Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
How the viral Olympic Village muffins ended up at an East Village café
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Aug 23, 2024
Modified Aug 24, 2024
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Courtesy of Isshiki Matcha
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Aug 23, 2024
Modified Aug 24, 2024
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
At a glance, it might just look like a double chocolate chip muffin — albeit a really good-looking one.
But to the chronically online, it’s the pastry that took TikTok by storm when Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen posted videos raving about the delicious treats. Internet users became obsessed with trying them.
So when East Village café Isshiki Matcha announced it had gotten its hands on the muffins and would host a one-day pop-up sale on Saturday, Aug. 17, people began lining up at 6 a.m. — four hours before the sale began. Isshiki sold out of the muffins, valued at $10 a pop, in just an hour-and-a-half.
But getting the muffins to Isshiki wasn’t so simple.
It started when Kelin Carolyn Zhang, a Brooklyn-based designer who was previously unaffiliated with Isshiki, saw videos of the muffins and decided she needed to try them. So she got to work on figuring out which company supplied them, and brainstormed with other TikTok users.
“I was like, OK, this seems still so much more attainable than me going to the Olympics and eating a muffin as an Olympic athlete,” she told Gothamist. “I just wanted to see if it could be done. So, I just kept going.”
That’s how she finally found Coup De Pates, a French food supplier whose website included photos of a very familiar looking muffin. But because of Coup De Pates' business-to-business model and its lack of a process for exporting to New York, Zhang couldn't just place an online order.
By then, Zhang had gotten the attention of food and dining site Eater, which contacted the company and confirmed that it worked with some “partners of the Olympic Village.”
“I put out an open call in the Eater piece as well as on TikTok just being like, 'Hey, does any restaurant or café or anything want to partner on this? I think there is an incredible opportunity here for the restaurant,’” she said. “I framed it in very capitalistic terms … but really, I just wanted to try the muffin myself."
That's where Angel Zheng, the owner of Isshiki Matcha and a frequent TikTok user herself, came in.
Kelin Carolyn Zhang, at left, with Angel Zheng, the owner of Isshiki Matcha.
Catalina Gonella/Gothamist
Zheng said she casually answered: "Yeah, I'll do it. ... This sounds like a fun project."
“I really also for selfish reasons want to try these Olympic muffins," she said.
Zhang and Zheng said they quickly got to work together. They hounded Coup de Pates via email, various social media platforms and phone calls, asking if the company would export its famous chocolatey treat to the NYC shop. Finally, the company agreed to ship out 300 of them.
But that was only half the battle.
“They have never worked with business in New York, so as soon as those muffins got on the French airport airplane, we were left to our own devices,” Zheng said.
That meant figuring out the FDA approval process, arranging for a van to transport the muffins from Newark Airport, and setting up an extra freezer to store them in the café. They worked with a customs broker who agreed to pick up the muffins, which were packed with dry ice.
They found that the muffins absolutely lived up to the hype.
“It is very light. It is not like a brownie. It is not too sweet,” Zhang said, remembering the first taste test she did on video. “The flavor is surprisingly intense given how light the crumb is, and it's very moist.”
Then came the muffin’s New York City debut. The line wrapped around the block.
“I come up and I'm just like my jaw is dropping across the street,” Zhang said. “I'm with some friends and they're just like recording the line and then I walked down this, this line, and it's just, it's bananas. And people recognize me from the TikTok. … They’re waving to me and saying ‘thank you!’”
Zhang was the woman of the moment.
“She’s the official Muffin Man of New York,” Zheng said, laughing.
They're currently working on getting another shipment of at least 1,000 muffins, but nothing is confirmed just yet.
Zhang said she’s received messages from businesses all over the world asking if she can help them import the muffins. But she said has no ambitions to change career paths, though Zheng said she now considers Zhang Isshiki’s “chief muffin officer.”
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Isshiki Matcha in a photo caption, to correct a photo credit and to clarify a quote by Angel Zheng.
Tagged
food
manhattan
Catalina Gonella
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
NYC tow companies busted for ripping off drivers must give $67K in refunds, city says
Mayor Mamdani has expanded enforcement on towing scams, but the unlicensed towing industry remains largely unregulated.
By
Liam Quigley
Published Oct 2, 2026 at 4:47 p.m. ET
Off-duty NYPD officer stabbed in the Bronx, police say
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Commissioner Jessica Tisch visited the officer in the hospital.
By
Ryan Kost
News
Off-duty NYPD officer stabbed in the Bronx, police say
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Commissioner Jessica Tisch visited the officer in the hospital.
By
Ryan Kost
DOC negligence factored in death at Rikers' Bellevue hospital outpost, jail officials say
By
Brittany Kriegstein
Conductor on NYC subway that dragged man to death may have skipped safety check, source says
By
Stephen Nessen
NYPD still searching for man who threw burning substance on victim in East Harlem
By
Ryan Kost
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .