Hey, Barbie! Want some barbecue? As a salute to Barbie’s 65th anniversary, Mattel and Heinz UK announced the kind of unconventional collaboration that just made our heads turn: Heinz Classic Barbiecue Sauce.
As Food & Wine reports, this “special sauce,” which is a mix of vegan mayonnaise and barbecue sauce, is the condiment mashup that none of us knew we needed. And yes, it’s Barbie pink, lest anyone not realize that the sauce you’re dipping your fries into isn’t Barbie-themed.
Heinz UK teased the sauce in an Instagram post in August of last year — alongside a bottle of the only thing that could possibly be paired with it: You guessed it, Tomato Kenchup. In the post, Heinz asked if they should “make this dream team a reality.” Naturally, Instagram users were quick to respond that the pink condiments were, in fact, something they needed in their lives.
“Barbie well and truly won the hearts of Brits all over again last year, and after seeing the reaction this sauce brought to our fans on social media, we knew we had to make it a reality,” Thiago Rapp, director of taste elevation at Heinz, said in a statement announcing the partnership. “We’re always looking for ways to innovate and give our fans what they want, and we’re thrilled to be able to bring this iconic partnership with Mattel to life.”
The sauce straight out of Barbieland gets its signature pink color from the addition of beetroot extract. Heinz suggests using it to “brighten up a burger,” both figuratively and literally, we imagine, as well as drizzling it “over a crisp salad,” which seems like a somewhat unusual choice for a BBQ sauce — but you do you, Barbie!
If you want to try the “smoky sauce of the season” Heinz is selling the first 5,000 bottles on its website right now. The sauce will first be available exclusively in the UK and Spain. However, Heinz says it could potentially expand the offering to other markets in the future, so let them know you want it right here in the good ol’ U.S.A.!
If you miss out on snagging a bottle online and happen to be in the across the pond or in Spain, a limited run of the condiment will be available at Tesco starting April 17th — followed by Ocado and other retailers starting in May for a suggested retail price of £3.39.
No word on when Kenchup will join the party. But it is Barbie’s world, after all. We’re just living in it.
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Photo Credit: Brenda Rocha – Blossom / Shutterstock.com