Brits up in arms after change to HP sauce

[neilmpenny]

This issue has a lot of reach. In the Australian NAVY there were only ever two sauces available for meals. Tomato sauce (ketchup) and RN'ers. We called HP sauce RN'ers because it is the sauce used by the Royal Navy.

I love RN'ers. If you Americans can find it in the supermarkets, buy it and use it on sausages at the bbq etc. Btw, Marco Pierre White is being a bit of a drama queen.


BRITS were up in arms today after the recipe for their beloved and iconic HP sauce was secretly changed by American food giant Heinz - with the blame placed on the UK government.


The British brown sauce, now produced by Heinz, had its salt level reduced from 2.1g per 100g to 1.3g per 100g in line with a UK government health initiative.

Despite what might appear to be a minor change, connoisseurs including chef Marco Pierre White - who has three Michelin stars - have vented their anger over the new sauce.

White, who trained the likes of Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal, told the (London) Daily Telegraph he had sent back a meal of sausages and mash at posh London pub The Hansom Crab - owned by broadcaster Piers Morgan - thinking the sausages were off.

"At first, I thought it was the sausages, but it wasn't. It was the HP, which tasted disgusting. It was definitely dodgy. I had no idea they had changed the recipe," he said.

"I was brought up on HP Sauce in Yorkshire. My old man used to say ketchup was for Southerners and HP was for Northerners. My father would turn in his grave if he discovered they changed the recipe."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1226134969463

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[jeca]

We always had it growing up, because my dad would bring back severals bottles when he went fishing in Canada. I can get it now in the British section of the grocery store. I love it.

[SomeChick]

This issue has a lot of reach. In the Australian NAVY there were only ever two sauces available for meals. Tomato sauce (ketchup) and RN'ers. We called HP sauce RN'ers because it is the sauce used by the Royal Navy.

I love RN'ers. If you Americans can find it in the supermarkets, buy it and use it on sausages at the bbq etc. Btw, Marco Pierre White is being a bit of a drama queen.

I believe we can find it in supermarkets, under the name A1 Steak Sauce.

See, I thought the ingredients sounded familiar. And after looking it up on Wikipedia to see just what was in it, there it was down at the bottom. The HP Sauce page also links back to the A1 page, lol.

I love learning new things AND saving money. Thanks Neil!

[TheMysterian]

I never tried it under the "HP" name, but as A1 had it many times! it's ok,not top of the line. If you want a real treat,try "Peter Luger's" stake sauce if you can find it!

[Karma]

We always keep A1 in our kitchen and I am wondering if they have changed the american version as well. I guess we'll find out when we buy the next bottle.

[SomeChick]

We always keep A1 in our kitchen and I am wondering if they have changed the american version as well. I guess we'll find out when we buy the next bottle.

I haven't bought it in awhile but do have it on the occasional steak.

And yeah, do let us know, if you would. Or maybe there'll be a big uproar here too and we'll find out soon either way.

[jeca]

How did I not know it was just A1? Has it always been that way? My dad bought the fruity sauce all the time. What's the Heinz version of that?

Ok, now I'm confused. A1 is a Kraft product, not Heinz. I've been looking online, because I was shocked to read they were the same, and everything I find says they're not. I guess the bigger question is, why am I that concerned?

[Miho]

I believe Kraft owns Heinz.

[Aries65]

My sister brought me back a couple of bottles of HP when she went to England over the summer. It's pretty tasty on eggs too!

[cindyt]

I love A1 on meat. When I eat just the ground beef patties instead of the bun and such the A1 makes for a tastier meal. I also add a bottle of it to my roasting meat.

[Jacksmum]

I believe we can find it in supermarkets, under the name A1 Steak Sauce.

See, I thought the ingredients sounded familiar. And after looking it up on Wikipedia to see just what was in it, there it was down at the bottom. The HP Sauce page also links back to the A1 page, lol.

I love learning new things AND saving money. Thanks Neil!

