The 7-Second Coffee Trick Has TikTokers Baffled, but It May Mostly Be a Scam

By now, most of us know how the internet works. Aside from being a source of stress, toxicity, and increasingly bizarre content, it's also home to strange trends and scams that lure people in with the same tried-and-true methods of deceit. Even after decades of being tragically online, get-rich-quick schemes, false identities, and weight loss scams in the form of ads and pop-ups are still rampant throughout the net. And now, one of their latest homes is TikTok.

The popular video-sharing platform often features content ranging from wholesome to strange and even mean-spirited all in one compact doom-scrolling package. Yet even the most obvious and frustrating scams can still start trending if folks talk about it enough. Throughout the summer of 2024, there's been the 7-second coffee trick, for example. The trend has been touted as a quick weight loss hack, but there are just ... so many things wrong with it, including the recipe itself. Let's break it down.

The 7-second coffee trick has been making the rounds in July 2024. Several users have posted videos describing how this "unique coffee recipe" can help you burn fat faster. If this sounds familiar to you, it's probably because you've seen plenty of fake-looking ads and obnoxious pop-ups of other weight loss hack tricks and how much doctors hate them. But right off the bat, there are so many things wrong with this particular "trend" on TikTok.

For starters, there's the part about it being "seven seconds." At no point do any of the videos mention what relevance this time frame has to the coffee trick in question. Does it take seven seconds to make? Does it take seven seconds to drink? Will these videos give you back at least seven seconds of the time you spent watching them? You certainly won't find an answer to any of these questions in these videos. Then there's the recipe itself, or lack thereof.

Though many of the videos boast that the recipe has helped them fit back into skinny jeans in weeks, none of them explicitly mention what the ingredients are. Sure, the videos show someone mixing random powders into their coffee grounds, but they definitely won't tell you what they're actually adding to it. In fact, each video is filled with comments from people complaining that the recipe wasn't revealed. When asked about it, OPs will reply with a "link to the recipe" that you probably shouldn't click.

That said, people have been able to discern what the recipe is supposed to be, though there are conflicting reports. Some folks believe it to be cinnamon and turmeric added to your coffee grounds. TikToker @pinkynel tried a half teaspoon of turmeric, a half teaspoon of ginger, a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper, and "a little bit of cinnamon" to top it off. According to her video, @pinkynel hated the drink and elected to walk more instead.

For all intents and purposes, the 7-second coffee trick sounds like an AI-generated scam meant to trick folks out of money or TikTok clout. We absolutely don't endorse this "hack."