Head’s Red BBQ Sauce (5/5)
Holy moly - it almost took four months to review this product! Bill, and many others waiting for their sauces to be reviewed, my apologies! I will spare the long explanation, but I can guarantee you I’ve been busy (kids, work, computer issues, weddings, etc) but I’ve remained BBQ’ing the whole time. I’ve had various varieties come in from all over the world country, and I gotta say this sauce stacks way up there. With it’s deep red hue and a deep complex flavor to match, this sauce has been my favorite around the house for the past few weeks. In fact, it’s the only sauce my wife has been referring to by name. The other ones she just kinda points at - this one? Or how bout this one? :) For that and for the reasons listed herein, it gets my highest rating of 5 stars.
Continue reading “Head’s Red BBQ Sauce (5/5)”
August 13th, 2008
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brian |
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2 comments
Psalm 34:8 says “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” The words “Psalm 34:8″ also sit on the side of this BBQ sauce. I wonder how long it took these guys to comb through the psalms to find a fitting reference for their BBQ sauce?
I liked the sauce and my only really complaint was the pineapple surprise flavor. It has the makings for a 4 with some simple marketing touch-ups. Their hotter version I really loved, and that review will be coming soon.
Continue reading “BBQ Stu’s Barbeque Sauce - Original (3/5)”
June 16th, 2008
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brian |
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When it comes to your BBQ, we’re not Fool’n around - so says the slogan underneath the roasted jester. And I’d agree, they aren’t foolin around with this standard KC style BBQ sauce, but I have to say there’s not a lot different or outrageuously flavorful going on here.
Continue reading “BBQ’N Fools Signature Barbecue Sauce (3/5)”
June 10th, 2008
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This is very good BBQ from South Dakota… it has got to be close to one of the sweetest sauces I think I’ve ever had. Brown Sugar is ingredient numero uno. But hey, people might be looking for that, so I didn’t mark any points against them for that. What I really liked about the sauce was it’s chunkiness. Dip your finger in and your finger will be speckled with a gooey BBQ sauce filled with chunks of pepper and garlic - nice!
Continue reading “Ol West BBQ & Dippin Sauce (4/5)”
June 5th, 2008
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brian |
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Not too long ago, my sister Julie and her husband Kevin brought me back a great sauce from a recent trip to Austin. They lived there for awhile and told me some of the cool things to do and have always had a sense of the local scene where ever they happened to live - whether it’s Austin, Boston, or Philly. Anyway, this sauce has turned out to be one of my … no actually my all-time favorite mustard based BBQ sauce I’ve ever had.
Continue reading “Salt Lick Original Recipe Bar-B-Que Sauce (5/5)”
May 12th, 2008
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brian |
All Reviews, Mustard BBQ Sauce, 5 Star Reviews, Unique BBQ Sauces |
2 comments
Holy Honey Bees Batman! This stuff is different. It’s got some majorly positive qualities going for it - awesome packaging, consistency and high-quality, natural ingredients (avoidance of corn syrups and refined sugar), but the side-effect is a unexpectedly strong honey taste. Once again, natural vs flavor beat each other up in this BBQ Death Match.
Continue reading “Fork ‘N Halo Original Sin BBQ Sauce (4/5)”
May 1st, 2008
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brian |
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After a new baby daughter and a hard drive crash, I’m back up and saucing. So first off, thanks to the friendly woman who sent me the free samples of Borderline Gourmet’s Chipotle and Habanero. And aahh… well… you just might not want to read the rest…
Continue reading “Borderline Gourmet Chipotle BBQ Sauce & Marinade (1/5)”
April 14th, 2008
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brian |
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Awesome stuff. If you love the sweet/bold/smokiness of Bullseye BBQ sauce, with some additional onion and spice flavors added, you’ll love TJ’s Bold and Smoky KC Style BBQ Sauce.
And if you don’t have a Trader Joe’s near you, well… you should move. 
