From ‘girl dinner’ to #Watertok: The 13 most viral TikTok food trends of 2023
TikTok is all about viral videos every year, but as far as recipes go, this year held some of the trendiest trends yet! The foodie fads we’re outlining below have a collective 4 billion-plus views, and together they’re fodder for breakfast to dinner to midnight snacking, and everything in between.
What was the busiest buzzword of the year? Cheese! It’s an ingredient in half of the spotlighted recipes.
We covered most of these culinary moments over the months, but sometimes a flash in the frying pan leaves our minds as fast as it comes. In case you missed them, here’s our rundown of the top food and beverage TikTok trends of 2023. Although some may have first appeared earlier, they really blew up this year, and we’ve sorted them by eyeball count.
Parmesan Espresso Martini: 318K views
The incredulous reception our first entrant got might lead you to believe otherwise, but cheese and coffee as a traditional pairing are actually spread all over, from Latin America to Scandinavia. Although we thought the original Bitter Gringo recipe’s truffle brandy helped unify some seriously unorthodox ingredients, the version that went viral was a bit of a miss, with flavors that couldn’t stand to be in the same room — that’s why we called it the Kramer versus Kramer of cocktails.
Hash Brown McFlurry Sandwich: 8M views
This one might make dietitians Grimace, but if you’re a late riser with a brunchy vibe, you might have been one of the teeming throngs going through the McD’s drive-thru at 10:29 a.m. to get hash browns, and then rolling back through at 10:31 a.m. to get a McFlurry, for the unholy-mess-but-holy-moly-delicious Hash Brown McFlurry ice cream sandwich. This random craving came from Down Under via businesswoman Kelly Arvan, but it didn’t take long to develop a devoted following Up Here.
Frozen Fruit Shaved Ice — 13.2M views
We’re perplexed at the degree to which this one caught on, but there are hundreds of videos of people grating, grating and grating some more, as their little pile of frozen fruit dust grows in time lapse, gradually spilling out of the bowl, onto the counter and over the whole kitchen. It’s healthy, simple and truly delicious, but isn’t that also true of plain old ungrated fruit? Unless you enjoy freezing your fingers off, we think you should just run it through the mini chopper. TikToker Fernanda Mora Vergara’s version has a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk, though, and with 4.4 million views alone, she could be onto something.
Cowboy Candy: 20M views
If you’re searching for the perfect garnish for literally any one of our other top 2023 trends, you don’t have to look any further than the sweet-heat treat of sliced and candied jalapeños. This TikTok turn through culinary stardom isn’t Cowboy Candy’s first rodeo, though, and we got the lowdown on its Tex-Mex origins from Mexican chef Pati Jinich and pioneering commercial canner WHH Ranch.
Pickle in a Blanket: 25M views
Chickles? Picklets? No matter what you call them, this easy-peasy, two-ingredient flavor bomb tickled a lot of taste buds. There are baked slices, gherkin wraps and ranch-dipped versions, but the original was the pan-fried dill pickle spear and provolone brought to TikTok by Claire Snyder. “I don’t care if anyone says this is gross,” she says, “It’s amazing.” We think she’s right.
Feta Fried Eggs: 39.8M views
As we heard from actress and “breakfast oracle” aficionado Brynn Baron, there’s no better way to start the day than with the perfect, properly cooked egg, and the feta fried version was smokin’ hot this year. Cookbook author Grace Elkus gave us the sunny-side-up skinny on how to get her crispy, silky, high-protein breakfast ready in five minutes flat, by frying a ring of crumbled feta around the egg, and serving on toast or tortillas. You don’t have to stop there, either; variations using chili crisp, pasta and potatoes were all the rage for weeks.
Cottage Cheese Ice Cream: 44.2M views
Is it as smooth and indulgent as Häagen-Dazs? Admittedly not, but it’s still pretty tasty, and an example of leveraging the nutritional punch of cottage cheese without giving people nightmares about drowning in it. Even if you don’t love that curds-and-whey texture, you might still like this blended, frozen treat, and several million people would agree. Our flavor mix-in picks? Strawberry jam and cinnamon churro!
Lemon Sprite Tea: 48M views
With a reliance on the familiar flavors of Lipton tea and Sprite, and a risky inverted cold-steeping method, Lemon Sprite Tea was an international 2023 sensation, originating with a post from Malaysian TikToker Hisham Raus and spreading like wildfire to every continent. It combines the universal human love for tea and lemon with the universal human obsession with sugar, so although it wasn’t our cup of tea, a lot of people at least wanted to like it.
Fruit Roll-Up Ice Cream: 105.8M views
It’s such a simple idea that it’s hard to believe this icy treat was so red-hot. It’s messy to make and even messier to eat. Could it be worth it? Most commenters appreciated the possible flavor combinations, like strawberry vanilla or blue raspberry mango, but the real selling point was the unexpected shattering crunch as the roll-up hardened around the ice cream bite.
Mustard and Cottage Cheese Diet: 111M views
No list of trends is complete without some controversy, and this year a lot of the conversation centered around how much cottage cheese and mustard a human should consume. On the one hand, influencer Tiffany Magee had what seemed like the entire internet eating chicken sausage and hearts of palm with her mesmerizing lunchtime ritual, but on the other hand, it was topped with a metric ton of cottage cheese and enough mustard to kill a water buffalo at 50 yards. If you already love that condiment combo in excess and this idea helps you get your veggies in? Great! Otherwise, keep scrolling … but you’ve got to see it at least once.
Big Mac Tacos: 223M views
Cookbook author and blogger Brad Prose brought a special taco-ification pressing technique, seared some deliciousness into it, and topped with special sauce dupe for this smash(ed) hit and editor favorite. It’s thrifty, easy, incredibly fast, vegetarian-friendly and everyone in the house will eat it!
We’re just glad there’s a dinner idea on this list that beat out the mustard and cottage cheese diet.
#WaterTok: 926M views
Hydrate or die-drate as the saying goes, so naturally, one of the most widely shared trends this year was of the fluid kind. The unexpected twist was the wild flavor combinations of powders, syrups and mixes: birthday cake, caramel apple and “unicorn cotton candy,” just to name a few. Is it a good idea? Many post-bariatric patients swore by it to meet their fluid and electrolyte needs, but lots of skeptical commenters pointed out that high acid flavorings and zero-calorie sweeteners may have health consequences, and suggested filtered water or brewed teas as better bets.
With almost a billion views for the hashtag, parodies are a sure thing, and we think this one takes the, uh, Kool-Aid:
Girl Dinner: 2.8B views
Despite its total lack of cottage cheese and artificial sweetener, another trend that divided the internet was Girl Dinner. Originator Olivia Maher intended it to be a no-fuss, self-indulgent compilation of little bites of happiness like fresh fruit and fancy cheese, but some of the copycats were pretty light on fun — and nutrition. Despite the controversy, or maybe because of it, this hashtag topped the charts with more than twice as many as our next reviewed fad. Looking to get in on the trend? It’s not too late. The appeal goes beyond dinner, beyond girls, and we’re betting it goes beyond 2023, too.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
