How this Canadian sparked a global obsession with cucumber salad

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Canadian content creator Logan Moffitt started sharing recipes for quick and easy cucumber salads online, and it sparked a global obsession — and could even be the reason reportedly behind a shortage of the vegetable in Iceland.

“It’s super exciting to be part of this whole cucumber trend! I’ve seen so many food trends come and go online and it’s so awesome that I was able to be so involved in everyone’s love for cucumber,” he told the National Post in a statement over email.

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“The shortage in Iceland is so crazy and hard to comprehend however.”

The 23-year-old grew up in the Barrhaven suburb of Ottawa. He’s been posting videos on social media for years, but when he shared how to make a cucumber salad, his account really took off in early July, the Ottawa Citizen reported.

Moffitt now has more than 6 million followers on TikTok.

How did the trend get started?

It all began with Moffitt slicing a cucumber into a container, adding sauces and toppings, shaking it all together, and digging in, usually with chopsticks.

“Sometimes you need to eat an entire cucumber,” he says at the beginning of the videos. His cucumber concoctions range from Korean-inspired recipes like creamy kimchi cucumbers to more creative (sometimes odd) combinations, like adding in candy or lox and cream cheese.

In one of Moffitt’s latest videos, he made pickled cucumbers with ingredients like chamoy, a Mexican sauce made out of dehydrated fruit, chilli powder, salt, sugar and citrus juice. He added in tajin, a Mexican spice mix with lime, chili peppers and salt, as well as sour gushers candies, lime juice, and Takis (flavoured, rolled tortilla chips).

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Who has taken part in the cucumber trend?

Chefs and other creators have taken part in the cucumber trend, putting their own spin on Moffitt’s original.

Food Network chef Giada De Laurentiis picked a fresh cucumber from her garden to make a salad with “an Italian flare.”

Fellow TikToker and chef Meredith Hayden, who runs an account called Wishbone Kitchen, posted a video of a Greek-inspired recipe with feta cheese and fresh dill.

Influencer Alix Earle also shared a video of her cucumber salad, following one of Moffitt’s recipes more closely, which included soy sauce, sesame oil and green onions.

How did the trend lead to a shortage in Iceland?

Reports from Icelandic media revealed that the country was facing a cucumber shortage in late August, likely due to the TikTok trend.

Cucumbers were no where to be found on supermarket shelves, per Icelandic National Broadcasting Service RUV.

Major grocery stores like Kronan said it noticed a 200 per cent increase in searches for cucumbers and specific ingredients like sesame oil, rice vinegar and fish sauce (used in Moffitt’s Asian-inspired salad recipe), RUV reported.

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One Reykjavik resident told the New York Times he went to three grocery stores for cucumbers — but couldn’t find any.

“That’s one of the things we never run out of in Iceland. And then I saw the news,” he said.

Kronan’s managing director Guðrún Aðalsteinsdóttir said that social media has had a major impact on marketing recently, RUV reported.

“We keep a close eye on online discussion and social media content to see what’s trending at any given time. If we see trends that are likely to increase demand for certain products, we buy in more of them or specifically look for an increased selection related to that,” he said.

However, others were not entirely sure the shortage was only due to the TikTok trend. Supermarket chain Hagkaup said their cucumber sales had more than doubled, but added that shortages in Icelandic cucumbers were common this time of year, BBC reported.

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