New ways to buy familiar condiments

by Marisa McClellan, Posted Jul 14th 2008 @ 12:05PM

Wandering the aisles of my local Acme (part of the Albertsons chain for you west coast dwellers), I stumbled across a clever packing idea. The folks at Heinz have bundled three bottles of condiments into a single unit*, making it easy to grab everything you need for a picnic or cookout. I used to organize monthly potlucks for a large collection of friends, and during the summers we'd make a point of meeting at a local park for frisbee and grilling. I would have happily grabbed one of these packs in those days, as some how we always found ourselves with relish, but no ketchup. So if you've got a big food event coming up and have been charged with bringing the condiments, keep your eyes peeled for one of these packs.

*Yes, I realize that there are four bottles in the picture above. I couldn't find an image of the exact unit I saw at Acme and but was able to find this one over at the Sam's Club website. I guess wholesale food clubs get an extra bottle of ketchup.

Filed Under: Ingredients
Tags: condiments, heinz ketchup, HeinzKetchup, pickle relish, PickleRelish, summer, yellow mustard, YellowMustard

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

7-14-2008 @12:23PM doodoolemonque said... Isn't it possible to just buy the condiments you need and not have to pay for, or encourage the production of extra packaging? This item would seem to me to be a perfect example of the way in which we, as consumers, can avoid promoting the desecration of our natural resources. Avoiding such packaging might aid in rehabilitating our world wide reputation as being wholly unconcerned about our impact on the rest of the world. Frankly, I'm disgusted that anyone would post this with such slack jawed enthusiasm. "Easy to grab" my ass. Grow up. Get a brain.
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7-15-2008 @11:02AM luctifo said... The "picnic pack" has been on the market for more than 6 years!!! Even before the new bottle design...

http://heinzitup.com/images/products/27.jpg

This must be a troll post to generate comments...

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7-14-2008 @1:00PM Marisa McClellan said... Hey folks, I'm sorry that this is such a hated post. I spotted that pack for the first time ever at my local grocery store this weekend and thought it was interesting and useful. Maybe it only recently got to the Philadelphia market, I don't really know. It's not a troll post and I honestly saw the utility in the pack for certain events.
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7-14-2008 @1:43PM LM said... I have taken these bottles to four picnics so far this year and I will use the contents up on the next. Then I will wash them out and refill them again before the summer is over. They have become part of my permanent picnic supplies. I didn't need to go to some expensive kitchen supply store and they came filled with condiments.
And we might move this planet forward if we don't make personal attacks when we simply disagree with what someone said.
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7-14-2008 @1:43PM Melissa A. said... Couldn't you just grab the ketchup, relish, and mustard all at once since they are in the same aisle anyway? It's probably cheaper and involves less waste.
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7-14-2008 @1:56PM Justin Shoffstall said... I am _not_ a fan of these packs. Got one a few weeks ago, and they did not dispense the condiments in a happy way, lots of squirt-SPLAT-squirt. In the case of the Relish, it was more like, drip-drip-leak-EXPLODE-leak. Yes, I packed the condiment by tapping the bottle on the counter. It's the design on the opening and cap that's the issue.
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7-14-2008 @2:27PM doodoolemonque said... LM is to be congratulated on her virtuous use of recycled plastics. Certainly, that is a start, and we all start someplace. All of our computers contain plastics and mined minerals that, had we all felt the need to connect with the greater community around us, would otherwise have gone unmolded and unmined. Thus none of us are untainted. It is critical, however that we be smart and eschew the tendency of consumer product companies to over package escalate the wastefulness. I apologize if I was harsh, but its bad enough for companies to live up to our worst expectations, but quite another for consumers to applaud them for it. For what its worth, I did soften my opprobrium and self-edit,writing "get a brain" instead of "get a heart." Souls are what we are born with and a spare one with built in caring is too hard to come by. Education is free for the taking. And it can be found with no packaging, at all. A win/win for everyone.
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7-14-2008 @5:13PM Blair said... Frankly, I think the packaging could benefit from more plastic,making the carrier re-usable, and easy to store in the fridge when inactive. With the bottles all the same shape, it would be easier to implement than merely picking different brands, and therefore,different sized bottles from the shelves as you go along.

As to the vitriolic invective directed at Marisa, and the subsequent rambling diatribe that followed, let's try to use our educations to discern that this is a food column.
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7-14-2008 @7:21PM doodoolemonque said... ...and apparently one built for Barbies.
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7-14-2008 @10:32PM crm said... Call me old fashioned (and excuse me for ignoring Mr DooDoo's conversation) but how can it be a picnic pack without mayo? Especially when someone shows up with dry potato salad, or poorly prepared deviled eggs...
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