This is the story of a famous New York pickle stand that sparked a salty legal battle spanning decades. Gloves came off, lawsuits were filed, and history remembers this brawl as the Great Pickle War. As the iconic store was passed down from generation to generation, one question fueled the warfare: Who is the true heir to the Guss’ Pickle throne? First, let's get to know our key players in the sour battle ahead: Izzy Guss: A Russian Jewish immigrant who, in 1920, opened the famous Guss' Pickles on Manhattan’s Hester Street on the Lower East Side. Harold Baker: The next owner of Guss' Pickles after Izzy Guss’s death in 1975. Tim Baker: Harold’s son, a pickle apprentice turned master. Stephen Leibowitz: The owner of United Pickle Products, the longtime supplier to Guss' Pickles. Andrew Leibowitz: Stephen's son, who became known as the “Chief Pickle Maven” (a self-assigned title). Patricia…

Pickles in our algorithms ( #pickletok ). Pickles on our fast food menus (pickle-y fried chicken; loaded pickle fries; Pickle Pepsi®). Pickles in our hearts (studies show fermented foods reduce social anxiety ). By mid-2025, Google searches for the word “pickle” reached the highest peak in five years, skyrocketing by 3,800% compared to the previous year. TikTok content featuring the hashtag #pickle amassed 3.7 billion views. #pickletok dominated “For You” pages. Dua Lipa put pickle juice in her Diet Coke, and millions of viewers on TikTok rejoiced in the comments. Our favorite snack companies began offering limited-edition pickle-flavored products , some of which were so popular that they became permanent offerings (see Flamin’ Hot Dill Pickle Cheetos ). How did 2025 become the year of the pickle glow-up? If we crunch (😏) the numbers, pickles started trending a few years earlier. Andrea Hernández, the founder of the food and beverage…

We've all been there. You blink, and suddenly it’s 2 a.m. Maybe you zoned out bingeing your favorite show, or you had a night out that ended with staring into your fridge in your underwear. The age-old question arises: What do I want right now? When we reach for late-night snacks, it’s not always hunger we’re trying to satisfy, but a craving for a specific – and sometimes random or unusual – taste. Where do these sudden urges come from? “Cravings are rarely about willpower,” Dr. Lena Torres, an integrative nutrition specialist at the University of Utah, said. “They’re often biochemical signals masked as whims.” How we perceive taste changes based on how tired we are. Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University analyzed the circadian system and found that participants were least hungry in the morning and most hungry in the evening. Nighttime peaks tended toward cravings for larger,…

“I’ve got two pickles, I’ve got two pickles, I’ve got two pickles today, hey, hey.” - Buckwheat, Little Rascals. Pickles have a way of stealing the spotlight. They make appearances in Sunday morning cartoons, date night RomComs, and indie darlings. They put us in a bind, they create escapist alter egos, and they take the edge off. Here are five iconic film and television moments starring the pickles that demanded our attention. 1. Sam’s Finger Barrel - “Crossing Delancy This 1988 romantic comedy classic was not only a massive hit for romance fans of the pickle variety, but writers also called it the “ ultimate Jewish rom-com .” Izzy Grossman (the insanely charming Amy Irving) is a single city girl working at a popular New York bookstore uptown when her Yiddish-speaking grandmother tries to set her up with a downtown pickle vendor, Sam. Pickles as a metaphor for class divides…