A bowl of shaved ice topped with sweet red bean paste has long been a classic summer dessert for Koreans. The traditional combination of ice, red bean paste and condensed milk has been an inspiration for many other creative summer desserts, too.

This summer, the traditional summer treat, “bingsu,” has become tropical, as mango has emerged as a new variant. Sweet, fragrant chunks of mango have become a substitute to the classic red bean paste.

For Homibing, a local shaved ice dessert chain that offers Taiwanese-style shaved ice, mango bingsu is the best-selling item at its Garosu-gil branch. Since it opened in 2014, Homibing has expanded to more than 60 branches nationwide, thanks to the rising popularity of its mango bingsu.

Another dessert chain, Sulbing, has presented summer desserts featuring apple mango for the summer. The shaved ice dishes deliver a marriage of sweet apple mango and flavorful coconut milk with cheese.

The mango bingsu fad goes back to 2007. The Shilla Jeju Hotel experimented with a new type of bingsu using locally grown apple mangos that it says are sweeter and more fragrant than the typical mango. The new bingsu instantly became a huge hit, and was made available at its Seoul branch in 2011.

During weekends in summer, a long line can be seen on the lobby floor of the hotel, waiting for the hotel’s still-popular apple mango bingsu.  

“The Shilla was the first hotel to present a mango bingsu. Since then many other hotels followed suit,” said Kim Su-bin, communication manager of the Shilla Seoul.

Apple mangos grown on Jejudo Island reach peak quality from mid-June to the end of summer. It’s during this summer period that hotels buy fresh mangos for bingsu.  

A bowl of an apple mango bingsu is priced at 42,000 won at The Shilla Seoul. Banyan Tree Club and Spa Seoul is also offering an apple mango bingsu at its Granum Dining Lounge. The mango bingsu has chunks of mango inside the soft layers of shaved ice, delivering an exotic and fresh flavor.

The hotel’s signature bingsu menu, however, is the coconut bingsu, which is made with paper thin shreds of frozen coconut milk. The coconut content in the ice is almost 99 percent, according to the hotel. It intensifies the tropical flavor with a coconut panna cotta topping and adds Thai tea ice cream and red bean paste. 

“You can’t find similar coconut milk at other places. It’s the most popular bingsu menu at our hotel,” said Lim Nam-gyung, communications manager at Banyan Tree Club and Spa.

At JW Marriott Dongdaemun Plaza Seoul, the refreshing taste of sweet mango is intensified with passion fruit. The mango passion fruit bingsu features a combination of shaved ice topped with mango coulis and passion fruit, with crunchy coconut streusels on top.

Here, Dom Perignon bingsu emerged the ultimate luxury bingsu menu, made with strawberry coulis mixed with citrus zest, edible rose petals and gold powder and topped with cotton candy. Each bowl comes with a glass of Champagne that adventurous diners are invited to pour over their dessert. It is priced at 80,000 won.

By Lee Woo-young (wylee@heraldcorp.com)