Each year after Thanksgiving, people flock to TikTok to show off the elaborate sandwiches they build out of their holiday meal leftovers. The ritual, going strong for at least four years now, is often paired with a viral audio clip from the quintessential ’90s sitcom Friends describing the perfect sandwich made out of holiday leftovers. The sandwich, starring an extra slice of gravy-soaked bread in the middle, is known as “the moist maker.”
This Thanksgiving, Heinz—maker of ubiquitous and inoffensive condiments like ketchup and mustard—is escalating matters considerably by introducing a squeeze bottle gravy designed to engineer the “ultimate Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich.” The squeeze bottle, labeled “leftover gravy,” actually comes empty in a special kit paired with a jar of Heinz turkey gravy and instructions that quote the Friends episode. The limited edition kit will be for sale through Walmart.com.
“A social media favorite among millennial sitcom-lovers, the Moist Maker epitomized an obsession with holiday food crafted with care and detail,” Heinz Associate Director of Brand Communications Jamie Mack said in a press release, adding that the gimmick is a celebration of fans who “share an irrational love” of the moist maker.
The concept of squeeze bottle gravy prompts many further lines of inquiry. Heinz already sells a surprisingly diverse array of jarred gravies with flavors like caramelized onion and thyme (for the adventurous) and regular turkey gravy for traditionalists who won’t be cooking a gigantic hunk of poultry for hours and savoring its juices the old fashioned way. While the jars make sense, does a squeeze bottle really add any convenience? Would anyone try it? Is the gravy cold?
The TV moment, from 1998’s fittingly titled Friends episode “The one with Ross’s sandwich,” is capped off by Ross discovering that his boss keeps eating his sandwiches at work, including his prized moist maker, and absolutely crashing out.
FoodTok trends
Brands hot on the trail of food-related TikTok trends is nothing new. Food and cooking are extremely popular enduring topics on TikTok, regularly launching micro-trends, viral one dish meals, horrifying products, dubious historical recipes, and massive content categories. Like all things on TikTok, these trends come and go quickly (mini pancake cereal, we miss you), but videos that hop on a food trend at the right time can easily rack up millions of views and a ton of engagement—a tempting prize for any brand trying to stay relevant.
While Gen Z generally powers TikTok’s viral food scene, Heinz says its gravy stunt is aimed squarely at a generation that’s old enough to have watched Friends as the show aired. According to Heinz, the new condiment is aimed at the “growing demographic of millennial hosts who are redefining holiday traditions.” And redefine them you will, if you invite squeezable gravy to mingle with your precious post-Thanksgiving leftovers.
Heinz isn’t the first brand to hop on the gravy train. Last year, the upscale kitchen store Williams Sonoma posted its own version of the moist maker. King’s Hawaiian bread company, maker of excellent rolls for Thanksgiving leftover sandwiches, did too. The grocery chain Kroger was even earlier to the trend, quizzing its audience on the audio clip of Ross describing his sister’s culinary flash of genius back in 2022.
The TikTok account cooking panda appears to have originally uploaded the sound in 2021, juxtaposing the Friends clip with video of a moist maker’s step-by-step construction process and racking up 1.7 million likes in the process. Heinz might not be early to the moist maker trend—now ancient by TikTok standards—but what it lacks in timeliness it plans to compensate for with sheer commitment to the bit.