Continue reading “Trader Joe’s Bold and Smoky Kansas City Style Barbecue Sauce (5/5)”
March 6th, 2008
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brian |
All Reviews, 5 Star Reviews, Sweet BBQ Sauce, Kansas City BBQ Sauce |
5 comments
5 Stars. I loved this sauce. Loved the packaging, the name, the taste, the brick house displayed on the bottle - just a really nice concept based on a great fairytale. The original fairytale is a little more gruesome than you might think, involving the death of the first two pigs, and the death of the wolf in the end…
Continue reading “Three Little Pigs Huff and Puff Competition BBQ Sauce (5/5)”
February 17th, 2008
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brian |
Spicy BBQ Sauce, All Reviews, 5 Star Reviews |
one comment
I’ll save some of my typical upfront meandering, simply because I already did that in my last Big Bob Gibson post. Well, I do have one tangential thought to bring up… being a web-based reviewer of products.
Continue reading “Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q Habanero Red Sauce (3/5)”
January 26th, 2008
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brian |
Spicy BBQ Sauce, All Reviews, 3 Star Reviews |
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This should be quick. There was only one positive aspect of this particular sauce… and if you are smart, you can probably figure it out by the time I tell you.
Give up?
Continue reading “Jackaroo Australian Style BBQ Sauce (1 of 5)”
December 11th, 2007
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brian |
All Reviews, 1 Star Reviews, Unique BBQ Sauces |
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This is a hideous sauce.
There’s so much wrong with this sauce, it’s hard to begin. A noxious taste is still in my mouth, like a mud pie - but worse. I’d rather eat dirt than this stinky, synthetic blend of cheap ingredients. I’d rather drink oil (not car oil, more like olive oil which isn’t so bad…)
Continue reading “Kraft Original Barbecue Sauce (1 of 5)”
November 29th, 2007
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brian |
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3 comments
Discovering hidden gems like this are one of the main reasons I started doing this website and blog.
Russ and Frank shipped me out three jars of sauce - their complete portfolio of Mild, Sassy, and Fiery.
And I went straight to Sassy, perhaps because I knew what to expect from the others. And if you think Sassy sounds funny… well… screw you, buddy, cause this is a classic “two buddies drinking beer” story with a happy ending.
Russ and Frank were chronic “searchers” looking for a better BBQ sauce every time they left town. One night, they were grilling and hanging out on a deck, having a few beers, when their conversation again drifts into their mutual dissatisfaction for BBQ sauces. So that night they finally promised to do something about it, and over the course of the next year, tested between 50 and 75 batches of barbecue sauce. Since then they’ve packaged the product, put it in stores, won various awards, and last year sold about 1500 gallons of sauce. Nice.
OK, enough history - on to the Review!
Well, I gotta say my analytic personality was challenged to find anything wrong with the Sassy sauce. It hit all the highs and I really couldn’t find any lows except for their weak distribution strategy (guys you gotta get this into the Northeast).
Let’s get into it, one by one.
Continue reading “Russ and Franks Sassy BBQ Sauce (5 of 5)”
November 16th, 2007
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brian |
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3 comments
The best part of running this website is the fact that people are sending me free sauces. The other part is meeting people from different places… People have come from a variety of backgrounds - large multi-national brands, US only brands, successful regional brands that are trying to expose their sauces to larger audiences, and sometimes people send me sauces in their early “infancy stage.”
I gotta admit, I am a little skeptical of just opening up anything in a bottle mailed to me, however after a brief dialog with Chuck himself, I was put at ease, and eager to have a taste. Along with two glass bottles of his Drunken Pepper Spicy Barbeque Sauce, he sent some of his STB spices, as well as a paper survey for reviewers to complete - an excellent way to get feedback indeed. Currently this is not something you can buy, but hopefully with some of the comments from other reviewers and yours truly, this will change in time…
Continue reading “Chuckster’s Drunken Pepper Spicy Barbeque Sauce (beta)”
November 10th, 2007
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brian |
All Reviews, Kansas City BBQ Sauce, General |
2 comments
Phil Ford, a real estate appraiser and father of four in Raleigh, North Carolina, developed his sauce around 1987 while trying to copy his mother’s recipe for a western North Carolina-style barbecue sauce.
