Want those viral Olympics muffins?
Tokyo had gyoza, Paris had chocolate muffins.
At the Tokyo Olympics, athletes raved online about the delicious gyoza served at the dining hall at the Olympic Village. This time, in Paris, it was the chocolate muffins that went viral.
The beautiful, dense, chocolate chunk-covered, gooey-centered muffins got their share of the Olympic spotlight thanks to Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen.
Christiansen shared his review of different dishes he had at the Olympic Village on TikTok, rating the “choccy muffin” 11/10 and saying that it’s “insane.” The video, which now has over 3 million views, wouldn’t be the last time Christiansen, now known as Muffin Man, would post about the baked goods.
Other athletes also posted videos about it, including American track and field triple gold medalist Gabby Thomas, who even snuck out one of the muffins from the village so her mom could try it.
Her mom’s verdict? “This is not a muffin, this is cake!”
Copycats
The muffin (err, cake?) obsession has spread across the world, spawning a multitude of recipes and copycats from different cities.
A girl named Kelin, who tried tracking the actual source of the Olympic muffins in a series of TikTok videos, thinks they’re from the French company Coup de Pates and are called Maxi Muffin Chocolat Intense. Translated in English, the official description reads “cocoa muffin, chocolate filling, chunks of dark chocolate and milk chocolate.”
Feel like trying the muffins? You can always make them—or at least a version of them. You’ll find recipes everywhere: on food blogs, news sites, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. If you’re not in the mood for baking, you can try Wildflour’s take on the Olympic Village chocolate muffins, which they started serving just last week.
“We saw an opportunity to offer our customers a taste of this experience,” Wildflour president and CEO Ana Lorenzana De Ocampo told Lifestyle. De Ocampo and one of Wildflour’s chefs collaborated on adapting their existing chocolate muffin recipe “to highlight their very chocolatey and extra gooey texture.”
The muffins are available only at select Wildflour branches—BGC, Greenbelt, Mall of Asia, Uptown and Quezon City. (The muffins are not on food delivery apps or on the Wildflour To Go website when we last checked, but we were able to order them via phone, paid via GCash and just booked our own pickup.)
The dense, dark, decadent muffins have been a hit for Wildflour, De Ocampo said. “They have been well-received by our customers, with positive feedback and strong sales. The muffins have been selling quickly, and people have really been looking for them in our stores, showing that there’s excitement to try the muffins.”
They’ll be available throughout August and possibly beyond, if the demand for it continues.