A1 tastes nothing like HP, IMO. My husband & I eat it all the time.

[jeca]

Heinz and Kraft are two separate companies.

[FannyB1923]

Britons, you are under attack. First the Twining's Earl Grey is reformulated, and now the time-tested Sauce!

Don't you hate it when the marketers try to tell you it's a "brighter taste" or healthier selection? Phoo- some bean counter figured out they'd make more money by cutting the cost of production!

[philbert_wormly]

Marco Pierre White is just so very masculine that they way he took the news of HP sauce changing their salt content is odd.

"I was brought up on HP Sauce in Yorkshire. My old man used to say ketchup was for Southerners and HP was for Northerners. My father would turn in his grave if he discovered they changed the recipe."

No clue he was that much of a drama queen at all! All this time, I hadn't a clue. Somebody buy the boy a crown and sash already.

One difference between HP sauce and A1 sauce might lie in the fact that one has tamarind and one doesn't. That is really all I got on that.

[missbazilb]

We had it at home. My dad always called it "horsepower sauce"

My english friends would call it the mother brown.

[Aries65]

[QUOTE=missbazilb;

My english friends would call it the mother brown.[/QUOTE]

Or "brown sauce"

[Rosebud666]

Next we're going to remove the fish eggs from your Guinness. Heh heh .... heh heh heh

[Oogie Boogie]

Now I want to grab some HP next time I'm by the British foods section of my grocery store. That and the salad cream. I'm really curious about salad cream.

[RobinTMP]

Britons, you are under attack. First the Twining's Earl Grey is reformulated, and now the time-tested Sauce!

Don't you hate it when the marketers try to tell you it's a "brighter taste" or healthier selection? Phoo- some bean counter figured out they'd make more money by cutting the cost of production!

waitwaitwaitWHAT?!? They reformulated Earl Gray?!? Is NOTHING sacred???

...OK, that's a bit of an extreme reaction, but still, why would they go on and mess with a perfectly good thing?

[Cynful]

waitwaitwaitWHAT?!? They reformulated Earl Gray?!? Is NOTHING sacred???

...OK, that's a bit of an extreme reaction, but still, why would they go on and mess with a perfectly good thing?

Just like the STUPID, "New Coke"...we all saw what a world wide FLOP that was. Why fix it if it ain't broke???

[radiojane]

We have HP sauce here in Canada. Hope the man doesn't notice the difference. He eats it on everything and he will whine.

[KiwiDeathy]

omg really? next they will be messing with the most sacred of sacreds the famous lea and perrins worcestershire sauce lol god forbid, first, earl grey, then HP, thank the lord my gran is passed on so she wont have to see the shame lol

[Cynful]

omg really? next they will be messing with the most sacred of sacreds the famous lea and perrins worcestershire sauce lol god forbid, first, earl grey, then HP, thank the lord my gran is passed on so she wont have to see the shame lol

They had best NOT!!!

[FannyB1923]

For years, if a friend made a trip out West, my one request was to bring me a can of original Denison's chili. It was the best. Now it has soy stuff in it. Just doesn't taste as good.


YAY the original Twining's Earl Grey is back. By popular demand!
They're selling it as "Classic", just like Classic Coke!
Their new formula had more bergamot and lemon essence. Some people thought it tasted like cleaning solution.

[Rosebud666]

This may be a national security issue. The men of the British Expeditionary Force could never have slogged their way through WWI without HP Sauce to make those rations go down and stay down.

They are still finding HP bottles in Flander's fields.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/3405...ern-Front.html

[neilmpenny]

Britons, you are under attack. First the Twining's Earl Grey is reformulated, and now the time-tested Sauce!

Don't you hate it when the marketers try to tell you it's a "brighter taste" or healthier selection? Phoo- some bean counter figured out they'd make more money by cutting the cost of production!

Gadzooks! I love Earl Grey.

This may be a national security issue. The men of the British Expeditionary Force could never have slogged their way through WWI without HP Sauce to make those rations go down and stay down.

