topic Re: Pickle popularity in Community Chat

Pickle popularity

Fizzy3 — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 12:55:36 GMT

Just look at those beautiful, refreshing-yet-garlicky, deeelicous half sours - my longtime fave.

Pickle is the pumpkin spice of summer

CNN.com June 15, 2026

Generations of Americans knew where to find pickles: sprinkled on top of their hot dogs, hidden inside hamburger buns and tucked next to deli sandwiches in wet wax paper.

Now, people seeking that distinctive briny tang can sip from a pickle lager at a barbeque, douse plain chicken and rice with dill pickle seasoning before a beach day and snack on pickle-flavored potato chips by the pool. Brands even sell pickle juice on its own, pickle-free, for use in salty, zingy cocktails or refreshing probiotic supplements.

What was once a “boring sidekick“ is “now the main character,” said Andrea Hernandez, a food trend forecaster and the author of the Snaxshot newsletter. Thanks to a “pickle renaissance” in the past decade, pickle has become to summer what pumpkin spice is to fall: the all-American flavor that stands in for the season, a genuinely tasty fusion of herbs and spices that show up in unexpected places, whether it’s a salty-sour pickle ice pop or a sweet holiday pie–flavored can of Spam.

Whether there is actually pickle or pumpkin in pickle- or pumpkin spice-flavored products doesn’t usually matter to the people who eat them. What registers is the mood — breezy or cozy, to conjure the season.

Unlike pumpkin spice, which has settled in to be such a seasonal cliche that people feel the need to defend it, pickle is still crisp and new. But while pickle pops may not hold their place in the freezer case as long as the real thing will endure in the condiment aisle, all-pickle-everything is here to stay, Hernandez said.

“It’s not something that just feels gimmicky –– it’s a major unlock for a category that has been sleepy for a while,” she said.

‘Food that bites back’

Pickle’s ascension has been a while in the making. So far, it seems to have happened more organically than the bacon boom before it, which was eventually revealed to be a marketing operation masterminded by the pork industry. Hernandez said the pickle push probably isn’t a “psyop” by Big Food (though the consumer packaged goods industry is certainly benefitting) –– pickles earned this.

The renaissance embraces the pickles themselves, the flavor of their pickling and even their packaging. There are more brands now selling artisanal pickles in distinctive flavors like honey harissa (or gimmicky ones that beg for virality, like purple grape), and many of them are sold at national grocery chains. A foodstuff that was historically fished, dripping, out of a giant barrel now comes with tidy transportation technology, like the Oh Snap! pouches of baby dills make for a somewhat-healthier youth-sports sideline snack than a bag of chips and Capri-Sun. Neatly bottled shots of pickle juice live near the checkout line at major grocers like Publix, right next to the candy and magazines.

Meanwhile, there are many more foods that are not pickles that are being made to taste like dill pickles: Popcorn, peanuts, peanut butter, pretzels, protein bars, beef sticks, canned fish, hummus, sour gummies, jellybeans, mayonnaise, mustard, cream cheese, seltzers, sodas, frozen pizza.

Pickle-mania started with millennials, who could purchase artisanal pickles at farmers markets and for whom pickling was a hipsterish activity ;ampooned by 'Portlandia'. For Gen Z, the pickle phenomenon “came from inside the house.” During the pandemic, Zoomers were “deprived sensorially,” she said, and sought out content that ratcheted up taste combinations to new extremes: Mukbang bingefests, bizarro food mash-ups, TikTok users daring themselves to try the spiciest or, sourest foods and broadcasting the results. Those videos made them more adventurous eaters who didn’t bristle at the idea of a sweet-and-sour pickle that tastes like a Warhead, she said.

Zoomers, Hernandez said, go for "sophisticated" flavor combos that incorporate Korean or Moroccan flavors, cute branding and purported health benefits. Self-styled nutrition influencers have bestowed a “health halo” upon pickle, she said.

Whether its fermented brine actually supports gut health, replenishes electrolytes or aids hydration (see: the Grillo’s-Liquid IV dill pickle electrolyte powder), consumers are buying it, she said. It’s summer, it’s sweaty, and pickle lovers need to replenish their lost salts somehow.

