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 loved 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.

From BBQStus.com: The BBQ Stu’s grilling team has traveled around the country meeting and greeting other lovers of smoke infused food, trying some of the best tasting BBQ anywhere and making a trail of great friends along way.

The BBQ Stu’s grilling team have visited and participated in “Q” competitions in cities about the country such as New Orleans, Richmond, Kansas City, Las Vegas, New Holland, Memphis, Manhattan, San Francisco, Cleveland, Baltimore, Newark, Shreveport, Nassau, Atlanta, Myrtle Beach, and the place they call home, Pittsburgh.

After trying these great flavors from around the country Stu Wilson, in one of his culinary experimental moods inspired by Chefs like Paula Deen, Giada DeLaurentis, Justin Wilson, and Emeril Lagasse decided to gather together the best of the flavors from all the sauces that he liked and combine them with his own mix.

After acquiring the perfect blend he is now offering you a taste of the best of the best with BBQ Stu’s flavors like : Original, Steel City Blast Furnace, Carolina Mustard, and Raspberry Chipotle.

Enough around already - on to the review!

Smell/Aroma

Sometimes I try to guess the ingredients before I read them. I try to go from box to open bottle as quickly as possible so I’m not tempted to simply read the ingredients and cheat. So this one had me guessing. I asked my wife what she thought it smelled like, and she was not interested in helping me with my “sauce problem.” So I had to look for myself. Ah-ha! Pineapple. Pineapple is the surprise ingredient here. Hmm.

Before Cooking Flavor

Good. A pineapple flavor infused taste. Not that overpowering or strong, and it really grew on me over time as I tried it on several things including sandwiches and standard chicken wings. I ended up really liking this sauce, so the 3 might be misleading but it’s both an indication to the buyer and the vendor that there’s an element of pineapple surprise here. Having told you the surprise I should say I struggled on the 3 vs 4 for this one for quite some time - part of the reason I took so long to review it.

Consistency

Excellent thick-itude. Good natural look and feel.

After Cooking Flavor

Very nice. You can taste why they’ve been doing well at BBQ contests.

Ingredients

Average.  Standard BBQ fare with high sugar, low fat, HFCS.

Nutrition

Average.  Standard BBQ fare with nothing special or uniquely good for you.

Marketing and Packaging

The bottle could use a touch up and a graphic designers love.  The concept of a guy named BBQ Stu who looks like a pig is pretty funny I guess, but leaves me a bit confused. The Psalm reference is great for bible-readers who also enjoy BBQ I guess, but for me it was kinda outta left field. The highlighted term ”FAT FREE” was a bit misleading - most tomato-based BBQ sauces are also fat-free.  Also the pineapple flavor was left out. In my opinion, an effective package makeover would include a hawaiian themed bottle with BBQ STU dressed like he was going to a Jimmy Buffett concert, and holding a pineapple in his hand or something like that. 

website: www.bbqstus.com

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.

Smell/Aroma

Good sniff. Standard tomato / vinegar / spice scent.

Consistency

Excellent in all facets. Movement within the bottle - check (not sludge, yet not watery). Clinginess to meat - check. Natural look - check (specks of spices and seasonings). The right consistency allows you to use less sauce to cover the meat, and lately it’s all about reducing costs - right? This sauce provides a good ROBI (return on BBQ investment). You heard that term here first - OK?

Before Cooking Flavor

Average. It’s good, but it doesn’t stand out from other KC style BBQ sauces.

After Cooking Flavor

Average. Again, good - but there was nothing extremely memorable about my meal when I only added this sauce at the 80% complete mark of the BBQ chicken wings.

Ingredients

Average. Standard ingredients with use of ketchup, HFCS, lots of sugar.

Nutrition

Average. Didn’t stand out as being unique, or gluten-free, or packed with vitamins

Marketing and Packaging

Average. I get the idea of a roasting joker/jester/fool, but I think the concept is somewhat cannibalistic. Are they frying up the fool? Are they then going to eat the fool?

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!

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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.

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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. 

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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…

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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.

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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…

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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.

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BBQ Sauce vendors - it seems like this is a huge opportunity for you to serve a market that is confused by too many choices and not enough nutritional information on each label. If I were in the business, I’d quickly introduce a line of the Gluten-free type… stick it in Whole Foods or someplace like that, then make so much money that I couldn’t believe it. And when I get fed up with the paparazzi (because BBQ sauce tycoons could exist in the future), I’d play games with them - shave my head, buy pregnancy tests, and take drugs so my kids would be taken away from me… or something.

Seriously- if anyone is still reading this blog - there is a steady stream of people searching for Gluten-Free ingredients, recipes, and foods. And it’s increasing. The question for a manufacturer is to determine if the gluten-free thing is a long-term trend (good) or a short-term fad (bad). Diet soda = trend. Jolt / OK Soda = Fad.

There are several good blogs out there for people wanting more info such as this one, I am Gluten Free, from a woman in Massachusetts who suffers from Coeliac Disease.

These are all ready to go in my pantry.  I will do the review with the most votes.

1. Bone Suckin Mustard
2. Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q Habanero Red Sauce
3. Stubbs Smokey Mesquite Bar-B-Q Sauce
4. Emeril’s Sweet Original BAM! B-Q Barbecue Sauce

Edited Jan 12th: It has been decided.  Last time I reviewed Big Bob Gibson’s sauce, I slammed em.  I grilled tonight… and I should have a review up by end of the week… stay tuned!

Why the Hell Would You Do This to Yourself?

Who knows why you’d want to make this, you sick bastard, but join the club. Back in the day, much like my addiction to white trash standards Miracle Whip, Bullseye BBQ sauce, and Spaghetti-O’s, I also loved to dip a McNugget or six into those little McDonalds BBQ Sauce buckets. And back then, as if pondering something important like the Grand Canyon, or StoneHenge, or even MeatHenge… I remember thinking, “How do they make this stuff?”

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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?

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Looks like the tides have turned and BBQ Sauce Reviews has gotten a review from a VERY honest and respectable BBQ site - White Trash BBQ.  The complete review is here. The dude looks at the site from a few angles and praises most of our unique approach… Needless to say, we’re pretty excited about being noticed by a BBQ guru!

Here’s a few excerpts:

“It’s been awhile since I recommend another website, but I have a good one for you today. It’s called BBQ Sauce Reviews. The site’s been up about 6 months now and I’ve enjoyed reading their reviews. I don’t always agree with them, but it’s always a good read.”

“I was surprised when I first started to read the reviews that the authors took into consideration the taste of the sauce after it had been cooked on the meat. That’s something I’ve always thought was the absolute ONLY way to review a barbecue sauce. Unfortunately, that’s not how it’s done at the competitions. Usually, barbecue sauce is reviewed only straight out of the jar. And that’s a pity. The magic of the heat and the smoke can transform a sauce. Sometimes they shine after the fire, other times they fall apart. I really applaud the reviewers for taking this into account.”

“I do love that the guys over there come up with all sorts of boutique sauces and they still review the mass market sauces. When you get a chance, stop by BBQ Sauce Reviews. You’ll be glad you did.”

Thanks White Trash BBQ, and thanks to anyone else enjoying our reviews and telling others about the site. 

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…)

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