The XX Factor

Could Kim Kardashian’s Pastry Addiction Disrupt the Churro Industry?

Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker. Photo by Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images, joannawnuk/Shutterstock.

Kim Kardashian didn’t manage to actually break the Internet, but she very well might break the sugar-dusted pastry market. The superstar’s well-documented love of churros and beignets has reached extraordinary new heights: On this week’s edition of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, she flies to New Orleans and Paris to satisfy her pregnancy cravings.

Plenty of women experience intense cravings during pregnancy, but unlike the rest of the pregnant population, Kardashian occupies a rarefied world where her every edible inclination can be satisfied. At her pregnancy-themed birthday party in October, Kardashian received beignet mix and her very own churro machine, yet she still found the money and time to fly to France’s pastry mecca for the real deal. No churro is too authentic for North West’s future sibling!

But Kardashian’s churro endorsement began long before she and Kanye West conceived their second spawn. She told Australia’s Daily Telegraph that she’d love to visit Disneyland with her family, if the paparazzi weren’t around. “They have churros that are to die for,” she said. “I am obsessed with churros.” And an old-timey churro stand played a starring role at her surprise wedding shower in August 2014.

The sweet snack might be enjoying the same kind of Kardashian bump as her selfies have spurred in makeup sales. Churros have been called a top food trend of 2015, foreshadowing cronut-esque hybrids like Oreo churros and churro ice-cream sandwiches. After the Kardashian family took a trip to South Korea last year, the country saw its churro industry boom. Correlation or causation? I’m no pastry economist, but if I were a churro purveyor, I’d be stocking up for winter.