Heinz Ketchup

I had lunch with my friend Jack at CPR (Cornelius Pass Roadhouse) today. The place tries to present something of an old timey feel to it, which may be why they have Heinz Ketchup in glass bottles on the table. I like Heinz Ketchup better than other brands: the taste is more complex. I suspect they have some kind of spices in it. I am not a snob though. I will use whatever ketchup (or catsup) is available, but I prefer Heinz.

Problem with ketchup is getting it out of the jar. Some restaurants dilute their ketchup so it pours out of the jar readily. Others give you the real thing and let you figure out how to get it out. Last time I got a cheeseburger at CPR, the catsup flowed freely. Today it was extra thick and did not want to come out of the jar. I shook, rapped and twisted, but all I got for my efforts were a few drops.

At home we have the upside down plastic squeeze bottle. It works pretty well, and maybe in another generation it will become the standard, but right now it is inherently contrary to normal bottle handling techniques. There was a wide mouth jar where you could use a spoon to get the sauce out, but that is not going to fly in a restaurant. There will always be some slob who will drop something in the ketchup and some other unfortunate who will discover it.

Crest had pushbutton dispensers for toothpaste where the bottom of the bottle rose as the toothpaste was used up. Maybe someone could make something similar for catsup.

The problem with jars that open on the bottom is that it takes two hands. Jars with flip top lids on top only take one hand to open. It's due to the way our hands are attached to our arms. Thumbs are on the inner or upper surface of our hands. Thumbs down requires considerable twisting. Maybe people will adapt to opening top down bottles with one hand without having to invert the bottle.

I couldn't find any pictures of the wide mouthed jar or of the Crest pump. I suppose they predate the internet explosion. I did find this picture of a miniature bottle.