What Was Heinz's 'Holy Grail' Sauce Made Of?

Heinz has been pushing boundaries and winning fans through creative advertising campaigns ever since founder Henry J. Heinz started packaging his horseradish in clear bottles rather than brown ones. At the time — 1869 to be precise — brown bottles were more in vogue, not because they were superior, but because they somewhat hid inferior products from the consumer. By using the clear bottles, Heinz was boldly proclaiming that his product had nothing to hide. The brand has never shied away from publicity, even collaborating with Ed Sheeran, resulting in the most expensive ketchup bottle ever. Heinz also created a custom ketchup packet jacket for a Heinz-obsessed groom, and even capitalized on Barbie's 65th birthday by offering a perfectly pink "Barbie-cue" sauce.

But despite all that creativity, many people think of just the basics when it comes to Heinz products, like ketchup and mustard. (It is the best ketchup brand, after all.) And while these are certainly staples, Heinz actually has some pretty creative sauces, too, that extend well beyond the lineup of weird ketchup flavors. To bring attention to the company's wide range of sauces, Heinz's marketing team came up with the "Holy Grail" of sauces, the Every Sauce.

The plan was to launch a viral campaign that emphasized just how many sauce offerings Heinz has. Made up of 14 Heinz sauces — Burger Sauce, Garlic Sauce, Aioli Sauce, Smokey Baconnaise, Sweet Chili, Chip Sauce, Saucy Sauce, Mayoracha, Mayomust, Truffle Mayo, Garlic & Caramelized Onion Mayo, Curry Ketchup, Pickle Ketchup, and Smokey Bacon Ketchup — the full list was revealed via a one-of-a-kind scratch-off label on the Every Sauce bottle.

It's fitting to compare the Every Sauce to the Holy Grail because, like the famous grail, it was nearly impossible to get your hands on a bottle. Rather than releasing the Every Sauce as a retail product, the company only packaged 100 bottles, which were available to the public via a lottery — the U.K. public, that is. (This is why, if you're in the U.S., many of those sauces may have been unfamiliar.) Heinz even created a special website just for the entry form. To really drive the "we have so many sauces" message home, people entering the lottery had to fill out a questionnaire, giving details about their sauce-consumption habits and desires.

Was all this fuss successful? In a word, yes. According to a professional case study, the campaign generated more than 3.5 million impressions on social media (through just 16 posts), and about 62,000 people filled out the contest entry form. Although you had to be in the United Kingdom to enter, the campaign achieved viral status around the globe.

While it's unlikely you'll be able to taste the original Every Sauce, you could always try recreating your own at home — assuming you want to purchase 14 separate sauces in order to satisfy curiosity. But you might be better off just following Heinz on social media so you don't miss out on the next viral campaign.