Pepero Day is Tomorrow!
Pepero Day in South Korea is November 11th.
What’s Pepero Day? What’s Pepero?? You don’t know what Pepero are?
You, my friend, have been missing out. They’re actually kind of hard to find in the States.
Pepero are pencil-shaped cookie sticks that are dipped in chocolate and coated with almond bits, and then dipped in chocolate again. However, they come in a variety of flavors (e.g. plain with chocolate filling, plain with green tea filling, chocolate cookie coating, chocolate coating, cookies and cream coating). The chocolate and almond variety is just the most common.
Origins of Pepero Day
Since 1983, these delicious little cookie sticks have been made by the Lotte Confectionery in South Korea. The origins of Pepero Day date back to this time. Supposedly two little girls gave each Pepero sticks wishing that they would both grow up to be tall and thin like the long and skinny Pepero (is this a Korean lookism thing again??).
Allegedly, if you eat these cookies on November 11th at 11:11 am or pm and 11 seconds, then your wishes of thinness and tallness will come true.
Ironically, scarfing these cookie sticks will definitely not make you thin…and probably not tall either. If you’ve ever eaten these yummy sticks, you know that you can’t just stop at one or two…or ten!
Also, supposedly Pepero Day is on the 11th of the 11th month of the year because, duh, of the shape of the cookie sticks.
I don’t think Lotte has ever said that they came up with the “holiday,” but they sure do make a great sales profit from it every year! (No judgment here. I love these cookies!)
Although I’m sure there are people who still eat them in hopes of becoming tall and/or thin (probably kids), it’s mostly given as an expression of affection.
And in South Korea, the Pepero get super fancy for Pepero Day. They become super sized and have multiple layers of cookies. 😋
Lotte’s Pepero vs. Glico’s Pocky
You might have heard about Pocky before Pepero. I know I did. I actually buy Pocky at my local grocery store, whereas Pepero has yet to arrive.
In Japan, November 11th is Pocky and Pretz Day (Pretz is Glico’s pretzel stick line).
For those who don’t know, Pocky is also a pencil-shaped cookie stick that is dipped in chocolate and has various coatings. Glico, a Japanese company, has been manufacturing them since 1966.
Lotte has always insisted that they didn’t rip off the cookie from Glico’s Pocky even though it came first. And Glico has never filed suit over it either, at least not to my knowledge.
However, back in 2015, Glico sued Lotte for infringing on a packaging design for their Pocky cookies and won. Lotte was forced to scrap all of the copy cat boxes.
Pepero, or Pocky, Who Cares? Just Eat It
In any case, they’re both yummy cookies and I highly recommend giving some of either to someone special as a thank you and for a just thinking of you gift…or for yourself!
Have you ever had the pleasure of eating Pepero? What did you think? Have you had Pocky? Which do you like better? Share in the comments!