Feasting on food emojis and why is there no symbol for sugar?

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Just recently, award-winning Canadian singer songwriter The Weeknd mused on Twitter why is there no emoji symbol for sugar – causing a flurry of tweets (more than 70,000) from fans asking the same thing.

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There should be. There are emojis for practically everything – from all your emotions to opinions on life to what foods you’re eating – emojis have been ruling the social media world for decades now.

The brainchild of Japanese designer Shigetaka Kurita back in 1991, emojis – small, digital icons – have become a mainstream form of expression and a universal method of online communication that have seamlessly become part of the fabric of our everyday lives.

And every day, billions of emojis are sent out via iPhones, tablets, computers and who knows what else, amping up the sender’s message with a colourful selection of images – and hidden messages.

Interesting to note, emojis are not age specific, but all generations seem to have embraced this form of self-expression.

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Research shows that on any given day, 92% of those online use emojis on a daily basis. And what started as a handful of highly pixelated figures has morphed into more than 3,000 stunning, sophisticated digital decals, as listed on the Unicode Standard of information technology that deals with the world’s writing systems.

Everyone has a favourite emoji, and food emojis have really come into their own (although some food-based emojis have a double meaning, if you catch my drift.) Plus every country has its favourite food emojis.

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Just recently date gathered by Chefs Plate revealed the most used food emojis and most desired new food emojis in Canada. Most used emoji? The birthday cake was the most frequently used among people aged 55 plus, with 22% of all Canadians surveyed saying they use this emoji the most. (Interesting to note, Gen Z frequently used the eggplant symbol, with 24% of 18-24 year-olds claiming that this is their, cough, most used food emoji.)

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Top emojis Canadians want to see right now include “more foods from different cultures, more vegan food and a greater variety of cheeses and pastries,” according to Chefs Plate recent media release. The data also highlights that females use food emojis more, with almost half of males surveyed (49%) saying they do not use food emojis.

And yet – with all those food emojis out there, it took a Canadian music artist to tweet in disbelief that there was no sugar emoji.

We went looking through the internet and found some interesting emojis with sugar as a theme – a green bowl full of sugar cubes, a drawing of a sugar cube, a weird-looking happy face with a mouth full of candy, a watermelon sugar emoji – but nothing that actually expressed sugar in general.

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Perhaps a sweetness emoji would be ideal for The Weeknd!

Chefs Plate did some digging and found the following:

Top 5 food emojis Canadians use the most:

Birthday cake

Eggplant

Pizza

Burger

Avocado

Top 5 food emojis Canadians use the least:

Dumpling

Burrito

Noodles

Sushi

Salad

According to Chef’s Plate, the dumpling and burrito emojis are among the least used food emojis among all people surveyed, with 42% of people never using either.

Ten of the food-related emojis Canadians want released right now:

A greater variety of cheeses and pastries

More Indian

More African foods

Cakes with adjustable colour

Potato variety – including baked, mashed, hash brown etc

Chowder

Poutine

Fajitas

Smoothies

A vegan, vegetarian, plant-based and pescatarian food emoji

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Ontario: The Food Emoji Capital Of Canada

The Chefs Plate survey revealed that Ontario residents use food emojis the most, followed by Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan

Emojis are like a secret language, and everyone has a favourite – or three or four.

A study released last fall, conducted by Canada’s The Mobile Shop uncovered exactly how we’re texting – and the results may surprise you.

– Canada’s favourite emojis include the laughing face (used by 63% of the population), the crying face (42%) and the kissing face (39%).

– Spicy’s not for everyone: Fewer Canadians favour the more scandalous emojis – with 6% using a peach, 6% using an eggplant and 13% using fire. The majority of those supposedly risqué texts come from those under the age of 34.

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– Alberta takes the cake, leading eggplant emoji use across all other provinces.

– On average, only two in 10 Canadians use acronyms while they’re texting.

– Texting like the kids do: Voice notes, exclamation marks and GIFs are most commonly used by Canadians 34 and under.

– One or two emojis per text is the sweet spot with 64% of Canadians agreeing that is acceptable. You may be getting weird looks on the other end of your text if you’re in the only 7% who insisted that five plus emojis are acceptable.

Secret second meanings of some emojis

Something to think about when you are the recipient of anyone of these emojis

Goat – looks like an animal, smells like an animal, but in some instances means Greatest Of All Time

Octopus – a virtual hug

Snake – a backstabber

Pizza Slice – could be your in the mood for this favourite food. Or someone is saying “I Love You.” Make what you want of it

Flame: You’re hot, or as the cool kids would say, you’re lit

Knife: Someone’s in a very bad mood

Eggplant – either someone wants a recipe for eggplant parm, or it’s a stand-in for a guy’s credentials

Peach – pie or you’re just being sly

–bestlifeonline.com/emoji-meanings

Most popular emojis

Heart Hands

Red Heart

Smiling Face with Smiling Eyes

Sparkles

Thumbs Up

– emojipedia.org