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We’re ‘nuts’ about HBAF flavored almonds! Possibly South Korea’s most scrummy souvenir snack, HBAF almonds are a popular tourist treat that come in dozens of different flavours.
Mosey on by Myeongdong and you’ll find several huge HBAF stores stocked with all manner of almond flavours, nice nuts and perfect pretzels. Plus they can be found in convenience stores all over the country including 7-Eleven South Korea.
From the original honey butter almond flavour to more interesting flavours like injeolmi and wasabi, we’ve visited numerous HBAF stores in Seoul to give you the lowdown on all the HBAF flavors.
Plus did you know you can get HBAF merchandise and even HBAF Makgeolli rice wine?
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Table of Contents
What is HBAF in Korea?
Primarily known for selling flavoured almonds, HBAF actually stands for Honey, Butter, Almonds, and Flavours. Although according to local advertising, the H in HBAF is silent so we should all be referring to it phonetically as ‘BAF almonds’.
We’ve also seen HBAF referred to as Healthy But Awesome Flavors – so we aren’t sure; but what we do know is that they are damn tasty almonds!
HBAF is a relatively new snack brand in South Korea, launched in 2015 as a sub brand by Gilim, a nut business.
HBAF is famous for its bright coloured packaging, its huge range of flavours plus its cartoon characters that feature on all the packets. The South Korean actress Jeon Ji Hun is also the HBAF ambassador and stars in many store posters and adverts.
HBAF is primarily known for its flavoured almonds but recently, other new HBAF products have launched like flavoured cheese balls and pretzels, plus other nuts and snacks.
There are over 20 different HBAF flavours – read on for the full list of flavors currently available in 2023!
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Where can I buy HBAF products?
There are several ways to get HBAF products in South Korea, including their own brand HBAF stores which can be found in Seoul.
The flagship store in South Korea is located in Myeongdong located very close to Myeongdong Underground Mall.
Such is the popularity of the main Myeongdong HBAF store that on our recent revisit in October 2023, we noticed the store had doubled in size and they’d also taken over the next unit as well – now that is a awful lot of flavored almonds.
As of October 2023, there are half a dozen HBAF dedicated stalls in Myeongdong (we’ve noticed a few of the smaller ones have closed down). Why not combine a trip to Myeongdong Night Market with some HBAF hedonism?
You can also buy HBAF products in some Olive Young beauty stores, 7-Eleven stores (usually just the malt balls), Lotte Duty Free shops, plus in various Korea Marts and souvenir shops.
HBAF flavored almonds are also available at Seoul Incheon International Airport but the prices are a lot more than at HBAF Myeongdong or in 7-Eleven.
If you are looking to buy HBAF from overseas, it is a little more difficult although there are some unofficial stockists on Amazon.com and other small sweet suppliers.
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HBAF flavours – a full list!
The big HBAF flavoured almond question – how many flavors are there? As of October 2023, there are 22 different flavours of HBAF almonds.
We know this because A) we counted them and B) HBAF now does a selection box of all 22 flavoured almond types; now that would be a cool Christmas gift or snack-tastic souvenir from South Korea.
The full list of 22 HBAF flavoured almonds (with pictures) is as follows:
1. Honey Butter Almonds – the original flavour and how HBAF got their name (Honey Butter Almond Flavor):
2. Wasabi Almonds – a little bit of heat to the mix, these almonds can bring tears to your eyes.
3. Injeolmi Almonds – one of the most popular flavors, Injeolmi is popular South Korean rice cake made from a mixture of sticky rice powder and powdered soybeans. Of all the flavours we tried, Injeolmi Almond was quite subtle in taste; not overpowering at all.
4. Baked Corn Almonds
5. Garlic Bread Almonds (with pretzels)
6. Salted Caramel Almonds
7. Roasted Onion Almonds
8. Cheddar Cheese Almonds (with pretzels)
9. Cheongyang Mayo Almonds
10. Hot & Spicy Chicken Almonds
11. Tteokbokki Almonds – a Korean classic, Tteokbokki is a nice spicy rice cake big on flavours.
12. Jeju Matcha Almonds – the green tea flavours from South Korea’s most popular Jeju island retreat.
13. Black Sugar Milk Tea Almonds – sweet as!
14. Cookie and Cream Almonds – our favourite sweet almond flavour.
15. Tiramisu Almonds – one of favourites!
16. Laver Almonds – Laver is a South Korean dried seaweed, often classed as a superfood.
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17. Carrot Cake Almonds – nice but the carrot taste was a little chemically for our liking.
18. Black Sesame Almonds
19. Starlight PangPang Almonds – this is basically a popping candy almond that explodes in your mouth; probably the most unusual flavour (which is saying a lot when there are 23 flavours to try!).
20. Cherries Jubilee Almonds
21. Mint Chocolate Almonds – another of our favourites!
22. Toffeenut Latte Almonds
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Other HBAF Products / Non Almond Products
Whilst the company is primarily known for its flavoured almonds in South Korea, in recent years, there have been lots of other equally tasty HBAF nuts and products to hit the shelves including:
HBAF Malt Balls
These Malteser style chocolate balls are widely available in South Korea 7-Elevens and CU convenience stores and come in several flavours:
- Cookies and cream malt balls
- Cherry Jubilee malt balls
- Starlight Pangpang popping candy malt balls
- Milk coconut malt balls
- Injeolmi malt balls
- Banana malt balls
- Melon malt balls
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Crunchy Pretzels
It isn’t just nuts or chocolates that HBAF produce – they also have flavoured pretzels that can be bought alone or mixed up with nuts e.g. Caramel Salted Peanuts & Pretzels.
