Mayonnaise Defeats Ketchup For The Title Of Condiment King In America
You squirt it on burgers, dip your fries in it and maybe you even use it as a substitute for tomato sauce (nod judgments). But alas, ketchup is not king of condiments in these United States. No, it would appear that the tile of Most Popular goes to that polarizing condiment, mayonnaise.
While it seems that people either love mayo and couldn’t handle a sandwich without it, others basically shrivel up inside their own bodies in horror and disgust if you simply mention the stuff.
Despite that, we’re eating about $2 billion worth of mayonnaise every year, reports Quartz, compared to the spare $800 million we’re downing in ketchup. So maybe it’s Prince Ketchup to you.
In third place, perhaps at the Duke level, is soy sauce, which rang in at about $725 million last year. Barbecue sauce is deserving of an earldom at $660 million and now I’m imagining a condiment kingdom beyond my wildest dreams, though the titles would likely need to be properly sorted out.
Mayo owes its newfound popularity to its general ubiquity in sandwiches, deli salads or even in a sushi roll. Then there’s the whole low-fat mayo option, which has seen its market double since 2005. And also people like my former roommate who would just spread it on toast if there was no butter available, which again, no judgment. Just kidding, I totally judged her.
Quartz has a neat graphic showing the various condiment levels, color-coded by the hue of each condiment. Check it out in the source below but make sure you’ve already had lunch or you’ll start dreaming of the tuna melt to end all tuna melts.
Ketchup isn’t the king of American condiments. Mayonnaise is [Quartz]
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