This Classic Condiment Is Our Least Favorite In Glen Powell's Smash Kitchen Line

Celebrity food brands tend to be a mixed bag. For every rockstar syrup like Dolly Parton's, you can find some truly mediocre celebrity-backed boozes like Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo. Not everyone can be Paul Newman — whose jarred salsa is the best on store shelves — and honestly, that's part of the appeal of trying all these products. It's fun to find out which famous person really cares about the quality of their product, and which ones are banking on having their names and faces on the label to drive sales. So when one of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood today came out with a line of condiments, you can bet Chowhound was excited to try them all.

"Running Man" star Glenn Powell co-founded Smash Kitchen with Sameer Mehta and Sean Kane earlier this year, and we decided to taste-test all eight of their products. The Hot Honey BBQ Sauce was the top gun of our Smash Kitchen condiment rankings, but we were disappointed to find that the Classic Tomato Ketchup came in dead last. It's always a little sad to see one of the more basic parts of a product line end up being the most expendable among them, but like "Spy Kids 3," it was game over for the ketchup the moment we tasted it on our chicken tenders.

Truth be told, there wasn't anything remarkably bad about Smash Kitchen's Classic Tomato Ketchup. We appreciated how much healthier it was than other store-brand ketchups — Smash Kitchen makes its with organic tomatoes and spices, you get all those great natural flavors in every dab. Like a good tomato paste, it had a good mix of savory and tangy flavors.

Our problem with it is exactly what sets it apart: it doesn't taste like the ketchups we grew up with. One of the many things you should know about ketchup is that its versatility as a sauce lies in its balance of sweet, sour, and umami flavors. Many commercial brands achieve that balance by adding corn syrup to the mix, which is noticeably absent in Smash Kitchen's formulation. While that might seem like a plus to many of us, it actually takes away a lot of the nostalgic flavor that made ketchup a mainstay in our fast food nation.

During our taste test, we were looking for sweeter notes to the sauce, but it ended up being a bit of a hidden figure in the overall flavor profile. Without it, Smash Kitchen's ketchup tasted more like a barbecue sauce than anything. And since the brand already had better barbecue sauces in its lineup, there really wasn't anything that merited any of our devotion to the ketchup. It might still be enjoyable for those who prefer more organic-tasting ketchup, but based on our review, the condiment feels like it's for anyone but us.