California’s latest food fad is Bob’s Pickle Pops, which are being marketed as a post-workout recovery snack.
The pickle juice is said to relieve joint pain and cramping after intense exercise at the gym better than sports drinks do.
A study from the Department of Health, Nutrition and Exercise Science at North Dakota State University found that athletes who drank pickle brine noticed their cramps were gone within 85 seconds. That is approximately 40 percent faster than drinking water.”
“It’s actually found that the reason pickle juice actually alleviates the cramps is not because of hydration; it’s a neurological affect it has that actually stops the cramps,” Registered Dietician Beth Jauquet told San Diego-area ABC affiliate 10News.
10News decided to test the frozen pickle juice popsicle on several people who had just completed a spin class to gauge their reaction. “It tastes really refreshing and it’s tart, which I love. And I’m into it,” one woman told them. Another female suggested the pop might be good with alcohol in it, and another said she thought it would be good in a Bloody Mary.
David Millar, one of the co-founders of Bob’s Pickle Pops, said the company is focused on the cycling industry. “The packaging itself is the genius,” Millar told Breitbart News. “The cyclists don’t want to skip a beat and have to unscrew a cap and litter the trails, so they are gravitating towards our Pickle Pops because they can tear the package open, drink it and then put in their back pockets without slowing down.”
David Pindol is the president of Bob’s Pickle Pops. “We originally named the product Pickle-sicle but spelled it differently because Popsicle would have an issue with that,” Pindol told Breitbart News. After discussing other possible names, Pindol suggested Bob’s Pickle Pops and Millar agreed, saying, “That happens to be his middle name. It’s been the funnest product that I’ve ever worked with,” Pindol said.
Millar, who is originally from California, explained to Breitbart News how he came up with the idea for Bob’s Pickle Pops.
“Ten years ago when I started this, it was kind of a shoot-from-the-hip kind of thing,” Millar told Breitbart News. “Everyone thought we were crackpots and now they think we’re geniuses,” he said.
He said his cousin John Howard and his wife moved to Texas from California, where they opened a skating rink, and where kids would ask for pickle juice popsicles. “It was fascinating because I’m in the produce development business and when I was asking him about the pickle pops and the history of it and if anyone was making it we found out that it wasn’t being manufactured.” He explained how back then, MySpace was the social media platform of choice, and he had the idea to message “everybody that had the name pickle in their handle with a message about their product. Eventually, Walmart called us in 2009 or 2010.”
However, it was a tweet by Justin Timberlake in 2010 asking for a pickle back shot that truly helped take their product over the top. A pickle back shot is a shot of pickle juice after taking a shot of whiskey “I thought, we are the only pickle juice company in the country and because Justin Timberlake’s name was mentioned, that tweet went on fire.” Millar fell ill about five years ago, and said he went into a bit of a slump. However, about three months ago, he said something told him to focus on the company, and he followed that voice which led him to launch a new line, Bob’s Pickle Backs.
“This isn’t just another idea,” Millar said. “It’s a paradigm shift into how people can incorporate pickle juice into their foods and drinks.”
Bob’s Pickle Backs are scheduled to come into production within the next two to three months.
Adelle Nazarian is a politics and national security reporter for Breitbart News. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.