The resulting all natural, fat-free, fragrant blend of ingredients include: tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, honey, molasses, mustard, horseradish, lemon juice, onions, garlic, peppers, natural hickory smoke, natural spices and salt.
This one gets BBQSR props for a magical combination of quality ingredients, simple packaging, clever name, and well balanced flavor. The only thing I found slightly lacking (a stretch) was that the consistency was a bit on the thin side.
The smell is wonderful - a sweet yet complex aroma with hints of apple, mustard, lemon, onions, and the “smokiness” that all barbecue sauces attempt. I could see putting this on almost anything - I think I want to try this on swordfish next, then a Bone Suckin Burger after that.
The first time I tried this stuff was a long time ago, during my college days, before I knew much about BBQ and grilling… and I had slathered the stuff on before the meat was ready for a barbecue bath. The result was a less-than-tasty, blackened mess. Bad experience for a bad griller - I blame it on the beer I was drinking at the time.
But my most recent, and sober, experience was a meal of half rack of ribs and a few chicken wings all done the right way, when the meat is at about the 75th percentile of BBQ cookage. This way, the sweets didn’t completely die and I was able to take in one of the best natural- ingredient sauces on the market…
Continue reading “Bone Suckin Sauce (5 of 5)”
October 26th, 2007
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brian |
All Reviews, 5 Star Reviews, Sweet BBQ Sauce, North Carolina BBQ Sauce, General |
10 comments
I’d like to advocate for only the little guys in the BBQ sauce world, as if all the big companies couldn’t make a good BBQ sauce product. But I’d be wrong, and quite a hypocrite, if I didn’t give Bullseye props and a solid 4/5. It just tastes great.
Way back in my high school days I used to have a crush on the Bullseye Burger… and when BK would release it at specified, “limited time offer!” periods in the summer time, I’d eat them like they were going the way of the 8 track. Luckily, I’ve gotten past those dark days and have tempered my fast food intake for the most part, although I will relapse on special occasions - like when I travel for business. Good thing the Rodeo Burger is a permanent member of their value menu.
Continue reading “Bullseye Original Barbecue Sauce (4/5)”
September 28th, 2007
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brian |
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6 comments
The BBQ sauce world does not revolve around tomatoes, so I had to review a mustard-based sauce for my fellow sauce lovers. This well-known Southern Carolina style, Sticky Fingers Carolina Classic Barbecue Sauce fit the bill. There’s some positives and negatives here, so this will be my first middle-of-the-road rating (3/5). My wife has a serious mustard problem habit and I’ve tried some great mustards and used them as chicken/rib/fish sauces and they came out quite a bit better than this… hence the rating of a 3. I will keep exploring this mustard BBQ sauce style, as I think there’s a lot of potential for a disruptive brand to really make their mark in this category.
When preparing, keep in mind that because you are using a mustard sauce and not a tomato-based sauce (which tend to have a lot more sugar) so you can truly apply as much as you want, whenever you want. The sugar in this stuff will not burn off on the grill. It will lose some of its oomph, but there’s really no trick to just keep adding more sauce… Put some chicken breasts in a bucket with this stuff. Let a rack of ribs bond with it. Let them sit overnight. Let them mate. Then throw them on the grill the next day. While cooking, keep adding more. You’ll experience a unique and rich mustard meat flavor.
