I wasn't too picky with condiments as a kid. Sure, I vowed allegiance to yellow mustard over any type of other mustard, but other than that, I didn't really care. I wasn't big on using them anyway -- especially ketchup. Soft pretzels, hot dogs -- sure; I'd put a bit of mustard on them.
I wasn't so quick to eat ketchup. There was something off-putting about the bright color, the strange sweet and tangy flavor of it and the fact that it was a tomato-based product and I detested (and still do) most tomato-based products. I ate dry french fries and burgers most of the time. Occasionally, I'd whip out a bottle of ketchup to put on scrambled eggs (eggs: the only flavor I needed another gross flavor to mask), but I never paid that much attention to it.
More specifically, I never paid attention to the brand I was using. When we had condiments in the house, they never were a specific brand consistently. My mom typically bought whatever was on sale at the supermarket that week. I'm positive that I have tried every brand of ketchup and mustard that ShopRite has carried for the past 19 years. The only difference in brands. in my opinion, was the packaging. It was all basically the same stuff. Ketchup is ketchup, how different could various company formulas be?
It wasn't until I moved to Pittsburgh, Pa., that I met people who were serious about what brand of ketchup they used. Heinz was the only way to go in the Steel City. I recall the first time I saw this loyalty to Heinz. It was two summers ago, when I went to visit a college out on the western side of the state. I stayed with my sister and her husband, who lived in Pittsburgh. One night, we went out for dinner to an Irish eatery on the South Side. We ordered our food and chatted while we waited. My brother in law looked over at the caddy on the table where the mini condiment bottles were. He picked up a small bottle of Heinz and held it in his hands, examining it. He (and I'm not joking) called the waitress over, and asked for a fresh, unopened bottle of ketchup. Now, I'm not sure if he didn't want to risk consuming ketchup that could have been sitting in that bottle for some time or what, but when I asked him why he needed a new bottle, he told me that this bottle had been refilled, and it wasn't Heinz. My sister and I rolled our eyes and laughed at him, and continued with dinner. That was the first time I had seen someone be so particular about ketchup.
Flash forward to a year later, and I had moved out to Pittsburgh for college. I noticed that most, if not all, of the condiments on campus were Heinz. This could just be because the Heinz headquarters is in Pittsburgh, but I chalked it up to a strange loyalty Pittsburghers have to this particular brand. I mean, surely there has to be a cheaper brand available. Colleges should like to save money. Why splurge on ketchup when you could use that money for better wi-fi? Even in our dining hall, we have like, 15 bottles of Heinz ketchup. There was a rogue, off brand bottle of ketchup for a while, but I rarely saw anyone use it. My roommate grabbed it once by mistake, and after tasting it, immediately put it back and grabbed the Heinz. It was so interesting to me to see that some people would rather wait until a bottle of Heinz was available (every bottle could be occupied at the dinner rush) before they would dunk their chicken fingers in another brand. The other ketchup wasn't terrible or anything. It just tasted like ketchup to me. But, it was obvious that not everyone felt the same.
Do I think I will ever understand the hype about Heinz ketchup? No, probably not. I don't think I'll ever get to that level of liking ketchup to begin with, let alone to be all particular about a brand. Do I think it's a little strange that so many people I've met have a strong loyalty to ketchup? Um, yeah, I'm not going to lie, it's a little strange. But it makes sense. Heinz is as Pittsburgh as Primanti Brothers and rooting for the Steelers (I'm not from this city, so I hope that comparison actually makes sense or holds some type of truth). It's headquarters are in the city, so it would make sense that the most widely available brand of ketchup would be Heinz. And as strange as it sounds, it would make sense for Pittsburghers to hold some sort of loyalty to it.
There's things and foods in my own hometown that I'm super loyal to. I'll always believe that Wawa is the greatest convenience store to ever grace this country, and I'd argue with anyone that thinks a Primanti sandwich is better than a Delessandro's cheesesteak. Everyone has a loyalty to things in their city, even if it's something as simple as ketchup (or a delicious meat and cheese sandwich). So Pittsburgh, keep doing you, with your Heinz ketchup lovin' selves.
