Behind the Parmesan Espresso Martini’s Improbable Rise to Internet Fame

February 14, 2023

The Parmesan Espresso Martini Video Goes Live

Even if you’ve never watched a TikTok video, odds are high that you know someone who has. One-third of all U.S. adults use TikTok, according to Pew Research Center. Further, the social media platform influences what and where you eat and drink.

As of this writing, the Chinese-owned platform faces a potential ban in the U.S. Still, it remains an important cultural force, with real-world impact. According to TikTok, food and drink content has always been one of the top content categories, with millions of posts and counting. In a 2021 study conducted for the company, 60% of users said they were inspired to find out more about a food or drink product they’d seen on TikTok. Elsewhere, a survey by MGH marketing agency found that more than half of Millennial TikTok users make restaurant decisions based on TikTok.

The social media platform is about more than just funny dance videos, explains Pony Social marketing consultant (and former bartender/brand ambassador) Micaela Piccolo.

On TikTok, “people are looking for ideas,” says Piccolo. “And they want to comment and engage.” Beautiful drinks may get views, and even saves to try later. But it’s the unusual or controversial drinks that everyone talks about—think Starburst-infused tequila or combos like Mountain Dew and Suze.

The platform also taps into a natural human impulse to prefer video over static images, observes Professor Charles Spence, Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford and author of Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating.

“Our brains are drawn to things that move,” Spence says. Similar to what he has dubbed “yolk porn—static action shots or videos depicting a glistening, runny egg yolk, or a burger oozing with melted cheese—videos that show as drinks are poured, mixed, swirled, etc. appeal to our eyes and our brains.

Glistening, shimmering drinks, as well as the motion of bubbles also attract our interest, Spence explains. “Carbonation is a sign of freshness,” while the coolness of flowing water and an icy sheen on glassware attracts the eye,” he adds.

From a behavioral standpoint, there’s also a fascination with watching people prepare and consume food and drink on social media, he adds. Some find it a distraction from loneliness, while others use TikTok videos to build confidence in their cooking or drink-making skills.

 

March 2023

Slow Crawl

Why is it that some drinks trend, while others don’t? Look to the algorithm, pros say: It’s honed to pick content that will get the most engagement. All those likes, shares and comments signal that the content is valuable; so does the length of time someone spends watching. The algorithm also takes into account user search terms.

It’s critical to grab attention within the first few seconds of a video, notes Jason Littrell, president of hospitality management consultancy Kinetic Management Systems. “It has to be exciting, controversial, off-putting or oppositional to conventional wisdom,” he explains. That’s why so many TikToks open with a hook like, “You haven’t had a good Negroni until you’ve had this.”

It’s nearly impossible to game the algorithm— but that doesn’t stop people from trying.

Lisa Vetrone, account director at Scenario Communications, suggests that funny or shocking videos are most likely to go viral. That might mean an overly indulgent cocktail, or a gross-out drink like the #PickleMartini, which shocked martini purists by adding pickle brine straight from the jar.

“The more a recipe, food or drink lends itself to clickbait, the more likely it will grip users’ curiosity,” she explains.

“Meme-ability” also factors in, as other social media users film themselves making the drink, or a riff on it. It helps if the ingredients are easy to find and the recipe is easy to make. So does a pop culture or celebrity tie-in, as in the now-famous #NegroniSbagliato moment, when the drink was discussed by a pair of actors from the “Game of Thrones” series.

A challenge or call-to-action (i.e. “try it and let me know what you think!”) encourages viewers to make and share a recipe.

Finally, a “hack” or DIY technique can draw attention, showing how to make a drink faster, better or easier. That includes “improving” upon drinks, as in the #BajaBlastFloat hack. “It incorporates a ‘hack’ factor and an indulgent, overly simplistic technique with ingredients from 7-11 and McDonald’s,” with easily accessible ingredients, Vetrone says.

 

Early April 2023

Peak Virality

What is a “viral” video, anyway? No specific number of views confers virality, Piccolo says. “Metric-wise, some brands think they go viral at 10,000 views, others think not until a million.”

Instead, she points to a squishier metric: What each user sees in the “For You” tab, where TikTok pushes videos the algorithm suggests you might enjoy. “Every time you open the app, it’s completely customized to you,” she explains. “If you’re seeing something that secondary people in your circles have seen also, that’s a viral moment. If it goes to five people you speak to every day, that’s really a viral moment.”

