13th September 2011

HP Sauce Taste Test

With the shocking news yesterday that Heinz had secretly changed the HP recipe after 116 years so the salt content was reduced from 2.1g to 1.3g per 100g, I thought it only fair that I get some of this 'new' sauce and do a bit of a taste test.

So here are the two sauces side by side with the new one to the left and the old one to the right:

Appearance: I couldn't tell any real difference so the sauces are equal at this stage.

Smell: This was the first thing to hint at a difference with the new sauce having a less pronounced and zingier smell.

Taste: As I feared, the taste of the new sauce was slightly sweeter and less zingy on the palette - definitely blander.

Of course, no brown sauce taste test would be complete without some bacon and eggs so this morning I cooked up a mini-English - this was for purely experimental reasons you understand;)

The blander, slightly sweeter taste of the new sauce didn't stand up to the other foods on the plate as well in opinion. The added zinginess of the old sauce cut through the other flavours much better.

Overall, I think the word 'disgusting' mentioned in some reports yesterday was a bit over the top but the new sauce does have less about it and I for one am not impressed in the slightest by this move from Heinz - here's hoping it was one giant marketing stunt to get people talking about the brand.