The trend has not yet arrived in Pagosa Springs, as far as I can tell.
The trend being: young people — call them Gen Zers — meeting up in parks and sitting on the grass together, eating pudding with forks.
Apparently, the social trend began in Germany, where folks are calling it “Pudding mit Gabel”. Google translates that as “Pudding with a fork.”
But it’s much more than just eating pudding with a fork. Anyone can eat pudding with a fork, if they happen to have some pudding and a fork.
This is “Pudding mit Gabel”. An international trend that’s bringing people together. (Lord knows, we can use more of that lately.)
The trend reportedly started in the German city of Karlsruhe in August 2025. The first event was held on August 28, and attracted about 150 people.
Videos showed participants tapping their pudding lids with their forks and counting down from ten before eating.
According to Norddeutsche Rundfunk, the radio and TV service for northern Germany:
Los ging es im August: Ein Karlsruher Meme-Account teilte ein Foto eines Flyers auf Instagram. Darauf die Aufforderung: “Komm zu unserem ‘wir-essen-pudding-mit-einer-gabel-treffen’.” Dazu Datum, Uhrzeit und Ort. Wer den Flyer aufgehängt hat, ist unklar. “Wir fanden die Idee so charmant und lustig und dachten uns: Komm, wir posten mal etwas darüber”, sagt Mehran Nadimi, einer der Betreiber des Instagram-Accounts karlsruher.memes mit knapp 84.000 Followern.
It all started in August: A Karlsruhe [town] meme account shared a photo of a flyer on Instagram. It included the invitation: “Come to our ‘we’ll eat pudding with a fork meeting.'” The date, time, and location are also unclear. Who posted the flyer is unclear. “We found the idea so charming and funny, so we thought: Let’s post something about it,” says Mehran Nadimi, one of the operators of the Instagram account karlsruher.memes, which has nearly 84,000 followers.
Pudding mit Gabel” events soon spread to other German cities, including Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Bremen, Bonn and Stuttgart. Over 1,000 showed up for a meeting in Hannover.
It then spread into German-speaking Austria and Switzerland.
Now the trend has spread internationally via TikTok, with some videos from U.S. users getting millions of views, and one video inviting people to a meeting in New York City’s Central Park.
It seems that the German word for “pudding” is “Pudding”. (ICYDK: German Nouns are always capitalized, because Nouns are so important to the Germans. Why isn’t the same thing done in English, especially in American English? I personally find Nouns to be extremely important.)
Pudding is a simple comfort food, traditionally made in the kitchen with sugar, milk, and a thickener like tapioca, rice, or corn starch. Sugar being the key ingredient.
I’m not a big pudding fan, myself, and I can’t actually remember whether I’ve ever made pudding in my kitchen. My ex-wife Darlene used to cook up a batch of homemade pudding a couple of times a year, when she was in a good mood. (Which was a couple of times a year.)
But you can buy pudding in little plastic cups at the grocery store, which sort of makes it a junk food. And the “Pudding” they are eating in Germany is this type of mass produced junk food, in little plastic cups. Eaten with forks. Often, with plastic forks.
I always thought Germans lived on beer and sausage, but I guess that’s no longer true.
Traditionally, pudding is eaten with a spoon. (At least, here in the U.S.) But eating it with a fork presumably makes the meal last longer, which allows for friendly conversations with other Gen Zers who are likewise in no hurry to finish their pudding.
I swung by City Market yesterday to check out the selection of pre-packaged junk food puddings, located in the ‘snacks’ aisle. Just in case this trend makes it to Pagosa Springs someday. The puddings came in two styles — tapioca and corn starch — and in three basic flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and banana. City Market also had a few styles of plastic forks.
Walking back to my car after this little reconnaissance mission, I suddenly had the unhappy realization that this is a ‘Gen Z’ trend, and I probably wouldn’t fit in, no matter what flavor of pudding I brought, or what style of plastic fork I used.
That’s a sad part about getting old. When you do stupid, silly things, you usually do them by yourself.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.