There’s a raised number 57 on the neck of a glass Heinz ketchup bottle. Not on the label — molded into the glass itself, up near the shoulder.
I’d seen it a thousand times and filed it as branding. It is branding. It’s also the single most useful thing on the bottle.
Tap the 57
When the ketchup won’t come out, you’re supposed to tap firmly on that raised 57 at about a 45 degree angle.
Not the base. Not the bottom of the upturned bottle, which is what most of us do and which does almost nothing.
The 57 sits right at the narrowest point of the neck — the exact spot where the ketchup is jammed. A few firm taps there break the blockage and it pours.
Heinz has confirmed this more than once. They reckon only a small fraction of people know it.
Why Hitting the Bottom Doesn’t Work
This is the interesting part, and it’s genuine physics.
Ketchup is what’s called a shear-thinning fluid. At rest it behaves almost like a solid — it holds its shape and refuses to move. Apply the right kind of force and it suddenly behaves like a liquid.
Whacking the base of the bottle sends the force through the whole mass, which mostly just packs it tighter against the neck. Tapping at the neck applies shear exactly where the jam is, and that’s what makes it flow.
It’s the same property that makes ketchup come out in nothing, nothing, nothing, then far too much.
What the 57 Actually Means
Nothing, honestly — and that’s the best part of the story.
Henry Heinz came up with “57 Varieties” in the 1890s. The company already sold more than 60 products at the time. He simply liked the look of the number 5 and his wife liked 7, so he put them together and printed it on everything.
A made-up number from the 1890s is now the most practical feature on the bottle.
The Other Way, If Tapping Fails
Put a clean knife straight down into the neck, right to the bottom of the jam, and pull it out.
That breaks the plug and lets air down into the bottle, which is usually the real problem — nothing can come out because nothing can get in.
And store the bottle upside down if you have somewhere to stand it. Gravity does the work overnight.
While We’re On Sticky Bottles
Honey that’s gone solid. Not spoiled. Crystallised. Stand the jar in warm — not boiling — water for ten minutes and it goes clear again.
Squeeze bottles that spit. Store them cap down so the contents sit against the nozzle and there’s no air pocket to blow out first.
A jar lid that won’t turn. Run hot water over the lid alone for thirty seconds. Metal expands faster than glass and the seal lets go.
Next Time
Don’t hit the bottom. Find the 57, tap it firmly at an angle, and watch something that has annoyed you your whole life turn out to have had a solution molded into it all along.
