Gettin' Sauced

The boys over at Man Up Texas BBQ put on a great event in Austin over the weekend where 45 BBQ sauces went head to head for the top rating. In addition to the sauces, there was live entertainment, free beer and BBQ. I was asked to be a judge, and although usually don't bother with sauce, I was happy to be part of such a great event.



The whole family was able to attend, but my daughter's not quite ready for BBQ sauce. No problem, I dove right into the affair with six sauces to start. Saltine cracker palette cleansers were provided, and were definitely required. Each of the sauces had such distinct and powerful flavors when sampled alone, and it was nothing like trying them on some smoked meat.



My tasting notes ranged from "Campbell's Tomato Soup" and "Overly Sweet Marinara" to "Sweet, Spicy and Simple". As I reached the end, the flavors had admittedly started to run together, so I took a break, had a St. Arnold Lawnmower beer, and tasted the finalists once again for the final ranking. Below is the stomach cringing sight of all the sauce cups I sampled from.



After 45 sauces, I had to narrow it down to a top 10 for each category, but I really only truly enjoyed about 5 from each category. My top 5 are below, and I'm glad to know that a few folks agreed with me.

Bottled
1. Don Strange Pequin
2. Joseph's Riverport Barbecue (First Place in Bottled)
3. Black's Regular
4. Sucklebuster's Original
5. Wooden Spoon Hickory

Fresh
1. Luling Bar-B-Q
2. Burnet Feed Store Spicy
3. Salt Lick Regular (First Place in Fresh)
4. Stanley's Regular
5. City Market Regular

I was also glad to see that I enjoyed what I thought were some of my favorite sauces (City Market, Black's and Salt Lick), even at a blind tasting. Thanks to Drew, Brad and the rest of the Man Up gang for a great event, and I look forward to your next one.

- BBQ Snob