Baked Corn / Peanuts
Flavoured peanuts in unusually spicy / hot flavours like Sichuan peanuts or Wasabi peanuts.
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Roasted Anchovy Almonds
Available in several flavours including roasted onion anchovy almonds and spicy pepper paste anchovy almonds.
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Hazelnuts
Available in Bong Bong flavour – we aren’t too sure what this is – something to do with chocolate!
Seaweed Chips
This seems to be a rapid expanding product line from HBAF and one that features prominently in all their Myeongdong stores.
Seaweed chip flavors include Wasabi Seaweed, Honey Butter Seaweed and Garlic Seaweed Chips; prices start from 3,800 Won (approx £2.30 / $2.90 USD for a small bag).
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Fried Squid / Beer Tempura Snacks
Fried squid is the perfect accompaniment to beer and are available in several flavors including Jjamppong and Hot Butter – very pungent so best not to open them in store!
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Alaska Fish Snack
Continuing the fishy theme, HBAF also has a brand of Alaska Fish Snacks (although they aren’t suitable for your pet fish as the name suggests).
Alaska Fish snacks are available in several flavors including Wasabi Mayo, Deep Cheese (!) and Roasted Almond.
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Cornball soup snack / nacho cheese ball snack
If you aren’t a fan of flavored nuts, pretzels of fish snacks, try the ball snacks which come in Corn Soup and Nacho Cheese flavors.
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Monday to Sunday Nuts
Unlike the cartoon character branding of most almond packs, the Monday to Sunday range is a multipack of smaller snack packs featuring actress Jeon Ji Hun on the packaging.
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Cashew Nuts
Flavoured cashews that have similar flavours to the almonds such as honey butter.
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Macadamias
Show me the macadamias at HBAF! More delicious flavoured nuts.
There is also an HBAF and 7-Eleven collaboration macadamia chocolate bar available from Korean 7-Eleven stores.
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Limited Edition Selection Packs
Whilst exploring the Myeongdong flagship store, we also founds lot of random multipacks like the cupid pack consisting of cookie and cream, plus the injeolmi flavoured maltballs.
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Honey Butter Almond Makgeolli
Did you know that HBAF now also have alcohol in addition to their flavoured almonds?
Available in a chilled section in most of the Myeongdong stores, you can buy Honey Butter Almond Makgeolli (5% ABV) for 3,800 Won a bottle. If you didn’t know, makgeolli is a milky, lightly sparkling rice wine!
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Dried Persimmon
This is one of the more unusual HBAF products, a mango like dried fruit with a jelly like inside.
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Dried Sweet Potato
Healthy-ish chewy snack using 100% home grown sweet potatoes!
Honey Butter Donut
Widely found in South Korean convenience stores.
Roasted Seasoned Seaweed
Available as a multipack of 16 small bags for 7,900 Won.
HBAF Merchandise
It isn’t just nuts anymore!
HBAF is now so popular as a brand, you can even buy branded merchandise from their Seoul stores.
If you are visiting Seoul with kids, this might be a cute gift to buy given they feature cartoon characters.
We’ve spotted several items of branded merchandise including:
Mini travel bag – 4,000 Won
Drawstring back – 4,900 Won
Shopping bags – 5,900 Won
Mug available in four colours – 12,000 Won
How much do HBAF products cost?
The price of the products varies – the flavoured almonds tend to be the most expensive items costing around 7,900 Won per bag (or 30,000 Won if you buy five different bags).
Other HBAF products cost much less like 2,500 Won per packet of HBAF malt malls (often on a buy 1 get 1 free promotion in 7-Eleven and CU stores) or 3,800 Won for a chilled bottle of Honey butter Almond makgeolli rice wine.
HBAF Popularity
HBAF is now one of the most popular souvenirs to take back home from South Korea (especially Seoul).
As HBAF is a little expensive compared to other South Korean snacks, HBAF is generally bought by tourists, not normally by locals.
We’ve genuinely seen tourists and travellers with big bags full of HBAF so if you are really keen, make sure you buy or bring an empty suitcase to take all your flavoured almonds home!
Other facts and things to know
If you want to try HBAF before you buy, some (but not all) of the HBAF stores in Myeongdong have tasters so you can sample before deciding which of the 23 flavoured almond types to buy.
To note that on our last Seoul visit to Myeongdong in October 2023, the flagship Myeongdong HBAF store had stopped doing tasters but the smaller stores did still have tasters – so choose your shops carefully!
The cheapest place to buy HBAF in South Korea is generally the dedicated HBAF stores, as they offer a deal where you can buy large multipacks or five different flavours for a much lower price than when buying one pack.
The most expensive place to buy them appears to be at the airports, particularly Seoul Incheon international airport.
In the HBAF Myeongdong stores in Seoul, you can pose with huge models of HBAF’s cute cartoon characters!
The HBAF cartoon characters were created by South Korean designer Yang Jung-eun, whose colourful creations are credited with helping turn around HBAF’s sales after a period of decline.
And Finally – Beware of HBAF Imitations
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but beware of HBAF rip-offs!
There are so many other copy-cat, flavored almond products now available with similar cartoon packaging so it is easy to get caught out! Keep an eye out for the HBAF logo if you want the real deal!
And anyway, why would you want to buy any other flavoured almond? We’re H-Baffled!
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