Leamington, Ont., palates put to blind ketchup taste test

French's may have stolen the hearts of its Leamington, Ont., ketchup consumers, but the condiment company has work to do when it comes to people's palates.

An informal, and far-from-scientific,blind taste test heldin the heart of Canada's tomato capital on Thursday showed a random sampling of residents are divided when it comes to their preferred ketchup.

• Loblaws drops French's ketchup from its shelves
• Loblaws reverses decision, will continue to sell French's ketchup

Though most of the twodozen participantssaid they now stock their fridges with bottles of French's made with homegrown Leamington tomatoes many selected ketchup from President's Choice and Heinz as their favouriteflavour.

Final results of the CBC News taste challenge, heldat the Leamington Kinsmen Recreation Complex, showedabout 40 per cent of participants opted for Heinz, while the rest were divided between French's and PC products.

Mayor John Paterson, who admittedlyhas a stockpile of Heinz ketchup at home, dropped by to take the challenge.He and his wife boughtsix large Heinz bottleswhen the company shuttered its factory in 2014, putting more than 700 employees out of work.

"I grew up beside the plant, so that's all we've had is Heinz ketchup all our lives," Paterson said.

New loyalties

But the mayor's allegiance may be shifting. Forced to choose which condiment he liked better out of the three options, Patersonchose French's.

"Sorry, Heinz," he said with a robust laugh.

Many residents have switched allegiances from Heinz, particularlyafter the latest ketchup battle that saw grocery giant Loblaws drop French's ketchup from its stores. Loblaws owns 2,000 stores in Canada.

But public outcry and sweeping Canadian patriotism among ketchup consumersquicklyforced the grocery giant to reverse its decision.

Aiming to give a highly objective assessment of the three ketchups, professional wine judge Gary Koestler put his skillful palate to the test.

He described French's as being a "little sweet" with a "nice tomato flavour," but in the end, he preferred President's Choice, calling it "more complex" than the other two options.