The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Heinz’s new ‘Mayochup’ sparks an international controversy
U.S. debut draws many fans; Latinos unimpressed.
It all started with a tweet about a condiment.
Heinz, the popular ketchup brand, took to Twitter on Thursday with a poll about a potential product launch, a concept they billed as novel to American consumers: a premade combination of mayonnaise and ketchup.
They called it “mayochup.”
“Want #mayochup in stores? 500,000 votes for ‘yes’ and we’ll release it to you saucy Americans,” Heinz tweeted. While the product is already available in some countries in the Middle East, Heinz wanted to know if Americans would be receptive to a “U.S. debut,” the company said in a news release.
The votes poured forth, totaling more than 680,000 by Friday morning. And so did the headlines: “‘Mayochup’ is the hybrid condiment you never knew you wanted,” Insider wrote, adding “this beige-colored condiment isn’t a prank.”
NBC’s Today wrote that the new sauce was the solution to “the dual-delight dilemma” of choosing between mayonnaise and ketchup when making a sandwich: “That’s right, mayonnaise plus ketchup in one beautiful squeeze bottle.”
But in other corners of Twitter, the poll elicited a less jovial response.
“Mayochup?” A U.S. “debut?” For many Americans,
particularly those in the Latino community, the concept of combining mayonnaise and ketchup is nothing new.
In fact, the combination is as just about as ingrained in Caribbean cuisine as plantains and rice. One food blog called it “more boricua (Puerto Rican) than the coquí,” the island’s native species of small tree frog. “Puerto Ricans bathe in” it, as one Twitter user put it. Sometimes adding a touch of garlic or adobo seasoning, Puerto Ricans smother it on just about anything fried: mofongo and tostones — both made with fried plantains — yuca, french fries, and more.
But ask any Puerto Rican and there’s an important difference: It’s called “mayoketchup,” pronounced “my-oh-ketchup.”
“And we invented it ages ago,” one Puerto Rican user tweeted. “Too late Heinz.”
Some on Twitter even accused Heinz of “appropriating,” “gentrifying” or even “colonizing” the beloved mayo-ketchup combination.
What started with a Twitter poll about a condiment
soon became an international dispute. Who really invented the mayo-ketchup sauce, and what do you even call it?
The Puerto Rican community is far from the only group claiming ownership of the mayo-ketchup concoction. The condiment is popular across Latin America, with different names and variations based on the country. In Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela and other places, it’s referred to as “salsa rosada,” or “pink sauce.” In Colombia and Venezuela, one might spoon a dollop of the condiment on an arepa, and in Costa Rica, one might eat it with a pejibaye, a peach-palm fruit.
But whatever it’s called, wherever it’s consumed, many lifelong lovers of the sauce agree on one thing: It’s disgraceful to squeeze the stuff out of a bottle.
“Yeah, you have to custom mix it. Gotta have the right mayo to ketchup ratio. I don’t trust this at all.,” tweeted Nadege C. Green, a reporter for South Florida NPR station WLRN, in response to Heinz’s product.