Conglomerates like Frito-Lay noticed when smaller indie pickle brands started to take off and Trader Joe’s quickly capitalized on the pickle craze with its private-label pickle offerings. Though the big brands’ rollouts were slower, they eventually launched widely available snacks caked in pickle flavor dust, said Melissa Abbott, vice president of syndicated studies at Hartman Group, a research firm that focuses on food and beverage industry trends.

Mt. Olive and Vlasic are still among the top pickle grocery store brands, but to the young consumer, they’re also extremely boring, Hernandez said. Fluency in Zoomer-speak is part of the reason why a company like Grillo’s Pickles keeps churning out popular collaborations with major national brands, turning aggressively high-concept offerings such as a neon-green Smoothie King pickle beverage — the food-industry equivalent of a “sh*tpost,” as Hernandez put it — into durably legitimate products. (Grillo’s, which launched in 2008 and wasn't sold nationally until 2016, declined to share sales numbers, but CEO and President Adam Kaufman said the brand’s sales have “steadily grown for a number of years” partly due to its collaborations, which “drive excitement.”)

“It’s Pickles 2.0, where it’s not for the utility as much as the feeling that it makes me feel, or the vibe it’s getting,” Hernandez said. “Now snacks are identity signalers.”

Like pumpkin spice, pickle can be a seasoning, liqueur or scented candle, but its vibe is steadfastly sour and salty. It’s a flavor profile that has come to define the times, said June Jo Lee, a food ethnographer and former industry consultant.

“It’s what Gen Z reach for because the old guard rails are gone,” said Lee. “Everything is pretty uncertain and dynamic and changing so fast and fluid. It tastes like how the times feel right now, and I think pickles are the safe sour for that. So Gen Z are craving food that bites back.”

The vibes of pickle are a far more appropriate match for the current moment than bacon was for the Great Recession and its aftermath. Pickles were introduced to American cuisine by Eastern European Jewish immigrants who preserved cucumbers as an economical solution to extend the shelf life of their foods, Abbott said. Buyers, she said, are thinking about preservation again amid widespread uncertainty.

“It’s all about self-reliance, which is very American, as American as hot dogs and freedom,” Lee said.

For all the iterations it takes and zesty flavors it wears well, there’s something nostalgic about a dill pickle, Abbott said: “During times of uncertainty and stress –– we’re snackers in America –– we will reach for things that feel like … part of our collective nostalgia, our imagined past. There’s something comforting about it, like, ‘We’re gonna be okay.’”

Pickle can’t save the country, but it can sate its salt cravings and provide a cool, crunchy mouthful while the world burns. Sickeningly sweet fantasy is dead. Salty reality is in.

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Re: Pickle popularity

on the bay — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:28:40 GMT

I do like a dill pickle along with a tuna fish sandwich every now and then but I'll take an ice cream sandwich or an oreo anytime at all!

Re: Pickle popularity

PhilaLady1 — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:31:35 GMT

Yum! A classic Kosher dill for me, please 😋

Re: Pickle popularity

We rescue cats — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:35:08 GMT

Dill or Kosher Dill are my pickle of choice! Regular dill on a peanut butter sammy and I'm transported to my childhood!

Re: Pickle popularity

Biftu — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:43:02 GMT

Any pickle works for me. My latest obsession is Mt. Olive Sweet Heat Bread & Butter pickles. Pickles of any kind are a staple for me. And of course always have a bag of pickle chips in the house.

Re: Pickle popularity

Tinkrbl44 — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 01:08:17 GMT

@Fizzy3

First ... Welcome!

Second ... what an interesting post!

I'm really not a pickle person at all. However, when I was a kid, my mother made a batch of Pickled Watermelon Rind every summer.

I don't know what was better ... the finished product, or the amazing smell (cloves and other spices) in the kitchen when she was making them. They were great!

Re: Pickle popularity

Luvitorleaveit1 — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 01:15:33 GMT

I love pickles it's almost impossible to eat a sandwich or burgers without them. I just found out Friday there is a pickle gourmet store 10 minutes from me that has 5 star reviews. Can't wait to go!

Re: Pickle popularity

Ruby Laine — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 01:39:36 GMT

Dill, bread and butter, and Nathan's--those are a little sweet and have a hint of horse radish. I love pickles just to snack on, on sandwiches, and appetizers.

@Fizzy3, I enjoyed reading your post.

@Luvitorleaveit1, I'm in a small town near a big city, so I'm going to see if it has a gourmet pickle store.

