With grilling season heating up, I decided to put 25 of them to the block-party test. I went to 10th and South Streets for a buying splurge, where between upscale Whole Foods and its mass-market neighbor, SuperFresh (plus a few mega-store surprises from Target), we found a fair cross-sampling of what you'll encounter.
With each bottle posed atop its ID number, and our plates piled high with strips of grilled chicken (the ideal neutral canvas for our test), my neighbors and I dipped, slurped and savored a vast range of flavors, from the most commercial to the most esoteric specialty brew.
Many of the mass-produced sauces, thick and treacly sweet with high-fructose corn syrup, tasted like synthetic paste beside some of the more natural products. But high-end wasn't always better, either, as froufrou flavors were often added to the point of distraction.
Whether you like tangy, ketchup-based Kansas City sauces, the vinegary pucker of East Carolina, or the sweet molasses and smoky spice of Texas, balance is always the key to a champion sauce. Here are some of the most memorable ones we tasted (in no particular order):
Spatulas up
Archer Farms Barbecue Sauces, $3.99 (T). Target's house label was a big surprise with all three flavors getting high marks: the Texas-style, for its deep molasses sweetness and lingering kick; the tomatoey KC-style for balancing a cider tang with honey; and the Hawaiian-style, for its pineapple-mango fruit and garlicky-chile finish, a favorite.
Whole Foods Market Carolina Smokehouse BBQ Sauce, $2.99 (WF). This was a straightforward rendition of the East Carolina-style peppery vinegar used with pulled pork. Some of Whole Foods' other sauces were terrible, like the gooey sweet maple sauce.