They are still finding HP bottles in Flander's fields.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/3405...ern-Front.html

Excellent link mate.

My first dentist in Australia was a Lancaster pilot in the second war. He said the only thing they looked forward to after a raid over Germany was a hot cup of strong sweet milk tea when they landed.

[SomeChick]

Just like the STUPID, "New Coke"...we all saw what a world wide FLOP that was. Why fix it if it ain't broke???

Yeah, that was pure crap!

[neilmpenny]

Just like the STUPID, "New Coke"...we all saw what a world wide FLOP that was. Why fix it if it ain't broke???

Yeah, that was pure crap!

One of my marketing books has the sad, sorry, well detailed story of that fiasco. I will dig it up and pull out the relevant points.

[Cynful]

One of my marketing books has the sad, sorry, well detailed story of that fiasco. I will dig it up and pull out the relevant points.

Thanks Neil. I recently read the whole story again, however I don't remember my source. The info from your book would be most helpful.

[SomeChick]

One of my marketing books has the sad, sorry, well detailed story of that fiasco. I will dig it up and pull out the relevant points.

Cool! Thanks Neil

[neilmpenny]

Some of this contains background about the cola wars, not just new coke. It may help to explain why coke stuffed around with its brand and product.

1st Book, Marketing Warfare, Al Ries & Jack Trout.

*Coke started the 50's 5 to 1 ahead of Pepsi.
*1954 was the moment of truth, Cokes sales dropped 3%, Pepsi's rose 12%
*By 1960, Pepsi had halved Coke's lead, 2.5 to 1
*By 1985, Coke outsold Pepsi 1.15 to 1. Almost equal!

Other factors:

*Royal Crown Cola's (RCC) heyday was in the 30's when it outsold Pepsi.
*By 1969 Pepsi outsold RCC 4 to 1.
*By 2000, Pepsi outsold RCC 10 to 1

Obviously RCC was not a factor.

*In 1982, Coke introduced Diet Coke.
*First product to be given the Coke name since the original in 1886.
*Biggest initial success of any soda ever introduced into the market.
*In 1982, TAB had 4.3% of the soft drink market.
*As Diet Coke went up, TAB headed south, falling to 1.8% of the market.
*In 1982, when Diet Coke was introduced, Coca-Cola had a market share of 23.9%
*By 1984, Coca-Cola's market share fell to 21.7%
*The gains of Diet Coke in the marketplace came at the expense of TAB and Coca-Cola. Diet Coke was cannibalizing Coca-Cola.

New Coca-Cola, here we go.

*In the mid 70's, the Pepsi Challenge was introduced. Blind tasters preferred Pepsi over Coke 3 to 2.
*Pepsi is approx 9% sweeter than Coca Cola.
*In 1985, Coca Cola replaced old Coke with New Coke. They changed their formula to match the sweetness of Pepsi.
*The real thing was not now the real thing. It had undermined it's own position [In the consumers mind].
*Coke struggled as to whether they should even announce they had changed the formula. Companies do it all the time, replacing sucrose with corn syrup for instance.
*In less than three months, Coke threw in tho towel and re-introduced 'the real thing' in the form of New Coke.
*Perception is everything. Blind sampling proved that tasters preferred New Coke over the old formulation. However, how can anything taste better than the real thing? The battle takes place in the mind, there are no facts in the human mind, only perceptions. Whenever you go against your own perceptions in the consumers mind, you are bound to lose.

From the book, Classic Failures in Product Marketing, Donald Hendon.

