Every few years, a fad comes along that captures the hearts, minds, and dollars of a nation. By their very nature, fads are kind of dumb. In the ‘70s, they paid good money to have “Pet Rocks”; in the ‘80s, people thought it was cool to wear a bunch of overpriced Swatch Watches at the same time. If you were a ‘90s kid, you probably wore overalls with one of the straps unbuttoned, or decorate your room with ugly, impractical, inflatable furniture. Today’s hottest fad—even dumber than the fidget spinner, and even more dangerous than parkour: chowing down on Tide Pods.
It started as fads often do these days, as an internet thing. Dumb teens and dumb adults felt compelled to take the “Tide Pod Challenge,” which consisted of eating a Tide Pod—which are plastic encased capsules of laundry soap. They’re sort of like coffee pods for your washing machine…or stomach.
Finally, there’s a way to take the Tide Pod challenge without making yourself sick. (Okay, well, you’d get sick if you did this too many times.) The Barcelona Bar in New York City has cashed in on the Tide Pod fad in a fun, clever, slightly less dangerous, and way more delicious way: Tide Pod shots.
Tide pod shots on a Wednesday because I'm a responsible adult who is up on current trends pic.twitter.com/iEUq2rPRio
— typical millennial☀️ (@mslolabanks) February 1, 2018
The Barcelona Bar often looks to popular culture to inspire its amusing menu of shots and shooters, such as a Top Gun shot and a Harry Potter shot (the use of a wand “magically” sets it ablaze). The Tide Pod shot is just as fun: It’s a delicately layered concoction of several boozes, with the color scheme attractively mimicking that of its soapy inspiration.