TikTok craze leads to cucumber shortage in Iceland

You'll need one large plastic container, one sliced cucumber and some cream cheese. Use scissors to cut up some smoked salmon, then slice a red onion. Dump in some salad dressing, chuck in some capers still dripping from the jar, add lemon juice, bagel seasoning and a heap of flavor-enhancing MSG. Before everything starts spilling over the edges, slap on the lid and shake "super" well — voila!

The result, as Canadian TikToker Logan Moffit assures us, is so "insanely" delicious you won't get enough of it. And his 6 million followers seem to agree: The videos on the platform of him sharing various cucumber salad recipes have been viewed up to 30 million times. Known for his signature opener, "Sometimes you need to eat an entire cucumber," Moffit, who lives in Ottawa, is also simply known as the cucumber guy.

My kingdom for a cucumber

A good eight hours by plane, a 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) northeast, Moffit's videos have caused somewhat of a problem. Iceland is usually known for its active volcanoes, rugged climate and majestic landscapes. A somewhat less-known fact is that the nearly 400,000 inhabitants of the small island in the northern Atlantic are quite fond of cucumbers — so fond that each of them eats about 15 a year.

Farmers in Iceland typically produce about 6 million cucumbers annually, but thanks to Moffit's viral recipes, which several Icelandic influencers started sharing in early August, they've been struggling to keep up with demand. Cucumbers are hard to come by these days in local supermarkets. Instead, the small Nordic country is obliged to import fresh stock from the Netherlands — much further south.

Icelanders seem to especially like Moffit's salad recipe which incorporates sesame oil, rice vinegar and chili oil into the mix, as the British public broadcasting service BBC reported. So much so, in fact, that supermarkets were running low on these ingredients as well. The outlet also reported that supermarket and farmers' association representatives were quick to downplay the extent of the food shortage.

Online hypes come and go

While it is unusual that online trends affect entire countries, this would hardly be the first time that social media influencers have caused a real-life rush on certain foods. In July 2023, one food blogger posted colorfully decorated croissants from a New York bakery on TikTok. Even though each cost nearly $10 (€9), the bakery was soon practically overrun. For days, customers queued in long lines for their chance at a croissant, and at times, the bakery had to restrict sales to a maximum of two per person.

In January 2024, Swiss influencer Steve Merson announced on TikTok that he would be handing our free kebabs in front of an eatery in Zurich's hinterlands. So many fans rushed to get their free sample that after two hours, the police had to come and break up the mob.

In southern Germany's Nuremberg, two YouTubers created their own food bowl, leading to patrons storming the restaurant where they were being sold. And in Regensburg, three gaming stars caused a stampede when they announced online that they'd be handing out candy.

In the past years, the food blogger scene has been gaining new popularity. Countless TikTokers have made a name for themselves with their own, often quite fanciful, recipes. Many have built a loyal fan base of viewers who copy their recipes and share the results. One of them is the German influencer Paul Cooks, who's known for garnishing his creations with minced raw pork.

Crazy concoctions

Most of these food hypes come and go fairly suddenly, which is why Iceland's associations were not too bothered by the temporary cucumber bottleneck. Supplies should be back to normal "in a week or so," one marketing director in Iceland told BBC.

Meanwhile, Logan "Cucumber Guy" Moffit is getting more and more creative with his salad recipes. In one of his videos, he experiments with mixing his favorite ingredient with peanut butter and jelly and some honey. It remains to be seen if these simple PBJ ingredients will soon also be flying off of Iceland's shelves.

This article was translated from German.