diff --git a/TODO.md b/TODO.md
index 1173c47..5f22565 100644
--- a/TODO.md
+++ b/TODO.md
@@ -32,7 +32,8 @@ P2: security: referer blacklist
 - 2026-09-29 variant content types kept in memory (closes #70):
   `Cache.metaCache` holds the content types of up to 10,000 variants in an LRU
   (`github.com/hashicorp/golang-lru/v2`), filled by `StoreVariant` and by
-  `GetVariant` after it reads a `.meta` file; for a variant it holds, `Lookup`
+  `GetVariant` after it reads a `.meta` file, where a type `StoreVariant` added
+  meanwhile is kept over the one read; for a variant it holds, `Lookup`
   skips the check of the disk and `GetVariant` skips the `.meta` read, still
   opening the variant file and taking the size from it; eviction removes the
   entry before deleting the files, and `GetVariant` removes it when the file
diff --git a/internal/imgcache/cache.go b/internal/imgcache/cache.go
index ad06eb2..43933db 100644
--- a/internal/imgcache/cache.go
+++ b/internal/imgcache/cache.go
@@ -525,7 +525,10 @@ func (c *Cache) IncrementTransformCount(ctx context.Context) {
 
 // loadVariantWithMeta is GetVariant for a variant metaCache does not
 // hold: it reads the content type from the variant's .meta file and
-// keeps it in metaCache.
+// keeps it in metaCache, unless a StoreVariant has put one there
+// meanwhile. The stored one wins, since this read may have found the
+// variant file before the store wrote the .meta file, and so got
+// application/octet-stream.
 func (c *Cache) loadVariantWithMeta(
 	cacheKey VariantKey,
 ) (io.ReadCloser, int64, string, error) {
@@ -534,7 +537,7 @@ func (c *Cache) loadVariantWithMeta(
 		return nil, 0, "", err
 	}
 
-	c.metaCache.Add(cacheKey, contentType)
+	c.metaCache.ContainsOrAdd(cacheKey, contentType)
 
 	return reader, size, contentType, nil
 }