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Michelin-Awarded Pitmaster Blind Ranks Cheap BBQ Sauces
Whether it’s drizzled over a juicy hamburger, slathered across a tender rack of ribs, or used as a flavor-boosting dip, barbecue sauce is a must for every cookout. We linked up with Daniel Castillo, the Michelin-rated pitmaster behind Heritage Barbecue, to blind-rank some of America’s most popular, affordable barbecue sauce brands. With his fine-tuned palate, he put each sauce’s sweetness, spiciness, acidity, smokiness, and viscosity to the test. The goal here? To find out which BBQ sauce truly deserves the honor of touching your meat.
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Guy Fieri's Flavortown Money Honey BBQ Sauce
CASTILLO’S BLIND REVIEW: “Saltier. It’s really sweet. I don’t really like this one. It’s very off-putting, almost chemically. I feel like I got… yeah, some kind of plastic or something. Whatever ingredients they’re using are subpar for this thing. It’s disgusting.”
RANKING: 9 (Lowest ranking)
RANKING: 9 (Lowest ranking)
Blues Hog Champions' Blend Barbecue Sauce
CASTILLO’S BLIND REVIEW: “That’s sweet! There’s no way that’s a real sauce. There’s some kind of fake sugar sh*t going on with this thing. I feel like I’m going to get f*cking diabetes drinking this sh*t dude. It’s almost like something that you would add to something else. You know what? I would probably use this in something else. If I wanted to make a baked beans or something.”
RANKING: 8
RANKING: 8
Chick-fil-A Barbecue Sauce
CASTILLO’S BLIND REVIEW: “I don’t taste anything in this but ketchup and sweetness. This might be good for, like, shrimp, or French fries, or a burger. It’s tastier than ketchup.”
RANKING: 7
RANKING: 7
Famous Dave's Devil's Spit BBQ Sauce
CASTILLO’S BLIND REVIEW: “Ooh, you know? It’s got like little pepper flakes in it. There’s definitely like real chili pepper in here. I want to say like jalapeño, habanero, or serrano, or some sh*t like that. What this would be good on? You know what I mean? If we were doing like some kind of like a taco—like a brisket taco.”
RANKING: 6
RANKING: 6
Stubb's Original Legendary Bar-B-Q Sauce
CASTILLO’S BLIND REVIEW: “Oh yeah, spicy and mustard. It’s not bad. It’s the first one to make me cough. I think this one would go great with, maybe some cauliflower or even like dipping like a sausage in it, because sausages and mustard go good together anyway.”
RANKING: 5
RANKING: 5
Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce
CASTILLO’S BLIND REVIEW: “It’s smokey—definitely tomato. You can taste all the different spices in here. You can see [paprika] in there. You know, grill some chicken, and then sauce it, and then just grill it off again. I think it’d be tasty with this sauce on it.”
RANKING: 4
RANKING: 4
KC Masterpiece The American Original Barbecue Sauce
CASTILLO’S BLIND REVIEW: “This one’s more like a purée than a sauce. This one tastes to me like KC Masterpiece. It’s definitely more bolder. It’s on the spicier side, sweeter side, smokier side, and the richness of it, you know? I would like this on, maybe, some beef rib.”
RANKING: 3
RANKING: 3
Kinder's BBQ Sauce Gold
CASTILLO’S BLIND REVIEW: “I would say that overall this is pretty balanced, and it’s not too super sweet. You can tell by the dookie color that it’s probably got a little molasses and mustard. I don’t think it’s bad. It doesn’t scream anything. It’s just kind of like, ‘Hey, I’m barbecue sauce.'”
RANKING: 2
RANKING: 2
Jack Daniel's Honey BBQ Sauce
CASTILLO’S BLIND REVIEW: “This one’s a little bit more acidic. This is not bad. Very like tamarind-y. Yeah, that’s a pretty good barbecue sauce. This would be really good on pork ribs.”
RANKING: 1 (Highest ranking)
RANKING: 1 (Highest ranking)
