Tesco Ketchups Review

 Tesco Ketchups Review

The ketchup connoisseurs

Steak night intro

We are a group of friends which meets once a week to eat a meal with steak. This is our tradition. We live near a Tesco and buy most of our food there. We are students who prioritise cost efficiency: we buy the item which maximises value per dollar spent, i.e., the item with the highest cost/taste ratio.

In brief

We buy Heinz tomato ketchup for our steak nights.

Which ketchup has the best value per pound spent? Heinz tomato ketchup.

Which ketchup would we buy if all ketchup were priced the same? Heinz tomato ketchup.

Which ketchup would we buy if we were on a diet? Heinz tomato ketchup.

Sandro’s verdict

I dunno, I don’t really like ketchup.

The unscientific scientific review:

Food: Ketchup.

We purchased 3 new bottles of tomato ketchup from the local Tesco Superstore in Scotland on 30th November 2023.

Entry 1: Heinz Top Down Squeezy Tomato Ketchup Sauce 910g

Entry 2: Tesco Tomato Ketchup 890g

Entry 3: Stockwell & Co Tomato Ketchup 540g

A not-so-randomised semi-controlled trial

We set up the trial to scientifically determine preferences for different ketchup brands. The trial involved three distinct types of ketchup. During each test, one of us was designated as the taster and stayed in one room. Meanwhile, in another room, we prepared the ketchup samples by placing equal amounts of the three ketchups in separate containers.

To ensure a blind test, we dipped a single fry in one of the ketchup containers chosen randomly and then brought it to the taster. The taster, with their eyes shut, tasted the fry. This process was repeated three more times for each tester, ensuring that each one tried fries with all three ketchups. In total, each tester tasted four fries.

After the tasting, we asked each tester to rank the ketchups from their most to least favourite keeping in mind that two of the fries had the same ketchup. Both testers independently arrived at the same ranking: 1st Heinz, 2nd Tesco store brand, and 3rd Tesco Stockwell, the cheaper store brand.

This trial was essentially a form of a randomised controlled trial but tailored for a taste test. The key elements of our trial were the blind testing to prevent visual bias, the random selection of ketchup for each fry to avoid order effects, and the controlled environment for sample preparation and tasting. The consistency in the rankings provided by both testers offered an intriguing insight, although the small number of participants limited the generalisability of the results. To draw broader conclusions, a larger group of testers and possibly more repetitions would be required.

Flavour profiles

Ethan noticed that the taste of ketchup changes from when you first put it in your mouth to just after you eat it. This detail forms part of what we call the ketchup flavour profile.

Heinz is a line

Heinz starts off vinegary and sweet, and maintains this flavour from when you first put it in your mouth, to when you are eating it, to just after you swallow it.

Tesco ketchup is a sine wave

We say that both Tesco branded ketchups have a flavour characterised by a wave of sweetness and vinegariness. The Tesco store brand ketchup starts off sweet and then ends with a tomatoey tang. It tastes the most tomatoey of all the ketchups.

Fridge performance

The ketchups perform okay in the fridge if in their own bottles. If leftover ketchup is put in the fridge in your own container however its consistency can become strange. Specifically, the Stockwell ketchup becomes a gel-like substance and stratifies so that the ketchup layer at the top, which is in contact with the air, becomes of a dark and strange consistency.

Barrel aged

All ketchups are aged in a semi-elastic and synthetic polymer based barrel. This main ingredient leaves a hint of micro-plastic as an after taste. (joke)

Ketchup review conclusion

Buy Heinz Tomato ketchup if you can afford it because it ranks first consistently in our blind and randomised taste tests. We prefer its flavour profile to the other ketchups and find that they’ve found a good balance of flavours. The cheaper Tesco store brand ketchup is okay and offers a unique flavour profile with a tomatoey tang some might enjoy. The Stockwell ketchup isn’t particularly bad or good, and the price savings over the standard Tesco store brand ketchup aren’t significant enough to justify its purchase.

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