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✅ Heinz EZ Squirt Basting Green Ketchup unopened - Christmas Grinch Rare Edition
$ 131.97
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Description
This is a SUPER-RARE surviving full intact sealed bottle of Heinz EZ Squirt Basting Green Ketchup. It is an even rarer version of this short-lived run of green ketchup from Heinz, a special Christmas Grinch edition (see photo).We have had this stored in our cupboard for over 15 years, since 2006 or possibly even earlier than that and forgot that we had it. We originally got these three bottles at:
Eddie Andelman's Hot Dog Safari at Suffolk Downs in Boston MA. They had a limited amount that they were giving away and we were lucky enough to get three. Honestly, I am not even sure if this particular edition even made it onto store shelves. Almost all pictures I have seen online have been of the standard packaging, not the Grinch version.
We then put these three bottles away in our cupboard, with the intention of opening them one at a time and putting in the refrigerator after opening them, but we never got around to moving them out of the cupboard and opening them and eating them, which was our original intention, as a fun twist on red ketchup
.
We realize now that we may very well have the last 3 surviving examples of this packaging and decided make them available now, hopefully to someone who collects Heinz memorabilia and would like to put it in their own private or public museum.
After 15 or more years, this probably really belongs in a museum, not someone's refrigerator to use!
Warning: as this is LONG out of date, do not consume this!
This is a very rare collectible item now, that you do not see on
eB
ay
much or at all. You can buy one of our bottles or if you want to snap up what seems to be the last 3 bottles on the market anywhere, you can take all 3 of them.
A LITTLE PROMOTIONAL HISTORY ABOUT THIS RARE SURVIVING EXAMPLE OF HEINZ EZ SQUIRT BASTING GREEN KETCHUP:
Chocolate is brown, mustard is yellow, and ketchup is red—or so goes conventional wisdom. But in 2000, one condiment giant decided to give “America’s Favorite Ketchup” a Technicolor makeover. What resulted was one of the oddest food fads in recent memory.
Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the H. J. Heinz company has been manufacturing its famed tomato ketchup since 1876 and currently sells over 650 million bottles
of the stuff every year. However, at the turn of the millennium, the corporation decided to experiment with their popular formula in a way few could’ve expected.
A new product—dubbed “Heinz EZ Squirt”—came bottled with a specialized “kid-friendly” nozzle. Yet it wasn’t the packaging that caught the media’s attention. It was the coloring. Spinach-colored “Blastin’ Green” ketchup was one of the varieties offered in the EZ Squirt line and became an instant hit, especially with kids.
“We’re on track to ship in the first 90 days what we thought we would sell in the first year,” said global ketchup managing director Casey Kelley prior to the novelty condiment’s highly-anticipated launch. “This thing has taken on a momentum of its own, striking a chord with kids and people in general.” Heinz was quick to capitalize on its early success by releasing additional colors such as orange, purple, teal, blue and pink.
Ultimately, a staggering 25 million units were sold.
So why can’t you still buy these today? Regrettably, EZ ketchup sales began to dwindle after their initial boom and the line was discontinued in 2006. According to marketing expert Calvin L. Hodock,
“Kids tired of it, being the fickle little devils that they are. And moms got tired of seeing two or three half-finished ketchup bottles lying around in the fridge.”
In 2012, Burger King teamed up with Heinz to resurrect the “green ketchup” concept, this time as part of a St. Patrick’s Day promotion in which free fries were given away with packets of the emerald sauce. As of this writing, neither company has announced plans to revive the gimmick in the foreseeable future.
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