Five years ago, Malcolm Gladwell pronounced ketchup ripe for the kind of diversity revolution that had already shattered the staid monotony of the spaghetti sauce and mustard markets. Now The Smart Set wonders why we’re still waiting for ketchup to storm the barricades. Were we too busy cooking up exotic derivatives during the boom years? Has the Great Recession, or government regulation, stifled vital condiment innovation? Maybe it’s something immutable in ketchup itself. All those natural mellowing agents, perhaps. [%comments]
The Ketchup Revolution, Postponed
TAGS: food
and 
. You can also watch it on 
I like the spicy ketchup that they sell in India. I add sriracha to my heinz sometimes. Not sure if that’s “revoultionary,” but there it is.
For many of us, there is only one acceptable ketchup…HEINZ.
EM Jones (#1), you are wrong…there are many varieties of mustard.
Norm (#3), you are correct sir: there are varieties, but they are not “ketchup” and calling them such would only create confusion.
There doesn’t seem to be much room to branch out on ketchup, but there is some. I’ve been using Ketchapeno and Ketchipotle on fries, burgers, etc. for several years now. A little kick makes the ketchup much better!
I think Gladwell’s article explains why gourmet ketchup is a fool’s errand: the current stuff is just a perfectly balanced combination of flavors.
Maybe I missed something?
Gladwell didn’t say it was ripe for development. His point was that the lack of ketchup diversity is related to it’s perfect balance and universal appeal. That it’s continued popularity, despite attempts to create ketchup variations, makes it special.
I think ranch dressing is superior in any case where ketchup would be used.
I’d guess that because it takes so long to get through a bottle of ketchup, the risk for buying a poor flavor is high.
Spaghetti sauce is used up in three or four servings.
The only real mustard flavors are honey mustard (which really is its own condiment), dijon (which is well-established), and yellow.
I would guess that there’s room for a premium ketchup similar to dijon mustard (if there aren’t any already), but the risk of a “honey ketchup” or “vodka ketchup” being bad is too great for a family to bet on it.
@ karen (#4) — super sonnet.
IMHO, it comes down for me to brand — like google vs. “search engines”, it’s Heinz vs. all other red stuff, inclusive of chutneys and hunts and malcom’s melange.