Continue reading “Sticky Fingers Carolina Classic Barbecue Sauce (3/5)”
September 27th, 2007
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brian |
All Reviews, Mustard BBQ Sauce, 3 Star Reviews, South Carolina BBQ Sauce |
one comment
Bob Gibson was big… around 6 foot 3 and weighed between 275 and 295. Nowadays, he’s dead, but oh boy back in the day, growing up in rural Alabama as a rail line worker, he’d invite folks over to his house where he’d barbecue practically all weekend long. Hell yeah! They say he never met a stranger (because everyone already knew of him - get it?) For more on the history of Bob, watch this nicely done 4 min video.
Anyway, what started as a backyard BBQ turned into a hugely popular restaurant (one frequently called one of the top ten BBQ joints in the country) and a wide offering of sauces, including the 4 recently mailed to me:
- Championship Red Sauce
- Habenero Red Sauce
- Original White Sauce
- Backyard Mustard Sauce
I’ll get to the other sauces soon enough, but let’s jump into the tasting of the Championship Red Sauce, shall we? While the BBQ joint in Decatur Alabama receives accolades for being a fine purveyor of slow cooked pork and poultry, it is now a fairly substantial merchandiser. Which kinda sucks.
As high tech as me having this blog could be considered, I’m still a traditionalist in some respects. I like my rock-stars to be completely crazed lunatics that are caught up in drugs I’ve never heard of. I’d rather play real live tennis or go to a bowling alley, than play it a pretend version on a video screen… gamers. And for BBQ - I like underdogs - and I give natural BBQ sauces a boost. I’m sick of eating things I can’t spell - which is where this particular sauce lose a lot of it’s appeal for me. There’s a bunch of preservatives (I guess you gotta have a shelf life), a bunch of artificial flavors, some Worcestershire sauce, and TWO STEAK SAUCES?! It’s like Bob’s relatives were raiding the pantry to find the crap to load up this bottle. And it’s obvious with the two “Best Ever” Awards emblazoned on the bottle I’m sure the stuff has sold very well and perhaps prepared very well at the festivals… but I think the sauce itself is kinda weak.
Don’t fall for this bottle marketing BS:
“It took my family over 70 years and four generations to perfect this barbeque sauce recipe. Not until we were convinced that this thick red sauce was the best barbeque sauce in the world would we place the Bog Bob Gibson’s name on it. We hope you enjoy this unique flavor.”
If you watch the video above, it looks like it took about nine months to make the sauce. Hmm. The internet age is here, and I’ve got my eye on you, BBG! And also - you spelled barbecue wrong. C’mon Bob!
The sauce did win several awards, which I would attribute to BBQ technique and not the sauce itself (my guess is that it’s substantially different that the crap they put in bottles). Those awards include some big ones:
- Won First at American Royal International Barbecue Contest Kansas City, MO
- Rated Best at Memphis in May International Cookoff, Memphis TN
On to the Rating
Enough stumbling around and vague chit chat. I’d give Big Bobs Championship Red Sauce a 2 out of five.
Here’s why:
Packaging
OK presentation and representation of the overall brand. These guys win awards and should certainly brag about em… I’d recommend working in a little more Bob into the overall picture.
BBQ Sauce Consistency
The video told me alot… they aimed for a thick sweet sauce, and ended with a somewhat thin liquid (at least the bottled version). Use some Xanthan gum next time! Just don’t get it from China. 
Also you couldn’t see to many spices flowing out with this sauce - it screams I am mass produced all over it. Bob - what the fuck, man?
Taste and Smell
First sniff is like ketchup with hints of Worcestershire - simple, plain, nothing special. After reading the ingredients (after I ate) and seeing (and imagining) steak sauces being dumped into this sauce, I pictured A1 steak sauce combined with Open Pit BBQ sauce. Then I threw up. Just kidding. I thought of a drunk dude in a kitchen mucking around with the items available to him - yummy - here’s some soy sauce, oh and some steak sauce, molasses, oh Natural Smoke - nice!
