Why don’t watermelons disappear from café menus as soon as Chuseo has passed?
The timing of autumn ingredients’ arrival does not necessarily align with the timing of drinks sought during the lingering heat.
Watermelon is both a late-season menu item and a fruit that offers a window into each store’s sales strategy.
3-Line Summary
1. Watermelon drinks continue to sell even during the lingering heat
2. Their No. 1 blended-drink ranking and extension through September support this
3. For seasonal menus, look at the launch timing and the ingredients
Watermelon Is a Summer Menu Item, but Sales Continue Through September
The café industry’s seasonal transition moves faster than the calendar. According to a Food Today report, Hollys plans to launch five fall seasonal menu items on August 26, while Twosome Place has already introduced cakes featuring chestnuts and sweet potatoes. Even amid the lingering heat, preparations for fall have begun on one side of the menu.
That does not mean watermelon drinks have immediately stepped aside. In a Korea Economic Daily report, Starbucks Korea said its limited-time summer Watermelon Juice Blended was the top-selling item in the blended beverage category. The drink blends watermelon flesh and watermelon juice and is topped with chocolate peanut topping resembling watermelon seeds.
Starbucks has extended sales through September for this drink. This shows that, separate from watermelon’s classification as a representative summer fruit, the actual sales period for beverages can be adjusted according to the heat and customer response. Rather than concluding that “the watermelon menu is over because fall menus have arrived,” it is more accurate to check each store’s sales end date.
Why Watermelon Still Has a Place Even as Chestnuts and Sweet Potatoes Arrive
Fall menus are not simply replacements for summer menus. Food Today reported that while cool, refreshing fruits such as mango, watermelon, and peach dominated in summer, fall brings forward ingredients with richer flavors, such as chestnuts, sweet potatoes, black sesame, and ripe persimmons. Rather than one menu pushing out another, the change is closer to an expansion in the range of flavors customers can choose from.
In particular, new fall menu items highlight not only flavor but also Korean ingredients and visual elements. Hollys plans to introduce menu items using ripe persimmons, dried persimmons, black sesame, Asian pears, and quince, while Starbucks signaled the season first with five types of Chuseok gift food rather than beverages. These are each company’s launch and sales plans or announcements, and do not represent every consumer’s choice.
What is worth noting in this trend is that there is more than one standard for seasonal menus. Watermelon remains a cold fruit drink aimed at quenching thirst, while chestnuts and sweet potatoes appear in desserts emphasizing fullness and rich flavor. Because the situations consumers seek differ even during the same period, the two types of menu items can be offered together.
The Price of a Whole Watermelon and a Café Drink Are Not the Same Story
Interest surrounding watermelon does not stop with beverage sales. OhmyNews reported a case in which a watermelon farm in Yesan, South Chungcheong Province, disposed of a large volume of watermelons that had lost marketability due to a heat wave and high temperatures. The farm featured in the report cited damage across about 3,000 pyeong and losses of about KRW 60 million.
This case cannot be generalized to watermelon conditions in every producing area. Still, it is clear that watermelon drinks can be selling in stores while producing areas simultaneously report heat-related damage. The popularity of a menu item and farmers’ production conditions are different questions.
Therefore, when choosing a watermelon drink, it is enough to consider “is it still being sold?” and “what does it taste like?” On the other hand, when assessing watermelon production or price trends, it is better not to draw conclusions from an individual farm case alone. This summer, watermelon was both a fruit symbolizing the season and a subject in which sales periods, menu combinations, and heat-wave damage overlapped.
Standards for Reading the Next Announcement
It is difficult to draw a conclusion from watermelon-related news using only a single number or sentence. The meaning becomes clearer when you distinguish who made the announcement, whether it refers to something already implemented or a future plan, and whether the target and timing are specifically presented.
Even within the same material, an explanation of need, discussion, implementation plans, and actual implementation may be different stages. Even if the scale of an announcement appears large, it is necessary to check what it applies to and what procedures remain in order to avoid overstating or understating the current situation.
In the next report, compare whether a new announcement repeats existing information or whether the target, schedule, or implementation status has actually changed. Reading the original sources listed in the references can also help identify differences in wording that are easy to miss from headlines alone.
References
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