After making their way through the niche product market, outside-the-box pickle concoctions are now hitting the mainstream by way of fast food menus, and Sonic is the trailblazer with its big summer 2018 novelty product. "Quite simply, pickle juice is fun...only Sonic can bring a completely on-trend beverage flavor into 3,500 restaurants." Scott Uehlein, Sonic's vice president of product innovation and development, tells Refinery29. This is a certainly a bold new step. We never saw fast food giants introducing sriracha or bacon slushies all across the nation. It’s true that smaller chains have put these strong flavors into drinks before. For instance, the Canadian chain Union Burger offered a sriracha milkshake for a limited time in 2016 and at Five Guys , customers can mix bacon into their milkshakes. However, Sonic’s forthcoming pickle slush seems to be the first instance of a big fast food chain offering a trendy bold-flavored beverage on such a large scale. In theory, putting pickle juice, which contains electrolytes and is said to be especially hydrating , into an icy summertime drink makes logical, if wacky, sense. But that still doesn’t explain how we got here: How did we reach peak pickle?