Stores spring into strawberry season

Left: Strawberry pastries at the Grand Intercontinental Seoul. Right: A variety of desserts at the Sheraton Grande Walkerhill Hotel. Provided by the hotels

Retailers are bringing out strawberries, the signature fruit of spring, through a variety of new beverages, pastries, ice cream and various promotions.

Smoothie King is holding a Strawberry King event through April 30, offering a small size Strawberry Extreme to customers that collect nine stamps, one for each purchase. .

Mango Six, a coffee and dessert cafe chain, is conducting a strawberry lips promotion, launching new drinks and baked goods. When customers upload a picture of the new strawberry menu and to any social network services, they become eligible for a drawing for a dinner voucher worth 100,000 won ($91).

Premium dessert cafe Lucy Cato also has joined in the strawberry promotion trend with a Strawberry Festival, celebrating the launch of new strawberry drinks. At the festival, it is selling some products at discounted prices and holding SNS events with prize drawings.

Paris Baguette, A Twosome Place, Outback Steakhouse and Dunkin’ Donuts all released new strawberry-related menus for this spring.

Meanwhile, luxury hotels such as the Sheraton Grand Walkerhill and Grand Intercontinental Seoul also are holding various promotions with strawberries.

Sheraton Grand Walkerhill lobby lounge The Pavilion is holding a Very Berry Strawberry Promotion to enjoy a wide range of the most tasty winter strawberries weekends through April 28.

Grand Intercontinental Seoul’s Parnas has a strawberry dessert buffet through March 31.

At the strawberry buffet, a variety of desserts such as strawberry pizza, strawberry macarons and strawberry roll cakes are served.

“As consumer demand for strawberries sharply increases at this time of the year, we launched new strawberry menus,” said a spokesman for Paris Baguette.

By Kim Jung-yoon [kjy@joongang.co.kr]