Are Pickles the Pumpkin Spice of Summer?

Every season seems to have its signature flavour.

Fall has pumpkin spice.

Winter has peppermint.

And this summer? It might just belong to the pickle.

Pickles are suddenly showing up everywhere, and not just beside your burger.

You can now find pickle-flavoured popcorn, pretzels, protein bars, hummus and even frozen pizza. If that's not enough dill-usion for you, Smoothie King recently teamed up with Grillo's Pickles to create an actual pickle smoothie.

Yes, a pickle smoothie. Somewhere, a cucumber is wondering where things went wrong.

Food trend experts say pickles have officially become the "main character" of summer snacking, with younger consumers embracing bold, sour and tangy flavours.

One trend forecaster says Gen Z is increasingly drawn to "food that bites back. " Which sounds less like a snack preference and more like a warning label.

Of course, pickles tend to divide people into two camps.

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There are the pickle lovers who will happily drink pickle juice straight from the jar and order extra pickles on everything.

Then there are the pickle avoiders who act like a single pickle touching their sandwich has contaminated the entire meal.

There is no middle ground.

Whether this pickle craze sticks around remains to be seen, but for now, the humble pickle has somehow become one of the hottest flavours of the summer.

And unlike pumpkin spice, at least nobody is putting pickle-scented candles in their living room. Yet.