# Kiosco Grifols Shut Down: Internet Reacts to 'Now That's Tasty!' News

The sudden, albeit fictional, shutdown of "Kiosco Grifols" has sent ripples across the internet, leaving a trail of satirical mourning and confusion in its wake. This viral phenomenon, born from an absurdist meme featuring a man gleefully consuming a bag of what is implied to be blood plasma, evolved into a complex online narrative complete with a fabricated corporate closure. The incident serves as a fascinating case study on how internet culture can create elaborate lore, blur the lines between reality and satire, and unexpectedly thrust a real-world pharmaceutical giant into the chaotic spotlight of social media. While the "shutdown" is a joke, the conversations it sparked about the real company, Grifols, and the plasma donation industry are very real.

The Genesis of a Meme: Unpacking the 'Now That's Tasty!' Phenomenon

To understand the "shutdown," one must first understand the origin of "Kiosco Grifols." The term originates from a viral video that began circulating widely on platforms like TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram. The short clip features a man in a white lab coat, standing in what appears to be a laboratory or medical facility. He holds up a bag of yellowish liquid—visually similar to blood plasma—labeled with the fictional brand "Kiosco Grifols." With unbridled enthusiasm, he punctures the bag with a straw, takes a hearty sip, and exclaims, “Mmm, now that’s tasty!”

The humor of the video lies in its sheer absurdity and dark, transgressive nature. The enthusiastic consumption of a medical product, combined with the cheerful, almost commercial-like delivery, created a perfect storm for internet virality. The name "Kiosco Grifols" itself was a stroke of bizarre genius. "Grifols" is the name of a very real, multinational pharmaceutical and chemical company headquartered in Spain, a global leader in producing plasma-derived medicines. The addition of "Kiosco"—Spanish for kiosk—suggested a strange, dystopian future where one could purchase bags of plasma from a self-service booth like a soft drink. This fictional branding was key to the meme's evolution, giving the internet a tangible, albeit fake, entity to build a narrative around.

A Fictional Closure Sparks Real Conversations

Like many successful memes, the "Now That's Tasty!" video did not remain a static piece of content. Instead, it became a foundation for collaborative, community-driven storytelling. In early 2024, users on various platforms began to circulate fake news reports, edited images, and satirical posts announcing that Kiosco Grifols was being shut down. These posts often mimicked the format of legitimate news outlets, creating an initial layer of confusion for those not deeply embedded in the meme's culture.

The internet's reaction was swift and overwhelmingly comedic. A wave of mock grief and outrage flooded social media feeds.

• Twitter (now X): Users posted messages like, "They can't do this to us. Kiosco Grifols was an institution. End of an era." Another widely shared tweet read, "Woke up to the news about Kiosco Grifols shutting down. My day is ruined. Where am I supposed to get my tasty treat now?"
• TikTok: Video creators made skits showing their dramatic reactions to the "news," often set to sad music while clutching images of the original meme. Some created "investigative" videos exploring the "real reasons" behind the shutdown, inventing elaborate conspiracies for comedic effect.
• Reddit: Threads on subreddits like r/memes and r/OutOfTheLoop were filled with users either mourning the fictional brand or asking for clarification on whether the shutdown was real. One popular comment stated, "Pour one out for Kiosco Grifols. Their product was so tasty, the FDA had to shut them down for being too powerful."

This collective performance of grief highlights a unique aspect of modern internet humor. Participants were fully aware that the entity they were mourning never existed, but the shared joke created a sense of community and in-group understanding. The "shutdown" became the meme's second act, a narrative turn that allowed for new forms of creative expression.

The Real-World Context: Grifols and the Plasma Industry

Behind the absurdist humor of the Kiosco Grifols meme lies a very real and critically important industry. The actual Grifols S.A. is a cornerstone of the global healthcare system. Founded in Barcelona in 1909, the company is one of the world's largest producers of medicines derived from human plasma. These therapies are not "tasty treats" but life-saving treatments for a range of serious and chronic conditions.

Plasma, the liquid component of blood, is rich in proteins and antibodies. Through a process called fractionation, companies like Grifols separate these proteins to create therapies for:

1. Immune Deficiencies: Patients who cannot produce their own antibodies rely on immunoglobulin therapies derived from plasma.
2. Hemophilia and Bleeding Disorders: Clotting factors made from plasma are essential for preventing uncontrolled bleeding.
3. Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency: A genetic disorder that can lead to severe lung and liver disease is treated with plasma-derived therapies.
4. Critical Care: Albumin, another plasma protein, is used in emergency medicine to treat shock, severe burns, and other critical conditions.

The raw material for these products is collected from human donors at specialized centers, including those operated by Grifols, as well as competitors like CSL Plasma and BioLife. Unlike volunteer whole blood donation, plasma donors in the United States are typically compensated for their time, a practice that has long been a subject of ethical and economic debate. The meme, in its own strange way, inadvertently drew attention to this complex system of compensated donation that forms the backbone of the global plasma supply.

A Case Study in Uncontrolled Branding

For the real Grifols, the "Kiosco Grifols" phenomenon represents a modern marketing conundrum: what happens when your brand is co-opted by internet culture for a purpose entirely divorced from its reality? The company has maintained a public silence on the matter, a strategy that is likely for the best. Engaging with the meme could be seen as trivializing their serious medical mission, while condemning it could trigger the "Streisand effect," amplifying it further.

The meme’s impact on the brand is difficult to quantify. On one hand, it introduced the Grifols name to a massive, younger audience that may have never heard of it. On the other, it associated the brand with the bizarre and unsettling imagery of drinking plasma. However, because the "Kiosco Grifols" branding is so clearly satirical, the risk of long-term damage to the corporate identity is likely minimal. Instead, it stands as a testament to the unpredictable nature of online communication, where a corporate name can be plucked from obscurity and thrust into a viral narrative without permission or warning.

The saga of the Kiosco Grifols "shutdown" is more than just a fleeting internet joke. It is a microcosm of how memes evolve from simple images into complex, interactive stories. It demonstrates the internet's capacity for large-scale collaborative fiction and its penchant for dark, absurdist humor. While Kiosco Grifols may be "closed for business," the meme's legacy continues as a peculiar and hilarious footnote in the history of internet culture, forever linking a life-saving pharmaceutical company to the unforgettable exclamation: "Now that's tasty!"