The UK pickle boom: What's all the hype about?

When singer Dua Lipa posted a TikTok video of her loading up a diet cola with pickles and jalapeños, it went viral.

That's likely not just down to the fact that the concoction was, shall we say, unusual. It also happened to star an internet food favourite.

Pickles have been popping up all over social feeds lately, their distinctive tart, tangy and savoury flavour getting people excited.

Even sports stars like England's Kieran Trippier and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz have been spotted drinking pickle juice during matches (stay with us – we'll explain later).

It's perhaps unsurprising then, that in 2025 many UK retailers reported a noticeable uptick of pickles in shoppers' baskets.

"Pickle sales have seen a remarkable 16% year-on-year increase," said Ocado Retail's Meri La Bella in April 2025.

Similarly, Waitrose said sales had risen "by nearly a fifth" and searches for "pickle" on its site had gone up 123% in the previous year.

Shops have had to adapt to demand, with Tesco telling us in April 2025 it has increased the range of pickles and fermented food it stocks by two-thirds in the past year.

When we talk about pickles, perhaps most of the time we're referring to gherkins. The small, preserved cucumbers that come in jars, often flavoured with dill and served sliced inside diner-style burgers.

Of course, there are loads of other vegetables that can be pickled, too.

There are two main ways to pickle vegetables: store them in vinegar, or ferment them in brine.

"With vinegar pickles, we add acid to the vegetables in order to preserve them, whereas with fermented pickles, the acid is produced naturally by the vegetables," says Nick Vadasz, also known as the Picklesman, who started his pickle business in 2011.

An easy way to tell between the two at the shops is that naturally fermented vegetables will need to live in the chilled aisles.

Fermentation expert Ruth Munro of the Edinburgh Fermentarium runs courses on fermented pickles and says they're getting more popular for three reasons.

Firstly, people are looking for ways to prevent food waste, and by pickling vegetables you can keep them for longer.

Secondly, Munro thinks we're more adventurous with flavour nowadays: "East Asian food, [especially] Korean food has become very popular," she says.

Fermented food, such as kimchi, and fermented pastes like gochujang have long been common in East Asia, but are still relatively new to the UK.

But Munro thinks the number one reason is growing awareness around the perceived health benefits.

Vadasz agrees, saying there has been "a huge amount of media coverage" around this.

There's growing research to show that fermented pickles are good for gut health, external. It's believed they encourage good bacteria to thrive in your gut.

But what about vinegar pickles?

Sadly, the internet rumour – that pickle juice helps with hangovers – is not backed by science, external. We're still on the lookout for a miracle cure for that.

But there may be some benefits in sport.

Some professional athletes have started drinking pickle juice during matches to help alleviate cramping – a painful involuntary contraction of the muscles.

As well as in football and tennis, it's been gulped by players in cricket, rugby and American football games too.

Kevin C. Miller, a professor of health and human performance at Texas State University, conducted studies which found drinking a few gulps of pickle juice does indeed help with muscle cramping, external.

"Pickle juice shortened how long the cramps lasted for our subjects by about 40%," he says.

"We knew from several studies it wasn't the sodium, it wasn't the electrolytes, or anything that's in the blood," continues Prof Miller. This is because the effect is too fast for anything in the juice to be absorbed into your body.

What Prof Miller proposes instead is that it's down to the taste. When the strong, acidic flavour hits your mouth, it acts as a shock to the body.

This breaks a feedback loop between your brain and the muscle, which has been causing the cramping to continue.

In theory, this means taking on any strong-flavoured substance could work. Miller says that in Texas, as well as pickle juice he has seen chilli hot shots marketed as sports drinks.

But it's worth pointing out Miller's studies, external showed less than 100ml of pickle juice did the trick – so take it easy.

Originally published April 2025. Updated March 2026.

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