Pororo Drink: Korea's Kids' Drink — Price per Bottle, Flavours, Sugar and How to Open It

Part of Paldo's current Pororo range, left to right: Pororo Zero, Big Pororo Zero, spring water (labelled and label-free) and organic grain tea. The sweet drinks and the tea have the tall, clear push-pull spout; the water has an ordinary screw cap. Product images: Paldo.

Paldo Pororo drink, milk flavour, 24 × 235 ml — the bottle Koreans mean by "Pororo"Affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate, EpicKor earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.

Last updated: 11 October 2026. Prices are CU's list prices from its official product catalogue and Danawa's lowest online prices, both read on 11 October 2026. Nutrition figures are from Paldo's own product pages.

Pororo drink (뽀로로 음료) is the small 235 ml bottle with a cartoon penguin on it, on the low shelf of every Korean convenience store fridge. Paldo (팔도) launched it in April 2007 and had sold about 800 million by April 2025. It is Korea's best-selling children's drink.

Visitors usually want three answers: what one bottle costs, which flavour to pick and why nothing comes out. They are ₩1,600, milk and a paper seal under the cap. Here is the detail, plus a sugar figure that has changed since most English pages were written.

Quick Guide: Pororo Drink in Korea

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How to Open a Pororo Drink

The cap is a push-pull sports cap (스포츠캡). The tall, clear, ribbed column on top is the spout; Korean descriptions call it a "long doughnut-shaped column" (긴 도넛형 기둥) that you lift to open a small gap.

The catch is a second closure. The directions on Paldo Fun & Yum's Amazon listings say: "Twist the lid to open and unseal the white paper. Close the lid back on the bottle before drinking." A paper seal covers the bottle mouth under the cap, and until it is off, pulling the spout gives you nothing. The sequence:

1. Twist the whole cap anticlockwise and lift it off.
2. Peel off the white paper seal across the bottle mouth.
3. Screw the cap back on firmly.
4. Pull the clear spout upward until it rises a few millimetres.
5. Push it back down to close. It reseals well enough to go in a bag.

The usual mistake is pulling the spout first, through an intact seal.

Why children don't spill it. The narrow gap limits how fast the drink comes out, so it arrives in sips rather than gulps, and a tipped bottle leaks a little instead of emptying. Korean write-ups assume that is the point: to stop small children gulping too much at once. Paldo put the same cap on the 360 ml Big Pororo Zero so a child can drink some, close it and finish later.

Korean households keep the caps. One well-shared Korean tip is to put an empty Pororo cap on a sesame-oil bottle. It fits the soju-style bottle neck and pours a few drops at a time.

Pororo Drink Price: One Bottle vs a Box

Pororo milk flavour (뽀로로 밀크맛), 235 ml, the bottle CU lists at ₩1,600. The line under the logo reads 어린이 기호식품 품질인증 제품, a certified children's food. Product image: Paldo.

The price went up by ₩100. Convenience-store records show ₩1,500 a bottle in May 2024 and ₩1,600 from July 2024. So any English page still quoting ₩1,500 is two years out of date.

There is no 2+1 deal on Pororo at CU this month. Pororo often gets 2+1 deals (three for the price of two): GS25 and CU ran them in 2024 and 2025, and CU on strawberry in May 2026. In CU's October 2026 catalogue, neither bottle carries a deal badge. Promotions change on the 1st of each month, so check the shelf tag.

Only two flavours at CU. CU's catalogue lists milk, strawberry and the grain tea. For the other four, buy an online box.

The honest maths. A convenience-store bottle costs more than twice what one from a box does: a milk 24-box, delivered, saves about ₩21,000 against 24 singles. But for one bottle to taste, don't order a case.

The Flavours, and Which One to Pick

Paldo's own nutrition page lists six flavours under the 235 ml Pororo name. Shops abroad also sell flavours that are not on Paldo's current Korean list, such as tropical fruit (a Korean flavour back in 2013) and green grape. You will not usually see those in Korea now.

