Heinz reveals the secret way to get ketchup out of a bottle - CNET

You've tued the bottle upside down. Your rudimentary scientific knowledge tells you the ketchup should just roll on out. And it doesn't.

That's because ketchup -- like molasses or toothpaste -- is a non-Newtonian fluid. It doesn't behave like a normal liquid.

Because you are human, you begin to get annoyed very quickly. You shake the bottle more vigorously.

Sometimes, you shake it so vigorously that it bangs down hard on your plate and smashes it.

So is there a reliable secret to getting the ketchup out without rancor?

There are plenty of YouTube videos that offer you tips. However, the Mirror on Monday happened upon a snippet on Heinz's own website that made me reassess the meaning of existence.

On the site's trivia page, Heinz has a tiny section called: What's the best way to get Heinz ketchup out of the iconic glass bottle?

The answer sounds so startlingly simple: "To release ketchup faster from the glass bottle, apply a firm tap to the sweet spot on the neck of the bottle -- the '57.'"

I confess I hadn't even paid enough attention to notice that there was an embossed "57" on the neck.

It would, though, have never crossed my mind that this was the place to tap the bottle.

It may not have crossed many minds, as Heinz says only 11 percent of people know this trick. I asked the company how it knows about that 11 percent, but Heinz didn't immediately reply.