Is it possible for a hot sauce to be cool and mainstream at the same time?
Take the case of Sriracha, the Vietnamese chili sauce made by California-based Huy Fong Foods that comes in a clear bottle illustrated with a rooster and carries a green cap. The company has never spent a penny on advertising, but the hot sauce has quickly become ubiquitous on the strength of insider cred and word of mouth.
There have been cookbooks dedicated to the condiment, iPhone covers inspired by it, and T-shirts for those looking to flaunt their love. A full-length documentary has been made about Sriracha; Trader Joe’s makes its own version; and Taco Bell serves an entire menu of Mexican-ish dishes dotted with a Sriracha cream sauce.
With all that exposure, Sriracha is teetering on the precipice of being too popular to be cool.
And now comes Heinz Ketchup. The condiment king is confident enough in the hot sauce’s popularity to have a go at incorporating it into its brand. The company added Sriracha Ketchup to its lineup of condiments. The tomato-based sauce comes infused with “spicy chili peppers and a hint of garlic,” according to Heinz’s website.
Several media outlets, including Vox, have cited Heinz’s new offering as evidence of the beginning of the end of Sriracha. Vox’s headline is fairly straightforward in that regard: “Sriracha ketchup is a clear sign that we’ve hit peak sriracha.” The thinking is that if Sriracha is a fad, that fad could run its course much in the same way that, say, cupcakes seem to be.
But that line of thinking seems a bit off — or least a little imprecise. If anything, Heinz’s Sriracha doesn’t mean we have reached peak Sriracha; it means we have reached peak Sriracha coolness, which is different.
Huy Fong Foods, after all, would be a lot bigger if it could manage to harvest enough chilies to meet demand, which has far outpaced supply ever since the company started making the chili sauce in the 1970s. The reason the company doesn’t advertise is that advertising would only widen that gap further, explained David Tran, Huy Fong’s owner and founder, said in 2013. Huy Fong has boosted production since then, but it could still be selling a ton more. The ceiling for Sriracha sales, in other words, is much higher than many people might think.
Heinz’s Sriracha ketchup will only push that ceiling higher.
