If you like BBQ sauce and have spent time on the internet in the past year, it’s likely that you’ve come across Honey Badger BBQ sauce, a successfully funded Kickstarter BBQ sauce project.
These guys showed up with a limited background in the BBQ biz and built their brand atop upon an internet meme (the Honey Badger video referenced here) and actually turned it into a business. It’s amazing what the internet can do if you know how to use it. Full story here.
Chris Glaister got in touch with me and sent out 2 varieties of sauce – and I will focus on the Cobra Strength sauce here. The Triple Cobra Strength is made in limited edition runs of 500 each year, with each bottle individually numbered (retail value $60) so thanks to him for sending it out.
Upon receiving the package, I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by the packaging and everything external to the appearance of this sauce. From the name & design to the copy writing, bottle shape, and color scheme – they really knocked it out of the park. My daughter loved the appearance too… I bet it’s not cheap to have all of your bottles in the shape of a badger. Well, it’s not surprising the appearance was so well-executed, because the founders are two engineers and a product designer.
Let’s get inside the bottle, shall we?
The Honey Badger Does Care!
The color and consistency of the sauce are simple: a dark brownish red with a smooth flow with limited chunks and specks. It sticks well to meat and I always test with a hard one – boneless chicken breasts, because it’s like a simple blank canvas.
The ingredients are advertised as all natural and do not contain the oft-debated high fructose corn syrup, but do contain a few items like phosphoric acid, cultured dextrose, xanthum gum, and caramel color – ingredients which are not really found in “nature” – but tend to be fairly benign in most circumstances. The company’s website tells me the sauce is also gluten-free, MSG-free, and OK for vegetarians too. That’s pretty good.
The question then, is simply – how does it taste?
Uncooked the sauce flavor is smooth and mild with a medium habanero flavor. There’s a touch of heat (something like a medium salsa for a rough gauge of the heat level) and some spice. It was not as complex as some sauces I’ve tasted, nor does it have a super strong Sweet Baby’s Rays like sweetness to it. It can serve multiple roles as a sauce for dipping, burgers, and even things like BBQ pizza which need a simple sauce as a base. If you are a fan of the habanero flavor, it will give you a little but for even more kick, you’d want to step up to the Triple Cobra Strength.
When cooked the heat cools off a bit and the sweetness decreases a tad, but retains all of the habanero flavor and a honey sweetness to balance it out. The habanero flavor is milder after being cooked and to me, is much more enjoyable.
Bottom Line
A lot of sauce makers can learn from these sauce-prenuers. They took something fairly standard and blew it out of the water with a little creativity and money from a crowd-sourced fanbase. They’ve got a fun name, a fun bottle, and when this shows up at a party, everywhere is going to be talking about it. It will stand out on the shelf when someone is looking for “something different” and that matters when you are priced $6 and not in the $1-$2 price range. The taste is good, and I would love to see something even milder that is in an animal shaped bottle that my 7 year old would love… she said this one was a little too spicy. Without a simple, mild sauce, the audience is going to be limited to people who like the heat. But this is a honey badger, and to quote the video, the honey badger really doesn’t give a shit! Well done! 4 stars!
Website: http://honeybadgersauce.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoneyBadgerBBQSauce
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HoneyBadgerBBQ
BONUS: We are going to be doing a giveaway with Honey Badger Sauces this Friday July 26th. Make sure you check the BBQ Sauce Reviews Facebook page that day.
Site Editor, BBQ Sauce Lover, Family Guy, Hi Tech Marketer by Day. He recently wrote the Ebook “How to Market Your BBQ Sauce” which can be purchased on this site.
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