Some things haven’t changed much over the past hundred years. For example, in both 1919 and 2019, Heinz emphasized that the company offered several varieties of vinegar.
The 1919 Heinz Vinegars advertisement said that “Malt, Apple, and White” varieties were available, and that they were “one of the 57” Heinz products.
The current Heinz brand tagline is “A Vinegar for Every Need.”
Is it grammatically correct to pluralize “vinegar” or is “vinegars” an archaic term?
A Hundred Years Ago 
I didn’t know that malt vinegar was available in the USA back then. Huh, I always thought it was something new that came to this country after WWII. Interesting.
hmm. . . I have no idea how long malt vinegar has been sold in the U.S., but based on this ad, it’s been around for at least a hundred years.
I certainly pluralise vinegar if needing to speak of more than one type. Admittedly not very often!
Maybe this is just the first time that I’ve ever needed to pluralize “vinegar.” 🙂
It doesn’t trip off the tongue every day, does it?
I saw an interesting documentary on Heinz and he was one of the early ones to focus on food safety.
The documentary sounds really interesting. In the early 1900s there was a lot of concern about “adulterated” foods that were not safe or impure.
‘Vinegar’ can be either a countable or uncountable noun, which means either plural can be used. If talking about several kinds, as in “He has quite a collection of vinegars” adding the ‘s’ is proper, so Heinz got it right in their ad. A friend loves using different varieties, so in front of her cabinet it would be ok to say, “Which of these vinegars do you want to use?”
This is really helpful. It’s interesting that it can be either a countable or uncountable noun.
Interesting. I thought that if you’re talking about different types of vinegar, the plural “vinegars” felt right but spell check just told me it was wrong. Like the word beer, if grammar is your concern, stick with “types of beer” to play it safe!
It’s interesting how many “exceptions” there are to general grammar rules in English. It sounds good to play it safe, and say “types of vinegar.”
Chuckle! As long as I have some vinegar on my fries, I’m good.
I still buy Heinz products even though the stores sell their own cheaper brand. I am into “name brands” on many items. Vinegar and vinegars have their own place depending on how you use it 🙂
I prefer to buy vinegar in glass bottles, which, at the store where I shop, means that I need to buy one of the name brands.
Love seeing all the older ads, thank you so very much, we are learning history! 🙂
It’s wonderful to hear that you enjoyed this post.
thank you so very much. bless you.
You side-stepped vinegars nicely with varieties of vinegar. I try to read the way I would wish to be read — overlooking unusual grammar to get the meaning.
Good point – maybe I worried too much about this. I do hope that people don’t focus on the typos and grammar mistakes that I make. Sometimes I’m shocked when I go back to a post that I did months ago, and find typos that I never noticed at the time.
I find typos in my published posts, too. I hope others read the way I do — disregarding mistakes to get the meaning conveyed by the words. I assure you, whatever mistake you found, I don’t remember and probably never noticed.
And, I can assure you that I’ve never noticed any mistakes in any of your posts. We probably are both being too hard on ourselves. 🙂
I like your take on our typos, that we are too hard on ourselves. I have always aimed for perfection, and I’m trying to break myself of the habit. I would like the goal to be, “do the best you can in a reasonable time”.
I wonder what people used malt vinegar for. I only use it on fish and chips.
Like you, the only time I use malt vinegar is when I eat fish and chips.
I am wondering now though if there aren’t other uses for it. The problem is it has such a distinctive flavor and smell.
I love their ketchup, can’t say I ever tried their “ vinegars”. I do agree that you can’t used one vinegar for all recipes. Interesting read!
There are so many interesting types of vinegar available today.
I love this ad. It is so true.
It’s nice to hear that you enjoyed this ad.
I definitely have a collection of vinegar/vinegars in my kitchen. Never seen a Heinz one though!
Heinz vinegar is still sold around here.