Whittaker's Chocolate in Korea

I have heard that Whittaker's chocolate sometimes appears in random shops here in Korea, someone I was talking to said they found some in Paris Baguette once for example.  I have been here about 19 months now and have never seen it - until now.
 
I just happened to be wandering around the small grocery shop in the bottom of the Galleria in Ingye-dong today.  I don't really shop there as its a bit more expensive and the selection is smaller than the nearby Homeplus so I don't usually bother.  I was down there to get some fast food - the American chain 'Popeyes' has a branch in the food court there.  I thought I would have a look around while I was there and see what they had, sometimes they have things that you can't get at the bigger supermarket chains.

So this is where I found some Whittaker's chocolate - they have three of the 250g slabs available - Fruit & Nut, Creamy Milk and Almond Gold.  The kicker is that unless you are really craving it or are a die hard fan you probably won't want to pay the price.  One slab cost 11,000 won, they didn't have a price on them so I didn't find this out until I got to the counter.  I thought it would be a nice gift to take in to work after the holiday - I hope they appreciate it.

V Energy Drink in Korea

Fellow Kiwis you will be pleased to know that V Energy Drink is now available in Korea. 

For those of us addicted to the little green monster you will be very excited to find that you can get your fix so far from home.

Up till now I have been drinking Red Bull and when I first got here even that was hard to find, only one convenience store around my neighborhood stocked it.  Now you can get Red Bull almost everywhere including the supermarkets.  There are also a few other brands - the Korean 'Hot 6', 'Burn' by the Coca-Cola Company and a few others that are trying to get in on the emerging market.

I had not had V in a very long time as I've been here over a year and a half now but I went home to New Zealand the week before last for my summer vacation.  I quickly got reacquainted with it and even tried their new V Blue flavour.  I drank my last one on the morning that I flew out and was disappointed that I could not find any shops selling it at Auckland airport, I wanted to buy some for the plane once I got through customs but I had to settle for Red Bull.  I thought it was a bit silly when V is a New Zealand product.

So that was the Sunday and I had to go to work the next day on Monday. At lunch time I went to grab a Red Bull from the convenience store and was excited when I saw a flash of green sitting next to the Red Bull - it can't be I thought, but it was and I was super excited. I had to wait untill I got back to work so I could gush about it with people who speak English, the Korean teachers that I work with all know about my addiction to Red Bull but I told them that New Zealand has a better one and now I could show it to them.  Some of them said they will try it too  - I figure the more that buy it the better as I am sure it will only stay here if it sells well.

Logistics:

• It is currently selling for 1,800 won which is super cheap.  Red Bull is 2,900 won (2,500 in supermarkets and 3,000 sometimes in Seoul) so V is a bargain compared.  It's also cheaper than what you would pay in New Zealand.  I would guess that this is an introductory price so if it stays be prepared for the price to go up.
• They are selling them for 'buy two and get the third one free' at the moment so you can stock up. 
• The only place I have found it in so far is the GS25 convenience stores.  Unfortunately even though convenience stores are ubiquitous across Korea the GS25 ones can be hard to find sometimes. 
• They only have the green original can so far, I quite like the sugar free version but Korea does not really do diet stuff very much so there is probably not the market for it. 

If you have a GS25 near you then you are in luck, it took me ages to find one in Ingye-dong where I live.  I knew there must be one but all the convenience stores I go to are Family Marts or 7 Elevens. I walked around the streets near my apartment for ages looking at all the ones I knew and they were all wrong.  I got a bit excited when I went to one across from the park, I saw the 25 but then realised it was the wrong color and it was '25 For You' not GS25.  After walking around the backstreets behind the CGV for ages on a very hot day, I finally found one as I was heading home about to give up. 

If you are looking in Ingye-dong the one I found is on the side street opposite the hi-Mart (on the Home Plus side of the street). When you are walking towards Home Plus from Galleria direction you turn right into a small street before you get to Home Plus - when you can see that Hi-mart is on the other side of the road. It's not very far down and is on the right again.

Also if you don't see it at first in your local GS25 have a look around, it might be in a different fridge than all the other drinks as they are promoting it with the buy two get one free.  I was about to leave empty handed when I spotted it on my way out the door - it was in a small fridge behind the door.

Thanks Frucor for making one kiwigirl far from home a very happy Kiwi girl.

Welcome to my Neighborhood - Ingye-dong, Suwon

A short video I took on my new smartphone, it's the first time I used it so its not that great. I had the phone up the wrong way. I think it would be better on it's side next time.

Anyway this is my neighborhood, just after my apartment building and walking along the street for a little way. You can see the big Cinepark building toward the end of the video, it's a big building that houses lots of shops and restaurants along with a cinema.

Also at the very end you can see a great example of 'couple culture'. Korea is very focused on couples, they like to advertise the fact that they are in a relationship. This can be something simple like having the same phone or things like having matching phone charms or other accessories. Or you can get the 'Couple T'shirts' like in this video, the couple at the very end are wearing matching T's.

Only in Korea!