The sentiment, “Sometimes I wish I was born in a foreign country” is one that I can easily identify with. Although I love my native Canada, I have long carried this particular sentiment for Great Britain dating back to when I was a child. I vividly recall being 8 or 9 years old when the Queen and Prince Phillip were in the news and on television during what must have been a visit to Canada. Somehow, I got it into my head that during their visit, they stopped by our house and had tea with my mum while I was at school. I told everyone about it and was over the moon that she, the Queen had visited our house to share tea with my mother. Naturally, this only ever happened inside my head and I was devastated when the sad reality finally sank in. Still, for some inexplicable reason at the tender age of 8 or 9, I held a candle for dear old England, which I invariably carry with me to this very day.

As fate would have it I am not alone in this sentiment, for I have been contacted by the best britpop band France has to offer (self proclaimed) “Music Is Not Fun“. It seems these lads have it bad for things English as they’ve actually dedicated one of their songs to the Sauce entitled “HP (Please)”.

Sporting adidas wear, mop haircuts, and French accents reminiscent of Blur,
Music Is Not Fun is complete Brit.

More information on the band along with streaming audio of the song HP (Please) can be found at the Music Is Not Fun myspace page.

Sometimes I wish
I was born in a foreign country
make something crazy
they call it HP

Oooh oooh oooh oooh ooh ooh ooh-oooooh HP!

Thank-you to Music Is Not Fun for letting know about this effort!

Every Sunday, my family and I meet up with my in-laws at the local Tim Hortons for tea/coffee and a breakfast sandwich. It’s usually a relaxed affair and we sip our tea/coffee by the window and relax, people watch and generally discuss things that went on in our lives during the previous week.

Recently, Tims introduced a new line of breakfast sandwiches and my in-laws (especially) raved about them. I too tried them and although I am very fond of the traditional breakfast sandwich, these sandwiches lacked something and are on their own, very bland.

As the weeks went by, it started to grate on me. These sandwiches could be so much better! I had to write to Tim Hortons and explain my position. Their breakfast sandwiches lacked that essential ingredient, HP Sauce! It should seem plainly obvious (especially to our friends in the UK) that putting HP Sauce on a bacon sandwich is an essential part of the experience. Indeed to many of us, it is just common sense!

Here then is my letter put forth to Tim Hortons which I sent out this very morning:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing in regards to your new line of Hot Breakfast Sandwiches introduced not long ago at Tim Hortons. These sandwiches have become very popular in my family, especially with my in-laws with whom we meet regularly at Tim Hortons on Sunday mornings. The breakfast sandwiches are indeed popular enough that they now insist that we arrive at “Tims” prior to 12 noon each week in order to ensure that no one goes without one of these sandwiches!

Your new Hot Breakfast Sandwiches have most of the elements which make up a classic breakfast sandwich. These include egg, bacon or sausage (I prefer bacon), and cheese (I prefer without) on a “homestyle biscuit”, or as we simply term them “tea biscuits”.

Although I applaud Tim Hortons for introducing a classic breakfast sandwich to their existing line, I do believe there is an issue outstanding which Tim Hortons would do well to address. I am not referring directly to how the sandwich is made or even its limited availability. The issue is that on its own, the new Hot Breakfast Sandwich is a very bland sandwich indeed. Perhaps its taste (or a lack thereof) is due in part to the use of tea biscuits rather than the more commonly used English Muffin, or perhaps it’s the low sodium in the sausage.

Regardless of the cause, I believe this to be an opportunity for Tim Hortons to introduce something to the Canadian consumer which the British public has known for many decades: “HP Sauce makes a bacon sandwich”!

When I make my own breakfast sandwiches at home, an absolutely essential ingredient is HP Sauce. It literally makes the sandwich what it is, a delicious start to my day. When I meet my family at Tim Hortons to enjoy one of your new sandwiches, I invariably bite into the sandwich and instantly realize that something is missing to which I scold myself for not remembering to bring along a bottle of HP Sauce from home!

Tim Hortons and HP Sauce are in some ways very much alike. Both are deeply ingrained into the Canadian dietary lifestyle and it is high time these two brands were brought together to offer the Canadian consumer a better breakfast experience at your locations.

Please consider partnering with HP Foods (Heinz) to bring this to reality by offering packets of HP Sauce with every Hot Breakfast Sandwich sold at Tim Hortons.