Start with milk. It is the original flavour, it is the one CU stocks first, and it is the one the Amazon 24-packs are built around. If a child is drinking it, strawberry is the usual second choice. For an adult who finds milk drinks heavy, apple is the lightest.

The same family also includes Pororo Zero and Big Pororo Zero (milk and strawberry), Pororo organic grain tea (유기농 보리차), Pororo nurungji tea (누룽지차), Pororo spring water (샘물), Pororo red ginseng (홍삼쏙쏙) and Pororo water jelly (워터젤리). The jelly is a drinkable jelly pouch, not a bottle.

Sugar: the Number Has Changed

On Paldo's own product page, today's 235 ml Pororo (all six flavours) has 75 kcal and 11 g of sugar, plus 3 g of dietary fibre, calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B1 and zinc. An entry for the milk flavour in the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's processed-food nutrition data works out to about 29 g a bottle, nearly three times as much, as our drinks guide notes. That figure does not match Paldo's current 75 kcal panel, so it most likely reflects an earlier label.

• The bottle in your hand decides. Read the 당류 (sugars) line on the nutrition panel.
• The US listings look like the older recipe. The Amazon pages for the 24-packs list water, then sugar, then skim milk powder. They lack the fibre ingredient of the current Korean recipe, so don't assume 11 g.
• 11 g is still a sweet drink. It is about two and a half teaspoons of sugar, and it is not juice. The fruit flavours are flavoured milk drinks with a little concentrate. The strawberry ingredient list on the US listing, for example, starts with water, sugar, skim milk powder and strawberry concentrate.

Pororo Zero brings the sugar to 0 g and the energy to 7 kcal per 235 ml, using erythritol (7 g a bottle), stevia, sucralose and monk fruit. Sugar alcohols such as erythritol can upset a small child's stomach in quantity, so one bottle is a treat, not a water substitute.

The certification mark on the label, 어린이 기호식품 품질인증, is the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's quality certification for children's favourite foods, which includes nutrition limits. It is a real regulatory mark, but it does not mean "healthy".

The Grain Tea and Water: What Korean Parents Restock

Pororo organic grain tea (뽀로로 유기농 보리차), 220 ml: organic Korean brown rice, barley and corn, 0 kcal and 0 g sugar. CU lists it at ₩1,300. Product image: Paldo.

On the Korean web, parents ask "몇 살부터?" (from what age?) and "당 함량?" (how much sugar?), and the unsweetened bottles are the usual answer.

The organic grain tea is called 보리차 (barley tea), but the label lists Korean organic brown rice, barley and corn. It has 0 kcal and 0 g of sugar, and Korean households drink it every day, cold in summer and hot in winter. It is also ₩300 cheaper than the sweet bottles at CU. There is a nurungji tea (누룽지차) version as well, made with toasted rice crust, with the same zero figures.

The spring water comes from Jirisan and is sold in a labelled 250 ml bottle and a label-free (무라벨) 260 ml bottle. Korea's bottled-water category has been moving to label-free bottles so the plastic is easier to recycle.

Pororo spring water: labelled 250 ml (유라벨) and label-free 260 ml (무라벨). The bottle itself is moulded into Pororo. Product image: Paldo.

Both bottles are moulded into Pororo's shape, and children keep the empties.

Pororo Zero and Big Pororo Zero

Pororo Zero, milk and strawberry, 235 ml. The base of the label reads 235 mL (7 kcal). Product image: Paldo.

Pororo Zero comes in the standard 235 ml bottle and, since 18 June 2024, as the 360 ml Big Pororo Zero, 1.5 times the size, which Paldo aimed at children who have outgrown the toddler stage. Both come in milk and strawberry only, with the same cap. On the shelf, look for 제로 in large letters under the logo.

