PARTNERSHIPS | COMMUNITY | PODCAST | FRIENDS
International Travelers Fall In Love With Ranch Dressing
Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiippppp // Illustration by Kate Walker
Spain wasn’t the only big winner of the World Cup — ranch dressing has emerged as the tournament’s unexpected victor.
The Big Dip: International visitors have discovered several uniquely American things to love, but nothing has inspired quite the same awe as zesty ranch — which somehow goes with everything. That’s fitting because ranch is a very American invention. It was created in Alaska in the 1950s and perfected in California a decade later, and it’s still primarily distributed here. Now, the dressing is ready for a global rollout.
Behind The Dressing: Who doesn’t love ranch?
International visitors, especially Europeans, trying ranch for the first time have blown up across social media — some hate it, but most love it.
Sadie Dorf, Hidden Valley’s social media manager, said the viral videos were “very powerful” “from a social-media perspective.”
They’ve also been zesty from a sales perspective — market leader Hidden Valley said sales of its flagship bottle were up 20% last month.
So much ranch was being flown out of the country that the TSA had to remind travelers that bottles needed to be packed in checked luggage.
Final Bite: Ranch has been a bestseller for decades, especially around cultural events and during the summertime — US sales of bottled ranch surpassed $1.5 billion over the past year, making it “bigger than ketchup,” per WSJ.
But Hidden Valley and rival Kraft want that to be the floor, not the ceiling. Both companies are putting advertising everywhere, sending “ranchbassadors” to games to distribute tens of thousands of free packets, and, yes, stocking bottles at airport gift shops.
Just remember to buy an extra piece of luggage.
The Future: Prepare for an explosion of new ranch-inclusive recipes to pop up around the world, potentially changing international cuisine.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.