At a glance, it might just look like a double chocolate chip muffin — albeit a really good-looking one.
But to the chronically online, it’s the pastry that took TikTok by storm when Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen posted videos raving about the delicious treats. Internet users became obsessed with trying them.
So when East Village café Isshiki Matcha announced it had gotten its hands on the muffins and would host a one-day pop-up sale on Saturday, Aug. 17, people began lining up at 6 a.m. — four hours before the sale began. Isshiki sold out of the muffins, valued at $10 a pop, in just an hour-and-a-half.
But getting the muffins to Isshiki wasn’t so simple.
It started when Kelin Carolyn Zhang, a Brooklyn-based designer who was previously unaffiliated with Isshiki, saw videos of the muffins and decided she needed to try them. So she got to work on figuring out which company supplied them, and brainstormed with other TikTok users.
“I was like, OK, this seems still so much more attainable than me going to the Olympics and eating a muffin as an Olympic athlete,” she told Gothamist. “I just wanted to see if it could be done. So, I just kept going.”
That’s how she finally found Coup De Pates, a French food supplier whose website included photos of a very familiar looking muffin. But because of Coup De Pates’ business-to-business model and its lack of a process for exporting to New York, Zhang couldn’t just place an online order.
By then, Zhang had gotten the attention of food and dining site Eater, which contacted the company and confirmed that it worked with some “partners of the Olympic Village.”
“I put out an open call in the Eater piece as well as on TikTok just being like, ‘Hey, does any restaurant or café or anything want to partner on this? I think there is an incredible opportunity here for the restaurant,’” she said. “I framed it in very capitalistic terms … but really, I just wanted to try the muffin myself.”
That’s where Angel Zheng, the owner of Isshiki Matcha and a frequent TikTok user herself, came in.
Kelin Carolyn Zhang, at left, with Angel Zheng, the owner of Isshiki Matcha.
Courtesy of Isshiki Matcha
“I just really just very casually was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it. Like this sounds like a fun project,’” Zheng said. “I really also for selfish reasons want to try these Olympic muffins.”
Zhang and Zheng said they quickly got to work together. They hounded Coup de Pates via email, various social media platforms and phone calls, asking if the company would export its famous chocolatey treat to the NYC shop. Finally, the company agreed to ship out 300 of them.
But that was only half the battle.
“They have never worked with business in New York, so as soon as those muffins got on the French airport airplane, we were left to our own devices,” Zheng said.
That meant figuring out the FDA approval process, arranging for a van to transport the muffins from Newark Airport, and setting up an extra freezer to store them in the café. They worked with a customs broker who agreed to pick up the muffins, which were packed with dry ice.
They found that the muffins absolutely lived up to the hype.
“It is very light. It is not like a brownie. It is not too sweet,” Zhang said, remembering the first taste test she did on video. “The flavor is surprisingly intense given how light the crumb is, and it’s very moist.”
Then came the muffin’s New York City debut. The line wrapped around the block.
“I come up and I’m just like my jaw is dropping across the street,” Zhang said. “I’m with some friends and they’re just like recording the line and then I walked down this, this line, and it’s just, it’s bananas. And people recognize me from the TikTok. … They’re waving to me and saying ‘thank you!’”
Zhang was the woman of the moment.
“She’s the official Muffin Man of New York,” Zheng said, laughing.
They’re currently working on getting another shipment of at least 1,000 muffins, but nothing is confirmed just yet.
Zhang said she’s received messages from businesses all over the world asking if she can help them import the muffins. But she said has no ambitions to change career paths, though Zheng said she now considers Zhang Isshiki’s “chief muffin officer.”