I cooked up a few bucks worth of drumsticks to test it out, and - it was OK. I tend to think most BBQ chicken is good. Especially when I cook it. But this variety lacked zing or standout qualities. I really can’t say it was good; it seemed fairly plain. When I basted on the sauce I needed tons of it, because it was so thin (even with my new kickass bristle baster). And the ingredient overload just kinda makes me think the restaurant is numero one for these guys, and they probably don’t use anything like this mass produced variant of the real thing. Bob and Family. Hook us up with the real thing!
Ingredients:
Water, high fructose corn syrup, tomato paste, distilled water, brown sugar, molasses, salt, worcestershire sauce, onion, soy sauce, modified food starch, spices, 2 types of steak sauce, smoke flavor, sodium benzoate, potssium sorbate, beef flavor, garlic, lemon juice concenrate, natural and artificial flavors.
Nutrition Information:
Calories per 100 grma serving 52
Total fat 0g
Cholesteral 0mg
Sodium 280 mg
Total carbs 12g
Protein 0mg
Vit a 8% Vit C 4% Calcium 2% Iron 0%
More Stuff on the Web Related to Big Bob Gibsons:
September 9th, 2007
Posted by
brian |
All Reviews, 2 Star Reviews, Sweet BBQ Sauce, General |
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It’s funny when a company wins an award and then slaps a proud emblem “Multi Award Winner” on all of their brands. The only award this particular one should win is “Most Grotesque BBQ Sauce Ever.”
Negative One - The Smell
Smells like someone puked up sweet-and-sour-sauce.
Negative Two - The Taste
Just odd and unnatural. My daughter could make better sauce, and she’s 1.
Negative Three - The Price
It costs $5 to pick up a bottle. The company should pay people to eat this stuff…
Ingredients: Water, sugar, apricots, tomato puree, white vinegar, sesame oil, dehydrated garlic, modified food starch, ginger, chili sauce (contains preservatives and sulfites) salt, herbs and spices, sesame seeds, xanthan gum, ginger powder, citric acid, potassium sorbate, onion powder, natural flavor, polysorbate 80.
Nutrition Info: 45 calories per 32g serving, 1g fat, 9g carbs, 120mg sodium
Link to Website? No, I wouldn’t do that to you.
BBQ Sauce Reviews Recommendation: this stuff should stay in Afrika.
July 25th, 2007
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brian |
All Reviews, 1 Star Reviews, Unique BBQ Sauces, Sweet BBQ Sauce |
one comment
Clearly marketed towards big loud chopper owners, the references aren’t too strong enough to turn off those of us who aren’t bikers.
How many references to Harley’s can you find on this bottle? I found 5
The manufacturer describes this as “an aggressive, crimson-red, tomato-based sauce riddled with spices you can see, smell and taste,” and I’d agree.
This sauce was easily the best of a recent batch of three random varieties I just got in. The consistency was thin yet stable and clung to the meat well. There was just enough heat (provided by cayenne peppers) to really add life to really tasty set of wings. This one really is unique in that it provides the three major BBQ flavors: sweet, spicy, and sour (tangy). If you are looking for something that tastes slightly different, has no preservatives, and supports really loud forms of transportation - this one is for you!
Smell: Nice with a very natural scent.
Taste: Sweet, sour, and a dab of spicy. Unique, yet not overpowering.
Consistency: One tiny nit is that it pours a little thin, but you can really see the spices as they flow out of the bottle and into intermediate basting container… and it clings well to ________ (insert favorite meat here).
Packaging: Fun “Harley-marketing”, but cheap plastic bottle. Guess it’s good if you’re like me with a kid or kids running around grabbing everything they can!
One of my highest reviews and faves so far.
Ingredients: Tomato sauce, prepared mustard, brown sugar, cayenne peppers, vinegar, natural smoke flavor, salt, spices, xanthan gum.
Nutrition Info: 25 calories per 28g serving, 0g fat, 5g carbs, 240mg sodium
Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Website
June 21st, 2007
Posted by
brian |
All Reviews, 5 Star Reviews, Unique BBQ Sauces, Sweet BBQ Sauce, General |
3 comments
