I Asked 3 Experts To Name the Best Ketchup—They All Said the Same Thing

When I was a senior in college, I went on a first date to a local pub. My companion didn’t even touch his ketchup. The burger? Unadorned. The fries? Not even a single dunk. I found this odd, perhaps even a red flag. What sort of person doesn’t eat ketchup?

As it turns out, my future husband. Ever since that first date, I have tried to convince my condiment-shy husband to give ketchup a go to no avail. When my first two kids were old enough to try ketchup, I was convinced my genes would win out and they would love it. Wrong. Just like their father, the concept of ketchup was truly repulsive. What kind of children was I raising?!

Then I had my girl. My sweet Eloise, who is now 15 months, would eat ketchup with a spoon if I allowed her to. She eagerly dunks her little fries into the ketchup and simply licks it off, using the fries as more of a utensil than something to eat. I love every sweet, sticky, messy moment of it. Finally, a fellow ketchup lover in my house!

While I normally lean into the least processed, all-natural option when feeding my kids, for me, there’s only one ketchup worth eating. I survived the artisanal ketchup movement in the mid-2000s, and that simply wasn’t it. I’m a Heinz girl for life, but I had to know, how do other experts in the food space feel? What truly is the best ketchup?

As it turns out, there’s only one brand of ketchup for them, too!

The Experts I Asked

• Rachel Dolfi: New York-based culinary producer and food editor. She’s also developed some of the tastiest savory recipes I’ve ever had the privilege of cross-testing, so she knows a thing or two about unlocking umami!
• Meghan Splawn: An incredibly talented food writer and recipe developer who’s been creating smart and easy-to-follow recipes for the last 15 years. She’s also a mom of two!
• Diane Morrisey: A mom of six who knows a thing or two about keeping a gaggle of kids well-fed!. She’s also a wildly popular content creator with a loyal following of 1.4 million and counting. She just released her debut cookbook, You Got This. 

The Ketchup Brand Preferred by Experts

Heinz was unanimously the winner, and everyone I spoke to had very strong opinions about this. Turns out, when you’ve been making something for over 150 years, you get pretty good at it!

Dolfi, who grew up in North Carolina but has family roots in Pittsburgh (where Heinz HQ is based), says, “I may be heavily biased, but Heinz is forever the only one for me. The texture is the best (no pulpy ketchup for me!).”

Splawn also has a split household when it comes to ketchup, but that doesn’t stop her from stocking up on Heinz. “​​My youngest (my son) is decidedly NOT a sauce guy! And my oldest (my daughter) leans more into creamy ranch or honey mustard. However, I pretty much always keep Heinz ketchup on hand. Mostly it ends up in other sauces like barbecue or fry sauce, so I like Heinz for being somewhat neutral—not too sweet, not too acidic, good tomato—so that those sauces don't taste like ketchup.”

Morrisey responded to my query in record time, stating, “This is easy! Heinz is classic with just the right amount of tang. It’s the perfect balance of tomatoes, vinegar, sweet, and spice. When the kids were young, I used to try to trick them. If there was another brand on sale, I’d buy it and transfer it into the Heinz bottle. They knew every single time! Now I don’t mess with any other brand.”