We Sampled A Dozen Barbecue Sauces—And 1 Blew The Rest Away

Southern Living • January 17, 2026 • business

Key Points:

A comprehensive taste test was conducted comparing original-style barbecue sauces from 13 popular brands, focusing on taste, texture, and overall experience, with testers blind to the brands to avoid bias.
Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce emerged as the clear winner, praised for its balanced sweet, smoky, and mildly spicy flavor, receiving five first-place votes from editors.
Kinder’s Original BBQ Sauce was the runner-up, noted for its smooth texture and a good balance of sweet, savory, and spice, appealing especially to those who prefer a Memphis-style profile.
Other sauces like Stubb’s Original and Great Value from Walmart were well-liked but did not receive first-place votes, while widely available Kraft Original was criticized for its jelly-like