No ketchup without Kallstadt!
Kallstadt is the origin of famous names. Two well known families have their origin here. Born here were the paternal grandparents of the 45th US president, Donald Trump,. And what would the world be without ketchup? There´d be no tomatoe sauce, if the Father of Henry John Heinz had not emigrated from Kallstadt.
A wonderfully cheerful documentation of the town and its famous "children" was filmed by the Kallstadt director Simone Wendel with her cinema success "Kings of Kallstadt" from 2014.
Henry John Heinz´s ketchup and sauce creations are legendary. Even as a child, he proved to be enormously enterprising. From his home garden in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania, he brought vegetables to nearby Pittsburgh and sold them to grocery shops. At the age of twelve, his empire already consisted of a garden, a horse-drawn wagon and a small horseradish production.
In 1869 he founded "Heinz, Noble & Company". "Heinz Tomato Ketchup", the company's most famous product, was invented in 1876. The secrecy has paid off: according to the company, only eight people worldwide know the exact recipe of the tomato sauce to this day. Today, Heinz is one of the best-selling ketchups in the world.
The well-known advertising slogan "57 Varieties" was first used in 1896. According to legend, Henry John Heinz came up with the idea while on a business trip in New York. A sign on a cobbler's shop advertised "21 Styles of Shoes", showcasing the cobbler's talent. "That," thought Heinz, "is a good idea!". In his mind, he counted through his range of products and came up with over 60. He didn't particularly like the number - instead he printed "57 Varieties" on his ketchup bottles. Five and seven were his lucky numbers. To this day, the number adorns the neck of Heinz ketchup bottles and every other product of the company. So 57 has always been the wrong count for the number of Heinz products.
For some years now, the number 57 has had another meaning: if you press exactly on this spot on the bottle, which is now made of plastic, the ketchup flows out of the bottle much faster. This "secret tip" has also made it into many a quiz show. Perhaps publishing this fact on this page will also help to ensure that there will soon be more than eleven percent of customers who know the magic 57-point.
Heinz was the first food manufacturer to market its products in transparent glass containers so that customers could get an impression of ketchup, horseradish, pickled gherkins and other Heinz products while they were still in the shop.
Heinz, a convinced teetotaler (did he really have Palatinate roots?), wanted to prevent his beloved ketchup from being on the tables of dodgy pubs. He was afraid for the reputation of his brand. That's why he went through the pubs himself in his spare time and bought up all the Heinz bottles he spotted on the tables and pocketed them.
Hygiene was also important to the entrepreneur. To ensure that his female employees always had clean fingers, he gave them a manicure once a week.
In 2015, the H. J. Heinz Company merged with the Kraft Foods Group to form The Kraft Heinz Company.