About
Who are we?
Good guys looking for great BBQ sauces. And we’re always looking for another BBQ savvy taster to join our team.
What is a great BBQ sauce?
Well, someone smart said beauty is in the eye of the the beer holder, and I guess that is true here as well. In general, we look for high quality ingredients, natural flavors, ability to see the spices flow out the mouth of the bottle, strong flavors, and unique flavors. Thick or thin is OK, depending on the goal of the sauce. We’ve tried a lot of sauces (one of us recently broke our plastic fridge door-shelving by stuffing it full with BBQ sauces) so the ole taste buds are good enough to know when someone tries to add some Worcestershire Sauce and onion powder to a bucket of ketchup and call it gourmet. We test flavor before AND after cooking - something which is fairly unique in the field of BBQ Sauce Reviewing.
Where are you located?
All around Boston. Not really home to “World’s Best BBQ,” but we grill throughout our cold and sometimes snowy winters… so there.
Why are you doing this?
Well it just kinda happened one night, and it’s been going since then.
Awesome, how can readers help you?
What we would really appreciate is links from other websites… if you can’t send a link, please click on one of the Google Ads below the individual blog post title. Visiting sponsors helps to cover my costs (propane, sauce, web hosting, URL, etc). Clicking a link doesn’t give you a virus or anything… it gives the site a little LOVE.
How We Review
Each review is conducted as scientifically as possible using similar meat types and grilling approach. At right, our chief scientist takes a break from his beer and checks out a test tube filled with BBQ Sauce.
Upon request our sauces can be applied to the meat of the manufacturer’s choice if it happens to be made for a particular style of cooking.
Presently the test we conduct consists of applying the sauce to chicken and pork ribs as recommended by the BBQ sauce vendor. When no directions are provided, we rely on traditional methods of applying the sauce towards the end of the cooking cycle so that the flavor of the sauce is activated, yet remains intact. We have been asked about our style and our cooking fuel, and it’s actually grilling, and - dare I say it - propane (covering 90% of American households).
The Seven Basic Principles of a BBQSauceReviews.com Review:
Smell/Aroma
Does it smell good, like fresh ingredients, or like chemicals and something unnatural.
Before Cooking Flavor
Not as important as after cooking flavor but done to get a sense of comparison before torching the meat with sauce applied.
Consistency
How does it look, move, and respond? How does it interact with the meat? Does it look natural? Does it flip around like water? Does it cling to the meat or require the whole jar?
After Cooking Flavor
Does it retain flavor through the heat of a grill. A weak sauce will sometimes succumb to the flame and end up tasting like tomato and sugar. A great sauce transforms into something different, the heat “activating” the flavors together until you taste something you can’t get enough of.
Ingredients
Negative points for bad stuff. Extra points for really good choices.
Nutrition
Anything extra in there for goodness? Is there way too much sodium in comparison to other sauces on the market?
Marketing and Packaging
Pick apart the packaging and placement of the product a bit. We try to offer helpful tidbits for the vendor, so they can be more successful with the next sauce.
We also keep up with the latest USDA BBQ Sauce Requirements found here.
