The Discontinued Purple Heinz Ketchup We Can't Believe Was Real

The early 2000s wasn't just iconic because it introduced us to Britney Spears, MySpace, and Rory and Lorelai Gilmore's eccentric mother-daughter dynamic. The zany, brainy miscellany of hilariously experimental food products also helped define those early days of the 21st century. From pizza chips to McDonald's snack wraps and M&M Kudos bars, there are dozens of discontinued snack foods we wish the market would bring back. None, however, are quite as hilarious and bizarre as Heinz's E-Zee Squirt purple ketchup.

The violet condiment was introduced to nationwide shelves in 2001 as a fresh new installment of the Heinz company's colorful ketchup line. The purple variety arrived on the heels of the green E-Zee Squirt bottle, which sold over 10 million bottles in just seven months. Featuring a narrow spout designed for artistic precision, the bottle allowed children to transform their favorite ketchup-ready meals into a canvas for painting masterpieces and spontaneous scribble scrabble. Aside from a generous swirl of Blue Number 1 and Red Number 3, the purple E-Zee Squirt condiment recipe was no different from the original Heinz ketchup formula.

Despite its initial popularity, the purple ketchup was discontinued in 2006. Whether it was due to rising health concerns over food dyes or a shift in consumer behavior, after nearly two decades since its inception, it doesn't look like this colorful ketchup is coming back anytime soon.

Despite its unlikely return, it's possible to create your own easy squirt purple ketchup at home. Whether it's a treat for your little ones or some much-needed grown-up nostalgia, colorful food is always a good time, and it doesn't just have to come in the form of green eggs and ham.

To start, you'll need a bottle of classic Heinz ketchup. Take some blue food coloring, which is affordable and available at most supermarkets, and mix it with the ketchup until it's the perfect shade of purple. Food dye doesn't have a taste, so it won't affect the flavor of your ketchup or any of your favorite dunkable, dippable recipes.

For a natural alternative, look to blue produce! Spirulina powder or ground butterfly pea flowers can be blended into the ketchup to give it that iconic purple flair. For a liquid option and easier integration, conduct a family-friendly chemistry project by boiling purple cabbage in water, straining and collecting the liquid, and introducing baking soda until it turns blue. Introduce the final product to your ketchup and watch the magic happen. Be careful, though — these options can change the flavor of your DIY E-Zee Squirt purple ketchup.

To get that artful easy squirt design, transfer the purple ketchup into a squeezable condiment bottle — a common restaurant utensil widely available online. Voilà: You have your own homemade nostalgia in a bottle.