Chuseok in Seoul: A Place to Slow Down at Lazy Yogurt

Hello, I’m the CMO of Lazy Yogurt.

Chuseok week has arrived, and September is already drawing to a close. As the holiday approaches, I’ve been thinking about the people who will spend these days in Seoul, whether this city is home or a place they are visiting for the first time.

Our Seongsu and Gangnam stores will remain open throughout the Chuseok holiday. We’re preparing a seasonal Songpyeon Edition, and we hope you’ll stop by for a bowl of yogurt and a little time to yourself or with someone you enjoy.

I wanted to share some of the thinking behind that invitation. It connects the food we’re making this autumn with a larger question we keep returning to: how can Lazy Yogurt make it easier for people to feel comfortable together?

Keeping Our Doors Open During Chuseok

For some people, the holiday means returning home and gathering around a familiar table. Others will stay in Seoul, spend time with friends, or enjoy a few days without their usual routine. Visitors arriving from overseas will bring a different set of plans and expectations.

We already welcome many international guests to our stores. During Chuseok, we want to offer somewhere they can pause while exploring the city, especially if a place they hoped to visit is taking a holiday break. The same welcome extends to our neighbors and regulars spending the season close to home.

A small pause can change the rhythm of a day. You might sit down after walking through a neighborhood, share something with a friend, or take your time choosing a flavor. We want our stores to make room for those ordinary, unhurried moments. You don’t need a special occasion to visit.

Our Songpyeon Edition: Black Sesame, Granola, and Honey

We’re bringing a seasonal combination to the menu for Chuseok: black sesame yogurt with granola and honey, which we’re calling the Songpyeon Edition.

Songpyeon is a traditional Korean rice cake associated with Chuseok. For many people in Korea, its flavor belongs to the holiday as much as the gathering itself. Our combination grew from a simple discovery: black sesame yogurt, honey, and granola together brought that familiar taste to mind.

The black sesame gives the bowl its nutty depth. Honey adds sweetness, while granola brings a crisp texture alongside the thick yogurt. Together, they offer a playful way to revisit a seasonal flavor through ingredients we already enjoy working with.

The yogurt keeps its own texture; it won’t have the chewiness of rice cake. The connection is in the flavors and associations that the combination brings out. If you know songpyeon, we’d love to hear whether it reminds you of it, too. If you’re trying these flavors for the first time, we hope the bowl gives you something enjoyable to discover.

Sharing a Korean Holiday Through a Familiar Food

I like the possibility that yogurt can become an approachable introduction to a Korean holiday flavor. Someone visiting Seoul might already know how they enjoy yogurt, even if songpyeon is unfamiliar. Starting with something recognizable can make exploring a new taste feel easy.

That first spoonful can also lead to a conversation. We can explain what inspired the combination, and a guest might tell us about a food they associate with a holiday back home. These are possibilities we hope to invite, rather than interactions we can plan in advance.

For our regular customers, the same bowl may offer a different pleasure: finding a familiar seasonal reference in a new form. I’m interested in how one menu can hold both experiences. It can introduce something to one person and bring back a memory for another, while leaving each person free to enjoy it in their own way.

Making Space for Rest Takes Care

There is plenty to prepare before we open our doors. Our team puts time and attention into the food, the store, and the experience of welcoming each guest. Running a brand called Lazy Yogurt certainly keeps us busy.

Still, the moments we help create give that work meaning. Preparing a place where someone can slow down feels closely connected to what we believe in. I find real satisfaction in knowing that the care behind a bowl of yogurt can become part of another person’s restful afternoon.

Our slogan, SLOW FOOD, SHARED MOMENTS, gives us a useful way to think about that care. We want to make food worth taking time over and offer a space where people can enjoy being together. Rest can be quiet or sociable. Sometimes it means being left to your own thoughts; sometimes it means finally having time for a conversation.

The Brand Takes Shape Through Your Responses

The comments people leave with us are one of the most rewarding parts of this work. Some are brief observations shared at the counter. Others are thoughtful suggestions about our food, our space, or the kinds of activities they would like to see us try.

We receive both with curiosity. A passing comment may give us a question to explore. A longer conversation may help an idea become more specific. Feedback can also make us reconsider something we thought we understood. Listening leaves room for the brand to develop in ways we couldn’t have decided entirely among ourselves.

As CMO, I spend time thinking about how to communicate Lazy Yogurt’s direction. Just as much, I want to understand what people experience when they actually meet us. The distance between our intention and their experience is where there is often something useful to learn.

Our customers and supporters give this brand its meaning. When we talk about building a community, I think about the responsibility of taking their voices seriously and allowing what we hear to influence what we do next.

A Playful Gathering Around the Things That Make Us “Lazy”

That curiosity is also behind a gathering we’re preparing called 게으름 자랑대회, which you might think of in English as “The Lazy Brag-Off.” The idea is to share our own stories of being a little lazy and discover what we have in common.

In a previous gathering with another community platform, we explored ways to bring people together through shared activities. For this next event, we want to give conversation more room. We’re thinking about simple prompts and playful elements that can help people begin talking, then let the exchange find its own direction.

Perhaps someone’s version of being lazy is keeping a day completely free of plans. Someone else might take great pride in an elaborate shortcut for an everyday task. These are the kinds of ordinary, slightly funny details we imagine people could bring to the table. Sharing them may make introductions feel less formal and give us a glimpse of the person behind a job title.

There will probably be a little awkwardness at first, as there often is when strangers meet. We want to make those first few minutes easier without scripting the whole experience. A shared topic and a bowl of yogurt can give people somewhere to start.

Hoping the Conversation Continues Afterward

When we think about this gathering, we also think about what might happen after everyone goes home. We hope people who enjoy meeting one another will have reasons to stay in touch, meet again, or return to Lazy Yogurt together.

We’d also like guests to get to know the people who work here. Over time, a store can become familiar through the faces you recognize and the conversations you remember having there. That familiarity is something we would be glad to build, one visit at a time.

Of course, relationships need room to develop at their own pace. We can prepare a welcoming setting, introduce an idea, and listen carefully to how people respond. Each person gets to decide what they take from the experience and whether they want to come back.

That possibility keeps me interested in these small gatherings. A seasonal menu, a casual conversation, and an invitation to meet again can gradually become part of a shared history. I’d love for Lazy Yogurt to have more of those histories with the people who spend time with us.

An Open Invitation This Chuseok

If you’re spending Chuseok in Seoul, we’d be happy to welcome you to Lazy Yogurt. Come with a friend, bring someone who is curious about Korean flavors, or visit on your own. Our Songpyeon Edition is one way we’re marking the season; making space for you to enjoy it is just as much a part of the preparation.

And if these ideas make you think of something we could do together, I’d love to hear from you. It could be a gathering, a collaboration, a new way to share food, or an observation you’ve been meaning to pass along. An idea can still be taking shape when you send it.

You can reach me at hoon@yggrofficial.com. We’ll listen with care and look forward to discovering what we might create together.

Wishing you a restful Chuseok, with good food and time to spend as you choose.

From the CMO of Lazy Yogurt