83), the celadon openwork incense burner with seven-treasure design (National Treasure 95), the ten-story stone pagoda from Gyeongcheonsa (National Treasure 86), the Seobongchong gold crown (Treasure 339), the white porcelain moon jar (Treasure 1437), the Sun, Moon and Five Peaks screen, the tiger-and-magpie painting and a tiger-leg table. The back explains each piece, and 14F calls it the most popular one as a gift. It was announced on September 25, 2025 and rolled out from September 29 at Lotte Mart Seoul Station, the Myeongdong tourist district and major supermarkets nationwide.

✔ Strawberry: a September 2025 limited run, permanent since April 13, 2026
‘Bichobi Strawberry’, a cocoa biscuit with strawberry cream, was a limited release in September 2025 and, after many requests, became a permanent product on April 13, 2026. Mixing the classic milk chocolate and strawberry goes down well. It is the cheapest single box of ‘buying Koreans’ everyday life’ that we described in our Daiso and convenience store article.

Where to buy: the Seoul Station Lotte Mart is No. 1, then Jamsil, Myeongdong and the airports — sell-out backups and the Japan and US Costco schedule

✔ Lotte Mart Zettaplex Seoul Station: No. 1 snack, 10 am–midnight, closed the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays
Orion’s top ten outlets — Seoul Station, Busan Jagalchi Market, Jamsil Seokchon Lake, Gimpo and Incheon airports, Jeju and others — are all tourist and transport hubs full of foreign visitors, and in January–August 2026 they averaged more than double last year’s sales (Money Today, 2026-09-10). First among them is Lotte Mart Zettaplex Seoul Station, attached to the station. It opens 10 am to midnight and closes on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month (this branch moved its closing day from Sunday to Wednesday for travelers; in September 2026 that is the 9th and Chuseok day, the 25th). Google Maps gives it ★4.2 (9,915 reviews), short of our ★4.5 bar, but we include it for its location and range. Address: 405 Hangang-daero, Jung-gu, within five minutes’ walk of the KTX and airport railroad gates.

✔ Jamsil is Lotte Mart Zettaplex Jamsil; Myeongdong is shops and convenience stores; the airport is ‘insurance’
On the Seokchon Lake side of Jamsil it is Lotte Mart Zettaplex Jamsil next to Lotte World Tower (240 Olympic-ro, Songpa-gu, 10 am–11 pm, closed the 2nd and 4th Sundays, ★4.1, 3,658 reviews, below the bar). Myeongdong has no hypermarket, so count on about 3,600 won at the shops and convenience stores of the tourist district. Gimpo and Incheon airport shops charge more and some days offer no choice of edition, so treat the airport as insurance for what you forgot.

✔ If it is sold out: the Iksan plant doubled output in April 2026, Japan gets 37 Costco stores in October, the US early 2027
With demand outrunning supply, Orion added a line at its Iksan plant in April 2026 and doubled capacity. Even so, tourist-area supermarkets still have empty-shelf days. Back home, the snack lands in 37 Japanese Costco stores at once in October 2026 and in US Costco in early 2027 (eToday, 2026-09-10), so the sensible rule in Korea is to buy the Korea-only Korea and National Museum Editions and travel lighter.

Where to go? Map and summary: how to buy Bichobi

In short: Bichobi is 125 g and five bars, 3,600 won at convenience stores and 2,860–2,890 won at supermarkets. Buy at the Seoul Station Lotte Mart, mix the Korea Edition (hanbok) and the National Museum Edition (eight treasures), and take the instant tax refund from six boxes. The classic milk chocolate reaches Japanese Costco in October, so in Korea give priority to the limited packaging. Ratings are Google Maps as of September 18, 2026.

• Lotte Mart Zettaplex Seoul Station (롯데마트 제타플렉스 서울역점) — Google ★4.2 (9,915 reviews, below the bar) · 405 Hangang-daero, Jung-gu · 10 am–midnight · closed 2nd and 4th Wednesdays · No. 1 Bichobi outlet
• Lotte Mart Zettaplex Jamsil (롯데마트 제타플렉스 잠실점) — Google ★4.1 (3,658 reviews, below the bar) · 240 Olympic-ro, Songpa-gu · 10 am–11 pm · closed 2nd and 4th Sundays · next to Seokchon Lake and Lotte World Tower
• National Museum of Korea (국립중앙박물관) — Google ★4.7 (29,146 reviews) · 137 Seobinggo-ro, Yongsan-gu · permanent exhibition free · the real Pensive Bodhisattvas and moon jar from the package are here

FAQ

How much does Bichobi cost?

A 125 g box of five bars lists at 3,600 won at convenience stores (raised 20% from 3,000 on December 1, 2024) and 2,860–2,890 won at supermarkets and online. Over ten boxes that is a difference of about 7,000 won.

Where is the surest place to buy it?

Lotte Mart Zettaplex Seoul Station (10 am–midnight, closed the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays) is the No. 1 outlet and stocks the Korea and National Museum Editions. In Jamsil use Lotte Mart Jamsil, in Myeongdong the convenience stores, and treat the airport as insurance for what you forgot.

What is the difference between the editions?

The contents are the same milk chocolate; the packaging differs. The Korea Edition shows four characters in hanbok, and the National Museum of Korea Edition shows eight pieces such as the Pensive Bodhisattva and the moon jar with explanations on the back. Strawberry is a different product: cocoa biscuit with strawberry cream.

Can I buy it outside Korea?

It arrives in 37 Japanese Costco stores at once in October 2026 and in US Costco in early 2027. The Korea-only Korea and National Museum Editions, however, can only be bought in Korea.

Does it qualify for the tax refund?

Purchases of 15,000 won or more per store per receipt qualify, so six boxes (about 17,000 won) or more get the instant refund. Show your passport at the till.