Tomatoes, Taste, Temptation

Nigel Slater is quoted as saying: “Pamper a Tomato – over water it, over feed it and you will get (and these are Nigel’s words) a Paris Hilton of a tomato.”

Rick (Stokes’ founder, MD and Ketchup aficionado) has quite a thing about the quality of the tomatoes we put in our Award-Winning Tomato Ketchup.

“I liked Ketchup so much that, similar to a smoker (but I’m not) who would not go out with only two cigarettes left, I would panic unless I had at least two bottles of Ketchup in my house.”

It is thanks to Rick’s passion for perfection that we get to enjoy this delightfully thick, intensely tomatoey Tomato Ketchup and its brothers and sisters in Stokes’ amazing Ketchup Range.

Tomatoes originally came from Paraguay, which is where we started our search. In fact, we tried tomatoes from everywhere, all over the world.

Rick and the team discovered that the best tasting tomatoes were the product of a number of different growers in southern Italy. The beautiful plump, sweet fruit ripen below the Mediterranean sunshine until they’re ready to pick.

They were and are a bit more expensive than some other sources but our mantra is always to be “Best in Class” – no compromise.  

With the ‘quality’ box ticked, we decided to up the volume, simmering a massive 200g of those juicy tomatoes, reduced into every 100g of ketchup to make Stokes Tomato Ketchup.

Savour the rich tomato taste then feel the heat of the spices kicking in from our Chilli Ketchup. For smoky background notes and another warming finish, our Chipotle Ketchup uses Chipotle Chillies, which are Jalapenos left to ripen on the plant to a deep red, before being smoked, giving them their distinctive flavour.

Stokes Curry Ketchup marries the rich tomato tastes with classic curry spices including coriander, turmeric, fenugreek, ginger, cumin, and green cardamom.

Stokes Bloody Mary Ketchup is pure beauty in a bottle, adding a shot of vodka and a unique blend of Bloody Mary spices, perfect for that ‘morning after’ bacon sandwich.

Try mixing it with our Real Mayonnaise for a Bloody Mary Rose Sauce to give prawn cocktails a real treat.