Piccolo is quick to point out that “virality” isn’t the same as longevity, nor does it always equal sales for brands or businesses that have a viral moment. However, it can absolutely influence what people order at bars or make at home.

“If a drink gets traction, people want to go out and experience it,” she says. “Like Negroni Sbagliato—people wanted to go somewhere to experience it and talk about it. They didn’t want to buy all the ingredients and make it at home.”

Another example: #jalapenorosé, or #spicyrosé, which took off in the summer of 2023. User Allyssa Marshall (@AllyssaintheKitchen) posted a video, in which she tosses a round of fresh jalapeño into a wine glass, then fills it with rosé wine and ice.

“It was a cultural moment,” Piccolo says. “She really read the room that spicy was going to take off. Now, you can see it at Starbucks and McDonald’s, where they’re offering spicy lemonade.” It was the perfect storm of accessibility (ingredients anyone can find); novelty (who would have put those two ingredients together?); and controversy, as everyone wanted to express their opinion about whether the drink was great or not and shared the video widely.

 

April 18, 2023

The Today Show

When the drink crossed over from TikTok to one of the most popular morning shows in America, it was clear that the Parmesan Espresso Martini had hit peak virality. It was gratifying to see so many people making the drink, Hughes recalls.

While the handheld screens of social media had stirred the drink to life, old media added even more velocity and reach. But we don’t have to take the bait, so why do we react to some drink videos, while others fade away?

“Human beings are hard-wired to respond to novel information in their environment,” explains Makana Chock, professor of communications at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, who studies how people process and respond to mass media, social media and extended reality. “It’s a survival skill—we orient to new or unknown things because it’s important to determine the best response. We may not need to engage our flight-or-fight response in reaction to a cheesy martini, but it does attract our attention.”

In general, people pay attention to content that elicits strong emotions, Chock adds. That includes social media that generates anger or sadness, “But surprise, disgust and humor are also basic emotional triggers.”

And finally, you just can’t discount the FOMO effect.

“We also have a strong drive to belong to a group; even if that group is a number of transient individuals responding to a TikTok post,” Chock explains. “We want to comment, join the discussion, display our own creative or humorous response, and share in the conversation.” No one wants to feel left out.

Meanwhile, as the TV appearance catapulted the drink’s fame into living rooms—and despite the hosts’ evident disgust—Hughes felt gratified to see so many people making the drink.

“So much of our lives are lived online,” he muses. “As a content creator, nothing makes me more excited than when someone tags me, because they actually made the drink for someone. To me, that’s the biggest win: It’s left TikTok and it’s on somebody’s table.”

But the moment wasn’t meant to last.

 

May/June 2023

The Backlash

The mood had shifted, but controversy is just a different kind of virality.

“Backlash is not always a bad thing,” Piccolo assures. “It comes with the territory. You can even celebrate it. You won’t be everything for everyone. It tells you that you’re out there making noise. The question is, what do you do with it next?”

For some, TikTok-driven controversy isn’t that far from the chatter that once inflamed message boards, the comment sections of online articles or old-school Twitter.

Consider the Pickleback, which in 2010 was arguably the first “viral” drink. Then a bartender, Littrell was one of the early evangelizers of a shot of whiskey chased by pickle juice. How would that have played out on TikTok? He chuckles, thinking about that scenario.

“The polarization would have exploded,” he surmises. He imagines the potential TikTok challengers: “If you’re doing a Pickleback with Jameson, you’re doing it all wrong! If you’re doing a Pickleback with Old Crow, you’re doing it all wrong!” And of course, the inevitable video responses showing the “correct” way to make the drink.

What’s truly “right” or wrong doesn’t matter in TikTok-land, he says. Controversy drives clicks.

“The TikTok format is really good at driving a wedge between what your expectations are and a ‘better’ way to do it,” he explains. “They try to create friction.”

 

Fall 2023

The Attention Shift

Eventually, every trend fades away, or solidifies as more than just a trend. But when people stop talking—and liking and sharing—that’s when a viral video drifts back into the fog. Of course, some topics loop back again and again, like zombies resurfacing from the dead. We’ve likely not seen the last of the Parmesan Espresso Martini.

In fact, you can draw a throughline from the viral drink to the Tequila Alfredo, a new addition to the menu at NYC restaurant Bad Roman, made with parmesan-infused tequila, lemon, cream, egg whites and club soda. A waiter will shave fresh parmesan on top of the foamy cocktail tableside, “until being told to stop!” the restaurant says. It’s clearly a drink meant to be filmed for peak Instagram and TikTok coverage.

It might even go viral.