Thank you,
Brad K
__________________
www.brownsauce.org

If you are similarly minded and agree that Tim Hortons should partner with HP Foods (Heinz) by providing a packet of HP Sauce with every breakfast sandwich sold, by all means support this idea by writing to Tim Hortons customer service at: customer_service@timhortons.com.

Your comments are of course also welcome!

Occasionally I get the odd email asking “What does HP Stand for?” to which I will typically reply “Why, Houses of Parliament of course!” This is precisely how I responded to a number of queries this past week on exactly this question. The difference this time is that one individual took things to another level and challenged me with an article she had found on Yahoo.com which in turn references the HP Sauce page at wikipedia.org, which interestingly enough links back to this very site (how profound!).

This same site visitor even went as far as to admit that she was spending a considerable amount of time researching this topic and at one point she even had 10 of her friends doing the same thing! But it didn’t stop there. Uxbridge, England radio station KISS 100 FM also received this question to which they promptly put the call out to local area listeners! If you were one such listener who perhaps heard this question put to you on KISS 100 FM, you know know how it all started.

Hopefully I can help put this question to rest. I’ll start first with Wikipedia as referenced from Yahoo answers:

“Some stories suggest that the name HP was derived from the name Harry Palmer. Palmer was said to have invented the recipe and sold the product as “Harry Palmer’s Famous Epsom Sauce”. The story then goes that Palmer, an avid gambler at the Epsom races, was forced to sell the recipe (to cover his debts) to F.G. Garton, a grocer from Nottingham. However, there is no evidence in the official history of the brand to show Palmer existed, or had any claim to the development of the recipe. It also seems unlikely that Garton, a grocer from the Midlands would have come in contact with a gambler from the South of England.”

In the documentation I have available to me (both official and unofficial accounts), I too can find no reference to the name “Harry Palmer”. The response that I ultimately supplied to my inquisitive site visitors was a paraphrased account of the official line:

“HP Sauce does indeed stand for “Houses of Parliament”. In the late 1800’s Edwin Samson Moore (founder of the Midland Vinegar Company, Birmingham, later to become HP Foods) visited the Nottingham grocer F.E. Garton who had an outstanding debt with the Midland Vinegar Company. At the time, Mr Moore was actively seeking a good sauce recipe to expand the business. While visiting Mr Garton, with his son Eddie, they spotted bottles marked “Garton’s HP Sauce”. Mr Garton had created a sauce and was then selling it to the local market. It was a perfect fit and was exactly what they were looking for. Within minutes, Mr Moore settled Mr Garton’s debt and bought the recipe for £150. When asked what the name stood for, Mr Garton told him that he had heard a rumour that a bottle of his sauce had been seen in the restaurant of the Houses of Parliament. Mr Moore instantly loved the idea and the name stuck. It was sold for some by the Midland Vinegar Company as “Garton’s HP Sauce” and later changing to simply “HP Sauce”.”

Indeed on January 26th, 2007 BBC Nottingham featured HP Sauce in a segment on the television programme “East Midlands Today” where they too credit F.E. Garton as the original proprietor of HP Sauce. Incidentally, this video was made available for a short time on the BBC Nottingham website, however it was unfortunately closed to viewers outside the UK (including myself).

Garton's HP Sauce Label
cira 1920’s

If one looks at some early examples of HP Sauce labels, The Midland Vinegar Company even went as far as listing “Houses of Parliament” in small print under the famous “HP Sauce” designation. The labelling from this era dates back to a time when HP Sauce would’ve been much less well known than it is today and including the descriptive “Houses of Parliament” on the label would’ve served as a means of establishing itself as a brand.

Together with the evidence provided above, I can say with some certainty that the name HP Sauce does in fact stand for “Houses of Parliament”.

There is however some controversy surrounding how Birmingham’s Midland Vinegar Company actually acquired the rights to produce Garton’s HP Sauce (Nottingham). Naturally, this account never did make it into the official press release and subsequent books on the subject. It has been told to me that the arrangement made between Mr Garton and Mr Moore was somewhat less amicable than what is officially stated. Unfortunately I cannot divulge any more on the matter until this story’s source sorts out some legalese surrounding the matter. Once it is sorted, I will make efforts to amend the story as told here.

If you have more information on this story which you believe should be included, by all means write me or add your comments below.