Heinz Ketchup has become ubiquitous since hitting the market in 1876. And when you've been making
perfect ketchup for over 140 years, there's bound to be some rather juicy secrets and strange facts
out there, right? Here's everything you don't know about your favorite ketchup.
Based on the "57 Varieties" slogan on Heinz Ketchup bottles,
you might think you have 57 different types of ketchup to choose from…
but you'd be wrong about that. Truth be told, it's a completely arbitrary number.
It was chosen by Henry Heinz in 1896, 20 years after he first started selling
his legendary ketchup. By then, his company was selling over 60 products,
including pickles, olive oil, spaghetti, and peanut butter.
One day, as Heinz rode a train through New York, he noticed a sign that advertised
"21 varieties of shoes"
"It stuck with him … a number that could represent, that could stick
in the head of the American mind, and would say something about his product."
How to pour
Does it seem like your Heinz Ketchup takes an excruciatingly long time to go
from bottle to hot dog? Maybe you've been pouring ketchup wrong your entire life.
"What's Ernest doing now?"
"He's waiting for the ketchup!"
"He's what!?!"
"Hey, we don't wait for ketchup."
"You don't?"
"Hope you and your ketchup have a real nice time!'
According to Live Science, you need to gently coax your ketchup out of the bottle. First,
shake it to distribute the solid particles and ensure an even flow. While the cap is still on,
turn the bottle upside down. Finally, tilt it to a 45 degree angle, uncap,
and give the bottom a few firm taps. Trust us on this one.
"Your ketchup's coming out a lot slower than ours does!"
"SHHHHH!! That's not good manners!"
Heinz accounts for around 50 percent of all the ketchup in American kitchens. Each year,
650 million bottles of Heinz ketchup are sold in 140 countries worldwide — that's
1,000 bottles a minute, and it results in over $1.5 billion dollars in annual sales.
Then there's the single serve packets. The company sells 11 billion packets each year,
which works out to two packets for every person on the planet. Of course, making all this ketchup
requires a whole lot of tomatoes. Heinz uses over 2 million tons of tomatoes each year,
making them the biggest buyer of tomatoes in the whole wide world. In fact, if you
put all of Heinz's tomato-processing trucks end to end, the line would stretch almost 900 miles.
Heinz caused quite a stir in April 2018 with one little tweet:
"Want #mayochup in stores? 500,000 votes for 'yes' and we'll release it to you saucy Americans."
The tweet sent shockwaves through numerous local news outlets...
on what we're presuming was an extremely slow news day.
"I actually like having ketchup and mayonnaise and EVEN MUSTARD."
"Separate??"
"Yes. And if it gets mixed together, like, ooh yummy goodness, but I don't feel like…"
"You need it."
As you probably know, Ed Sheeran has a lot of tattoos… and if you look closely,
you'll see a familiar ketchup label on his left bicep. Yes, the singer loves Heinz that much.
He even brings his own stash of Heinz ketchup while he's on tour. A source told The Sun that,
"Ed's made no secret of his Heinz Ketchup obsession and has run out
of patience with going to places that don't serve it while he's touring.
He's made it a duty of key members of his entourage to carry a bottle wherever he goes
so he can have it with everything from his morning sausage butty to upmarket dinners."
Sheeran is, in fact, so obsessed with Heinz that he even starred in a commercial for the product.
"It was an idear I had for an advert. And now we're making
the advert. First time I've done a condiment."
Seeing an opportunity here, a gelato shop in Ireland decided to create a
ketchup-infused treat in honor of Sheeran as he was gearing up for a concert nearby.
The shop even offered a freebie to concert-goers, writing on Instagram:
"We [...] decided to welcome Ed Sheeran back to Ireland by creating his favourite flavour:
Tomato ketchup!! Drop in for a free Ketchup cone if attending the concert."
The gelato is made with real ketchup and even topped with a drizzle for good measure.
We'll take an extremely hard pass, but then again, we're not Ed Sheeran.
In just about any fast food restaurant,
you're likely to see plenty of packets of Heinz… with one glaring omission: McDonald's.
In 2013, McDonald's announced it would be cutting ties with Heinz as their ketchup
provider, ending a decades-long relationship. The fast food chain
whipped up the following prepared statement for The Huffington Post:
"We value the relationship we've maintained with Heinz for more than 40 years.
As a result of recent management changes at Heinz,
we have decided to transition our business to other suppliers over time."
Hard to say what "management changes" they're referring to, but we have some ideas.
"Turns out that the former, the guy who became the CEO of Heinz used to be the CEO of Burger King."
Meanwhile, not many folks give a flying French fry about any of this.
"No, it makes no difference to me. I'll still go to McDonald's. Nothing changed.
The burger's ain't changed. The fries ain't changed so...I'm just gonna stick at it."
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