Gen Z obsession with caviar bumps fuels surge in sales as luxury food becomes just another TikTok trend

Let them eat caviar!

Meg Radice and Audrey Jongens, both 25, first started doing bumps in NYC clubs this summer — bumps of caviar, that is.

The blonde bombshells, known online for their bougie lifestyle and food-review brand The VIP List, were dancing the night away at SomewhereNowhere in Chelsea when the people they were with ordered caviar along with their bottle service — and began scooping little dollops onto their hands.

“It’s just a fun thing, doing caviar bumps in the club,” Jongens told The Post.

A caviar bump is enjoyed when a small amount of the salt-cured roe is served onto the back of the diner’s hand (usually held in a fist) and eaten (not snorted) in one swallow.

“Caviar just really went viral this year,” Radice said to The Post. And she’s not wrong — the hashtag #CaviarBumps has 8.8 million views on TikTok.

The trend has manifested in all kinds of curious ways, with parents extolling the virtues of feeding fish eggs to their children as young as 18 months, while junk food brand Pringles partnered with The Caviar Co. to peddle $140 “Crisp and Caviar” flights.

“Although social media may be fueling the caviar craze,” Edgar Panchernikov, marketing manager of Caviar Russe, a Michelin-starred restaurant on Madison Avenue that specializes in caviar, told the Post the online trend has impacted the industry in real ways, “with no signs of slowing down.”

Not that the bump can be called a trend, at least not a new one — according to experts, the bump method is actually how caviar connoisseurs have traditionally sampled the product.

“When you would go to the fishermen and try 100 different cans of caviar to select which ones you wanted, you wanted a quick way to taste the caviar without muddling your palate,” Panchernikov previously told the New York Times.

Kristen Shirley, 37, the founder of La Patiala, a luxury lifestyle website, explained that she prefers eating caviar this way to fully enjoy it.

“If you put caviar on blinis or chips or put chives or red onion on it, it masks the flavor,” she told the Gray Lady. “Why are you eating something that costs $200 an ounce just for it to taste like red onion?”

But it’s not just about the taste — not for everyone.

“People are willing to spend more for the experience and the flex on [Instagram],” Radice said.

Not shy about showing off on social media, young bumpers Radice and Jongens partnered with 9 Jones, a trendy West Village eatery, earlier this year, to create The VIP List Experience, which offers groups of six or more a specially-curated menu, including caviar bumps and champagne.

But if you’re not ready for the full experience, don’t worry, “Bumps and Bubbles” have been added to the everyday menu at 9 Jones, where one in five young diners order it.

“It’s allowed us to embrace the small indulgences that elevate the overall dining experience,” Richard Wheeler, founder of 9 Jones, told The Post. He noted it’s also “been fun to take an extravagant product like caviar and serve it in a playful way.”

Temple Bar, Tokyo Record Room and Nubluez also serve caviar bumps on their menus.

Inna Desilva, the owner of a boutique PR agency in NYC, told The Post enjoys caviar bumps at Nubluez while taking in the view of the Manhattan skyline from more than 500 feet above street level.

Desilva confirmed that she’s noticed the caviar bump craze both while dining out in NYC and working with her client, the Big Apple-based IKRAA Caviar, a second-generation family business of Russian descendants selling caviar for 35 years.

“I don’t know if it’s because there’s no more good cocaine left,” she joked to The Post.

Anna Dozortsev, president of IKRAA Caviar, said that apart from seeing a major uptick in sales this year, she’s “absolutely” noticed an increase in younger customers.

“It’s not only for the 1%,” she told The Post. “Even Whole Foods sells caviar.”

Global caviar sales are up 74 percent since 2020 — and the industry is expected to continue to expand another 40 percent by 2027, according to 360 Research, The Times reported.