*By 1984, Pepsi was out selling Coke in Supermarkets in the US, but only trailed nationally by 5% of market share.
*Bob Woodruff (Cokes conservative CEO) died, the new top management, mostly foreign, wanted to regain momentum lost to Pepsi.
*The new management ignored their ad agencie's (McCann-Erickson) advice to introduce a Pepsi clone as a flanker brand, giving them two Coke brands in the marketplace.
*The managers decided to have only one, dropping old Coke and replacing it with New Coke.
*During the 100 years, as noted above, Coke had often changed their "7X" formula. However, this time they told the public.
*In late April 1985, the company stated there was only to be New Coke, old Coke was gone.
*By the end of May........ one month, Coke was getting an average of 8000 negative phone calls per day.
*In June, Coke decided to bring back old Coke as well as keeping New Coke. The very next day they got 18,000 friendly phone calls.
*They had made three mistakes:
1. They never asked their focus group "What would you think if New Coke were to replace old Coke?" They never realized the passionate attachment Americans have to old Coke.
2. The ignored General George Patton's advice, "The way to win a war is not to die for your country, but to make the other poor bastard die for his country." In other words, the battle should be for the profits of your competitors product, not your own. Pepsi could sit back and watch the battle because it wasn't even involved in it.
3. The new managers of Coke let their emotions rule by throwing out the advice of McCann-Erickson's advice to have two Cokes. They thought that having two brands, they would cannibalize each other, with Pepsi emerging as No 1. They ended up with two Coke brands anyway, plus a third and fourth, Diet Coke and Cherry Coke.
*Who won? Pepsi did outsell Coke in supermarkets in 1985 and 1986. However, Coke won the 1987 skirmish as Classic (old) Coke outsold all competition.

[SomeChick]

Great info, thanks Neil. (I'm guessing the 1882 and 1886 are probably just mistyped 1982 and 1986.)

The whole thing actually sounds like it worked by getting more people talking about the product in general again. Reminds me of the old 'saw a lady in half then watch me put her back together' magic trick, actually.

[neilmpenny]

Great info, thanks Neil. (I'm guessing the 1882 and 1886 are probably just mistyped 1982 and 1986.)

The whole thing actually sounds like it worked by getting more people talking about the product in general again. Reminds me of the old 'saw a lady in half then watch me put her back together' magic trick, actually.

1982 was a typo. For 1886, are you refering to the first name change since to company began in 1886? Thanks for highlighting, I have fixed the 1982 one.

As for 'Saw a lady in half then watch me put her back together', that would be a hell of a financial hit to gain market share if it were true. I am going with management incompetence.

[Barbossa]

Looks like HP is getting out of the sauce business as well as the PC business.

[Cynful]

Looks like HP is getting out of the sauce business as well as the PC business.

Maybe they can spice up their leftover computers with HP sauce...do they have a pre-loaded software program for how and where to put it?

[DrDeath]

Britons, you are under attack. First the Twining's Earl Grey is reformulated, and now the time-tested Sauce!

Don't you hate it when the marketers try to tell you it's a "brighter taste" or healthier selection? Phoo- some bean counter figured out they'd make more money by cutting the cost of production!

I'd best get the harpoon out then. BACK OFF OUR BRANDS! I hate HP sauce but I will defend it to the death. It's ours. I'm sick of people coming over and trying to change our stuff. It ain't broke!

P.s Kraft took over Cadburys and it's gone downhill ever since. Don't even get me STARTED on them!

[Barbossa]

Maybe they can spice up their leftover computers with HP sauce...do they have a pre-loaded software program for how and where to put it?

Hopefully they do. And if the sauce tastes bad I hope it can be thoroughly uninstalled. Of course, if the sauce has a virus in it you could get sick.

[Barbossa]

P.s Kraft took over Cadburys and it's gone downhill ever since. Don't even get me STARTED on them!

I was pretty bummed when I heard of this takeover. Cadbury's stuff rocked, flavor that Kraft would have no idea how to maintain.

[SomeChick]

As for 'Saw a lady in half then watch me put her back together', that would be a hell of a financial hit to gain market share if it were true. I am going with management incompetence.

I'm not, because it created a situation where people were suddenly clamoring for the old product...which is still going strong.

[Miho]

P.s Kraft took over Cadburys and it's gone downhill ever since. Don't even get me STARTED on them!

Thank you! That was the company I was thinking of. Not Kraft.