2.5 mile-long line of sweet breads attracts hundreds of hungry visitors in Mexico City

While some hungry customers may wait for ages in line to get a hold of a freshly-baked bread from their local bakery, the team at Farmacias Similares S.A. de C.V. in Mexico City, Mexico, tried the reverse – they lined up their breads for their customers.

Only these bakers wanted to do something spectacular, so on 7 January 2024 they decided to attempt their second Guinness World Records title by creating the longest line of breads in the world – assembling 18,224 pieces of bread end-to-end across tables running through their local park, stretching an incredible 4 km (2.5 mi) long.

To celebrate the Christian feast day of Epiphany (also known as Three Kings Day), talented bakers created a gigantic Rosca de Reyes, which is a traditional Mexican looped orange-flavoured sweet bread covered with different colourful toppings. Many bakers also hide 1-3 small plastic baby figurines in the cake to symbolize Baby Jesus, and if your cake slice contains the toy, then some say it’s your job to cook tamales for the family for the next holiday!

And while traditional Rosca de Reyes are usually much smaller, the team at Farmacias Similares had already completed one amazing cultural record title in 2017 for the largest Day of the Dead altar, and knew they could pull it off.

Staff had to arrive when it was dark out to start setting up white tables through the Jardin Pushkin park in Mexico City, and to prepare for the truck that would drop off the delivery of the breads.

They then formed an assembly line to transfer the portioned and packaged breads end-to-end down the tables, in front of curious (and hungry!) passersby. By 7:10 a.m., all the breads were lined up, and the judges were called in to measure the distance of the line and the number of baked goods used.

When all was said and done, they used 18,244 individual pieces of bread, and officially captured the record title for their fun and festive accomplishment.

And yes! After watching all the commotion, visitors were allowed to take home pieces of the Rosca de Reyes – only it’s hard to say who would be responsible for making the tamales since there were so many people involved!

After the celebration was over, the Farmacias Similares team paid forward the goodwill, and donated 14,000 pieces of the bread to local charities in the neighbourhood. Who knew that doing good could taste so sweet?