Heinz EZ Squirt
Ketchup, but Blastin' Green — then Funky Purple, and a rainbow of colors after that. Heinz put the condiment in a skinny-nozzled squeeze bottle so kids could draw with it, and for a few early-2000s years, dinner plates got weird.
Heinz announced EZ Squirt on July 10, 2000, and the bottles hit shelves that fall. The first trick wasn't the flavor — the ketchup tasted the same — but the color: "Blastin' Green." Packaged in a soft squeeze bottle with a narrow nozzle designed for small hands, it invited kids to write their names and draw on their food, and it was an instant sensation.
Heinz kept the novelty rolling. "Funky Purple" was announced on July 31, 2001 and reached stores that September; then in late April 2002 came the "Mystery Color" bottles — Passion Pink, Awesome Orange, or Totally Teal, with no way to tell which until you squeezed — followed later by Stellar Blue.
The fad burned bright and short. As the novelty wore off and parents tired of green and purple plates, sales faded, and Heinz discontinued EZ Squirt in 2006. It endures as a perfectly turn-of-the-millennium artifact — the brief, glorious era when ketchup came in colors it was never meant to be.
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