For around 11,000 of the world’s most decorated, highly-trained, and dedicated athletes, this year’s Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France was an opportunity to put their skills to the test on the ultimate stage. In events from gymnastics, synchronized swimming, and surfing to even breakdancing, competitors fiercely fought to win gold for their nation. And despite the often superhuman feats these athletes displayed, they too, like regular people, still required the basic needs for living: food and shelter. Shelter was provided in the form of the Olympic Village: a complex designed to accommodate all of the needs an Olympic athlete might have during their stay in Paris. In terms of food, the Olympic Village was designed to serve up to 60,000 meals to athletes per day. However, of the many food options, ranging from French to Caribbean cuisine, one pastry took the cake: the chocolate muffin.

The chocolate muffin found its rise to fame in large part due to social media. One athlete in particular, Norwegian Swimmer Henrik Christiansen, began posting on TikTok in July raving about the chocolate muffins served at the Olympic Village. Following the popularity of that initial video, Christiansen began posting more and more, documenting his efforts to find and consume these muffins. Eventually, the craze spread to others as well, with countless other athletes posting their own reviews of the dessert. A clear consensus eventually emerged: these muffins were unquestionably a five out of five. The muffin frenzy quickly spread to even those outside of the Olympic Village. Bakeries such as Isshiki Matcha in New York City advertised their own replica chocolate muffins and were met with huge demand. Food creators also joined the trend by posting their own copycat recipes to the internet, each claiming to have the most similar recipe of all. 

A food service company named Coup de Pates produces and sells these muffins, officially called Maxi Muffins Chocolat Intense, to the Olympic Village. Despite the efforts of numerous internet sleuths, the official recipe remains hidden for now, but that hasn’t stopped those same internet sleuths from attempting to reverse engineer the product. Different food blogs have touted their recipes as being “The One,” with one naming yogurt as the secret ingredient, and another claiming that dehydrated milk powder is responsible for giving the muffins their shockingly moist texture. While the actual recipe will most likely remain secret for the foreseeable future, it has certainly given rise to a wave of new recipes that chocolate lovers will surely be grateful for.

So, what exactly makes these muffins so special? After all, broken down into its core components, it’s just a chocolate muffin topped with chocolate chunks and filled with a chocolate ganache. Despite the muffin’s simplicity, the pre-existing media attention surrounding the Olympics combined with the ability for certain topics to skyrocket to international popularity on social media made the perfect recipe for a viral hit. While the craze has cooled down substantially since the end of the Olympic Games, the muffins remain a reminder of the spontaneity of the internet. What began as a series of humorous short-form videos produced by a lone user became an international phenomenon in a matter of days, summoning hordes of customers to bakeries and spawning countless articles, recipes, and other videos. It’s an example of how quickly trends can rise and fall in modern times, and also of how far-reaching the consequences of these internet trends can truly be. 

Information gathered from olympics.com, NBC, ABC News, and Radio New Zealand.