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Searches for the collaboration bread CU released on September 17 were still pointing up on the Korean side through September 25. On the two days when three of the four other words in the same request fell, this one rose 51.5%. The product name gets searched; the photocard gets written about.
The Korean word 홈카페 moved up a level on July 20, 2026, and 68 days later it has not come back down. Across that same date, not one machine, capsule or bean rose with it. What moved was the word.
Korean trends are supposed to reach Japan after a delay. Tested against the data, the gap in finding out was next to nothing; what lagged was the date the product reached the shelf. By the time it did, Korean search volume was at 1.4% of its peak.
A thick chocolate shell you break apart with your hands. In Korea it is called 왁뿌 (wakppu). Checked against Korean search volume, the peak was three months ago. By the time the trend is written up abroad, the country has moved on.
Two Korean dessert trends followed end to end, from first sign to gone. Both took six months from lift-off to peak, and four months from the peak back to where they started. Almost the same speed. The stage for both was the convenience store.