Big Pororo Zero, 360 ml, launched 18 June 2024 for children past the toddler stage. Product image: Paldo.

How Big Pororo Drink Is

• Launched April 2007, under licence from the animation studio ICONIX. Our ICONIX deep dive covers the licensing business behind the penguin.
• About 40% of Korea's children's drink market (Paldo, 2013).
• Nearly 750 million bottles sold by June 2024, and about 800 million by April 2025.
• Exported to about 40 countries, including China, Indonesia, Mongolia and the US. In 2018 overseas sales made up about half of the brand's revenue.
• Indonesia alone brought in about ₩5 billion in 2017, 20% of Pororo's overseas sales, through about 29,000 stores.
• First Korean children's drink with halal certification, from Indonesia's MUI, announced in April 2018.
• April 2025: Paldo signed with Indomarco, the distribution arm of Indonesia's largest food group Indofood, to supply Pororo exclusively in Indonesia.

So a visitor from Jakarta may well know the bottle before landing in Seoul. Halal status applies to the products MUI certified, so check the mark on the individual bottle.

Where to Buy Pororo Drink

• In Korea, now: CU, GS25, 7-Eleven or emart24, lowest shelf of the drinks fridge. ₩1,600 at CU, no deal this month.
• In Korea, for a week or for other flavours: a 24-box from an online mall, about ₩700–770 a bottle delivered.
• Outside Korea: Korean grocers usually stock milk and strawberry. On Amazon US the milk and strawberry 24-packs were in stock on 11 October 2026; the 8-packs of other flavours were unavailable.

For the rest of the fridge, see our convenience store food guide.

FAQ About Pororo Drink

Q: How much is one Pororo drink in Korea?

A: ₩1,600 for a 235 ml bottle at CU (catalogue price, 11 October 2026). The grain tea is ₩1,300. In a 24-bottle box online it works out to about ₩700–770 a bottle, delivery included.

Q: Why can't I get any liquid out of my Pororo bottle?

A: There is a white paper seal under the cap. Twist the whole cap off, peel the seal, screw the cap back on, then pull the clear spout up.

Q: How much sugar is in Pororo drink?

A: The current Korean recipe has 11 g per 235 ml bottle (75 kcal), according to Paldo. A ministry nutrition-data entry works out to about 29 g, and US export stock appears to use an older recipe, so read the panel. Pororo Zero has 0 g.

Q: Which flavour should I try first?

A: Milk, the original. Strawberry if it is for a child who likes pink. Apple if milk drinks feel heavy.

Q: Is Pororo drink halal?

A: Pororo became the first Korean children's drink with MUI halal certification, in 2018. Check the mark on the individual bottle, because certification applies per product.

Sources

• Paldo product pages (nutrition and ingredients): 뽀로로 (six flavours, 235 ml; grain teas), 뽀로로 제로 235 ml, 빅 뽀로로 제로 360 ml, 뽀로로 유기농 보리차 220 ml, 뽀로로 샘물
• CU official product catalogue, drinks category, read 11 October 2026: cu.bgfretail.com
• Convenience-store promotion records (GS25 and CU, 2024–2026): pyony.com GS25, pyony.com CU
• Online box prices, read 11 October 2026: Danawa price comparison
• Opening instructions, "Twist the lid to open and unseal the white paper": Amazon US listings for Paldo Fun & Yum Pororo 8-packs (ASIN B0859LH24R and others), read 11 October 2026; cap design, Namuwiki, 귀여운 내친구 뽀로로
• Big Pororo Zero launch and ~750 million sales: Maeil Ilbo, 18 June 2024
• Indomarco agreement, ~800 million sales, 2018 halal: Youth Daily, 29 April 2025
• Halal certification, 40 countries, Indonesia sales: Dailian, 19 April 2018
• 40% market share and blueberry launch: iNews24, 27 June 2013
• Cap reuse on sesame-oil bottles: homeabs.kr

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