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Jim Nantz would lead you to believe The Masters is “a tradition unlike any other,” but over the past few years, that annual gathering at Augusta National has gotten a run for its money thanks to another yearly event in Omaha.
If you keep tabs on the College World Series, you’re likely very familiar with the “Jello Shot Challenge” that’s become a viral sensation thanks to the insane amount of gelatin-based adult beverages the folks at Rocco’s Pizza & Cantina have been able to move over the course of the tournament.
The Jello Shot Challenge made its grand debut in 2018, but it really started to garner attention in 2022 courtesy of the Ole Miss fans who purchased close to 19,000 of them at $4.50 a pop en route to shattering the single-school record for the highest number consumed over the course of the College World Series.
The price rose to $6 per shot in 2023, and while the Rebels’ mark was a hard one to top, the LSU faithful managed to do exactly that five days before the national championship game was slated to kick off with the help of the Raising Cane’s founder who dropped $30,000 to surpass the previous total and tentatively enter the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest round of shots ever purchased.
GQ recently chatted with Rocco’s owner Kevin Culjat for a fantastic article where the Jello Shot Challenge mastermind shed some light on how it came into existence before discussing the impact it’s had on the business.
While he didn’t disclose any specifics as far as the profits are concerned, Culjat credited the jello shots for giving the bar a major boost, saying, “We figured that we did 42% of our total revenue for the season in just 14 days” while reflecting on what transpired in 2022.
He also noted there’s been so much demand that Rocco’s decided to erect a dedicated bar for the jello shots and outsourced their production to a company that basically works around the clock to meet the demand, adding, “They make 7,000 Jell-O shots every day with their four machines, which make 100 Jell-O shots every 4 minutes.”
Must be nice.