Re: Pickle popularity

shoekitty — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 01:51:24 GMT

I do love to order Katz deli pickles once in a while. They have the half brine, which are large, young crunchy cucumbers with a slight brine. The full sour is good too. Then if I have certain sandwiches I have to have bread and butter, for that I love Bubbies, or Clausens bread and butter.

Re: Pickle popularity

SilleeMee — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 02:02:53 GMT

They look good.

I have a friend who thought pickles came from the ocean. She thought they grew down in the depths of the sea where divers would go to harvest them and put them in those big pickle barrels in stores. I burst out laughing...she was serious. 🤣

Re: Pickle popularity

Sooner — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 02:07:08 GMT

Big old pickles? No, neither my husband, my family or me have been a fan. We like dill's for burgers and sandwiches (but only the really thin ones in the huge Best Maid containers), some bred and butter or hot and sweet, and Sam's Maple Bourbon ones!

But kosher, dills, etc. are not something we eat.

Re: Pickle popularity

sunshine45 — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 02:22:10 GMT

love all kinds of pickles! i miss those big barrels of pickles that used to be in the deli department!

my favorite with a tuna salad sandwich is MRS FANNINGS BREAD AND BUTTER PICKLES. they are becoming difficult for me to find around my area.

Re: Pickle popularity

drizzellla — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 02:46:11 GMT

@Biftu wrote:
Any pickle works for me. My latest obsession is Mt. Olive Sweet Heat Bread & Butter pickles. Pickles of any kind are a staple for me. And of course always have a bag of pickle chips in the house.

My husband buys a jar of Mt. Olive Sweet Heat Bread and Butter Chips every time we go to the grocery store. We now have 2 unopened jars and one opened. He is so funny, He has to buy a jar every trip.

But I am partial to B&G Bread and Butter chips. So I guess I am just as bad.

Re: Pickle popularity

Biftu — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 03:00:35 GMT

@drizzellla wrote:
@Biftu wrote:
Any pickle works for me. My latest obsession is Mt. Olive Sweet Heat Bread & Butter pickles. Pickles of any kind are a staple for me. And of course always have a bag of pickle chips in the house.
My husband buys a jar of Mt. Olive Sweet Heat Bread and Butter Chips every time we go to the grocery store. We now have 2 unopened jars and one opened. He is so funny, He has to buy a jar every trip.

But I am partial to B&G Bread and Butter chips. So I guess I am just as bad.

@drizzellla I'm with your husband. Those are my favorites as well. I also have two unopened jars. Can't take a chance you may run out!

Re: Pickle popularity

Kachina624 — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 04:08:43 GMT

i can no longer earn dill pickles. The vinegar is too much and I get a choking acid reflux. I have an occasional sweet pickle.

Re: Pickle popularity

Kachina624 — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 04:10:56 GMT

@SilleeMee. Your friend probably read something about sea cucumbers that look like pickles.

Re: Pickle popularity

DSD2 — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 10:08:34 GMT

I never met a pickle I didn't like!

That said, it's only the savory I crave. No pickles in dessert please! I'll take my ice cream with the "sweet" only

Re: Pickle popularity

Elodie2 — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 10:22:10 GMT

@Tinkrbl44 wrote:

@Fizzy3

First ... Welcome!

Second ... what an interesting post!

I'm really not a pickle person at all.
@Tinkrbl44 wrote:

@Fizzy3

First ... Welcome!

Second ... what an interesting post!

I'm really not a pickle person at all. However, when I was a kid, my mother made a batch of Pickled Watermelon Rind every summer.

I don't know what was better ... the finished product, or the amazing smell (cloves and other spices) in the kitchen when she was making them. They were great!
@TINKERBELL , I know exactly that memorable aroma. My grandmother made Watermelon Rind pickles but we called them Carolina pickles. I'd love one right now!

I don't know what was better ... the finished product, or the amazing smell (cloves and other spices) in the kitchen when she was making them. They were great!

Re: Pickle popularity

Elodie2 — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 10:53:50 GMT

@TINKERBELL, hope you found my response. Somehow it got randomly placed amidst your post. I've been having trouble with this posting system. Has a mind of it's own. 😼

Re: Pickle popularity

UpNorthGorgy — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 11:23:53 GMT

My Father called cucumbers "Pickles." I am more into a good cucumber these days. Minimal calories and seem to be part of many European countries meals on a daily basis. On a Mediterranean salad kick lately with cukes.