Australia is all up in a pickle right now

Growing up on the Sunshine Coast, my family always had a jar of Fehlbergs pickles in the fridge. My sisters and I would sip the cold juice straight from the jar after school – in hot and humid Queensland, it was the most refreshing thing in the house. When I visited New York earlier this year, arriving shortly before a 24-hour blizzard lockdown, I survived – happily – on a tub of Grillos.

In Australia, pickles – the pickled cucumber type, to be clear – have existed quietly on supermarket shelves for decades. Compared with the United States, where you'll get a glossy, crunchy specimen with every deli order – and can even pick one up as a street snack – they've remained more of a background player here.

But a small craft movement has been building with brands like Westmont Pickles, Rickles Pickles and Dillicious, driven by the realisation there wasn’t just a lack of locally sourced and made pickles, but also of the kind of big, crunchy, deli-style pickles found overseas.

For James Barbour of Dillicious, who grew up in Virginia where pickles were always around, it was immediately obvious after he moved to Australia there was a pickle deficit. He and his wife Liza later settled in the Mornington Peninsula, where she grew up. “A lot of what I found was overly sweet and tasted like it had been sitting in a jar for years,” he says. “I wanted to taste the cucumber, garlic and dill, with a proper crunch.”

Joel Mevissen of Westmont Pickles had seen a different version of that culture firsthand, after living in New York, where he 'was used to seeing great pickles everywhere and on everything'. “I tried to source some great local pickles and realised that there weren't any,” he says. “My best friend Calvin (Lidden) was a fine-dining chef, so we decided to make some together.”

Ricky Mandozzi of Rickles Pickles says when he started the brand in 2017, he felt there was a gap in Australia between the traditional supermarket pickle and the sort of big, crunchy deli-style pickles he'd seen overseas. "I wanted to make pickles that chefs would actually get excited about using, but that people would also want sitting in their fridge at home," says Mandozzi.

Then, enter the viral moment.

KFC Australia's 'Picklecore' menu launched nationwide in September 2026 – a Pickle Burger, Pickle Loaded Chips, Frickles and a Pickle Pepsi (Pepsi Max served with fresh pickles and pickle brine on the side, so you choose your own ratio). Though KFC can’t really claim the idea – Dua Lipa went viral in 2024 for adding pickle juice and jalapeños to Diet Coke at a Texas barbecue spot. Two years later, it’s something you can order.

If Australia needs a glimpse of where this could all be heading, it’s worth looking to the United States, where picklemaxxing – the relentless pursuit of putting pickles into everything – has been underway for years.

Pickling goes back thousands of years, but the modern pickle obsession traces to Eastern European Jewish immigrants who brought kosher dills to New York in the late 1800s – and turned them into a cultural institution – one America eventually made into a lifestyle, and then something more. Pickle-flavoured lip balm that sold out in under 10 minutes. Pickle ice cream. Pickle cotton candy. A dedicated pickle festival in Pittsburgh now in its 10th year. A baseball team with a 7-foot pickle mascot.

"It's been pretty funny watching something that was once just the thing sitting next to your burger suddenly become the flavour of the moment," says Mandozzi. "We've definitely noticed more conversation and curiosity around pickles recently."

But food trends don't materialise from thin air, even when your Instagram feed makes it feel that way. The pickle moment has been building for longer than any single menu launch or viral video.

From chilli crisp on eggs to kimchi in toasties and kombucha in the fridge, Australian palates have shifted toward sharper, funkier, more acidic flavours. Pickles slot neatly into that evolution – familiar enough to be accessible, but bold enough to feel new.

From a chef's point of view, says Mandozzi, it makes sense. "Pickles bring acid, salt, crunch and freshness, so they can completely change a dish with very little effort." And the shift runs deeper: "I think the bigger change is here to stay. People are much more interested in fermented, pickled and preserved foods now, and they're more adventurous with strong, acidic flavours."

When Mevissen and Lidden founded Westmont Pickles in 2014, pickling cucumbers barely existed as a crop here at scale. "When we first started, there weren't any other brands making truly all-Aussie pickles that were planted, picked, pickled, and packed right here in Australia," says Mevissen.

Mevissen says that a few factors are at play – more great pickle products on the market, and people becoming increasingly open-minded and experimental, rather 'than just viewing pickles as an accompaniment'. People are increasingly interested in where their food comes from, driving the demand for locally made pickles and creative approaches like reusing pickle brine in a salad dressing or a pickle cocktail.

So will Australia reach America-level picklemaxxing?

"We definitely think there is huge potential for more pickle hype here in Australia," says Mevissen. "People love our pickle merch like the Pickle Bucket Hat, and we have been wanting to do a pickle festival for ages."

Mandozzi sees a more nuanced shift. "There's definitely a trend happening at the moment, and parts of that will probably come and go," he says. "The novelty might settle down, but I don't think the pickle is going back into the background completely."

Barbour is of a similar mindset, saying he thinks Australia's growing affection for pickles is here to stay. "Some of the social media hype will settle down, but people will keep buying food they enjoy."

"It is always funny watching the ebbs and flows of trends over time," says Mevissen, "but for us, pickles are forever!"

The pickle is no longer just the thing you pull out of a burger.