Team USA Athletes Share Real Scoop on Olympic Village Chocolate Muffins: Blown 'Out of Proportion' (Exclusive)

The Olympic Village is serving 2,000 of its viral chocolate muffins a day — but what do Team USA athletes really think?

By now, 10 days into these Summer Games, you've likely heard about the Olympic Village's most popular treat: a gooey chocolate muffin.

Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen first posted a TikTok video about the treat on July 25, the day before the opening ceremony. It exploded from there, with Christiansen even being dubbed the "muffin man."

In fact, Sodexo Live!, the company responsible for feeding the 15,000 athletes living in the Paris Olympic Village, told PEOPLE they're expecting to serve 100,000 of the chocolate muffins throughout the Olympics and Paralympics. They estimated about 2,000 muffins — which are filled and topped with dark chocolate and feature chunks of dark chocolate and milk chocolate — are being consumed daily.

But are they really that good? The Team USA athletes PEOPLE has spoken to these Games aren't quite as enamored as Christiansen.

"I know Henrik has blown them out of proportion," teases Ryan Held. "Like, astronomical popularity."

Held's U.S. swimming teammate Erin Gemmell is a bit more impressed: "I had one. It was pretty good, I will say. So whatever they have in the middle could, like, change lives."

Related: The Olympic Village Is Serving 2,000 Chocolate Muffins Per Day Since the Treats Went Viral (Exclusive)

Laughs Gemmell, "I think if you gave it to like a medieval peasant, I think they might like, explode. But it's definitely a great, like, once you're done racing, little treat."

Team USA rower Liam Corrigan is also on the muffin bandwagon, with his men's four teammate Justin Best joking that Corrigan is, too, a "hype man" for the baked good.

"So my experience the first day was I saw the muffins. It was breakfast, I was like, 'Oh, a muffin. It's not the healthiest but it's not so bad,' " Corrigan tells PEOPLE. "And then I opened it up and it's more of a molten lava cake-slash-muffin. And at that point I felt a little bad, like, 'I probably shouldn't be eating this before the race.' So stayed off the muffins."

The rowers did indulge, again, after they won gold, dubbing them "celebratory muffins."

The U.S. women's foil fencers were not quite as into them: "I've been following the TikToks. It's like a big thing," Jackie Dubrovich says. "I think it's a good muffin. I'm not like mind blown like...it's fine."

Related: Olympian Ilona Maher Posts Fun Video Eating Giant Croissant While Wearing Bronze Medal: ‘Just a Little Treat’

And Maia Weintraub definitely won't be giving it a try: "I don't like chocolate."

The muffin popularity hasn't waned though, with the closing ceremony seven days away. In a TikTok posted on Aug. 5, Christiansen posted a video of himself looking for the muffins in the dining hall to no avail. "Guys, I think i’m going through withdrawal," he wrote.

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