What’s your go-to hangover remedy? For those who want something icy to calm their sore stomachs after a night of boozing, a South Korean convenient store chain has launched an ice cream that actually contains natural ingredients effective in treating hangover symptoms.
Gyeondyo-bar, which can translate to “hang in there” or “bear with it,” is a grapefruit-flavored ice cream launched last year by With Me, one of major convenient store chains in Korea. Since its launch about a year ago, the ice cream bar is growing popular — especially among its target customers, given that 30 percent of the sales are made between 9 PM to midnight.
The main ingredients for the “hangover remedy” ice cream are grapefruit juice and the Japanese raisin tree (heotgae tree) extract. The extract from heotgae tree and its fruit has been one of the most popular natural hangover cures in Korea since the 1600s, and grapefruit juice is also known to help detoxify alcoholic toxins. The outer layer, which tastes like a grapefruit sorbet, contains enough water to quench your hangover thirst, and the inner layer contains crunchy frozen heotgae tree extract.
With South Korea known for being Asia’s hardest drinking country, its hangover cure market is rather sizable, reaching $161 million per year. While classic hangover cures, such as Dawn 808 and Condition, are infamous for their bitter tastes, recently launched products differentiate themselves with better flavor or cute package designs, rising in popularity among younger consumers.
“Most people think of bitter taste when it comes to hangover cure remedies,” said a market insider in the interview with New Daily. “But recent trend shows more variety of products that don’t taste like conventional products but enjoyable like soft drinks.”
We can’t guarantee how much the 0.8 percent heotgae tree extract will help you to recover from a deadly hangover, but a sweet, sour, and slightly bitter ice cream sounds like a great thing to have in the morning after a crazy night.
By Heewon Kim
