Official Sauce King NYC 2022 awards

Thank you to everyone who entered the Sauce King NYC competition in 2022. Congratulations to all of the winners! Go pick up a bottle of some of these favorites sauces and support these great brands!

Sauce King NYC 2022 Champions

Grand Champion:

Harmacy Hot Sauce Co , “Brimstone Rimjob” Pepper Sauce
Homero Gonzalez | Cookeville, Tennessee
(Texture, flavor, balanced heat. I’d fight over this sauce!)


BARBECUE SAUCES

Top Barbecue Sauce

BBQ Buddha’s Kansas City Sauce
Asbury, NJ.
(Mesquite flavors stand out, well made, balanced.

Best Traditional BBQ Sauce

OL’Chefskis BBQ’s Road House BBQ Sauce
Cleveland, Ohio.
(Everybody loves it)

Best Flavor Enhancer

B.T. Leigh’s The Magical Mop
Bowling Green, Kentucky. (classic bbq mop sauce with a Harissa kick)

Best Dipping Sauce

Low Country Sauce , “Bigyia”, food dressing and dipping sauce
“Like a tomato aioli, serve with crab cakes.”
Houston ,Texas.
(A new sauce by our 2021 Grand Champion – a completely different style of sauce.)

Best Fruit BBQ Sauce

Linda’s Pineapple Jerk Sauce
Bronx NYC.
“EXCELLENT. Delicious on its own.”
“Little chunks of pineapple. Just a FUN sauce that can inspire even a decent chef’s imagination.”

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Noteworthy – Barbecue sauces, Marinades, Dipping Sauces…

Bbq buddha, Memphis Mop
Asbury, NJ
“Midwestern flavors.”
(not fair, it was our 2020 original Grand Champion, still a favorite)

B.T.Leighs, The Clevelander
Bowling Green, Kentucky
(Mustard, chili)

Uncle Lucky’s- BBQ Nirvana…
John Seeley
Short Hills, NJ
(sesame)

Pure Grit BBQ, The BBQ Sauce
Manhattan, NYC
(Created for plants. Good on everything.)

Father and Sons Kitchen. Sweet and Tangy Barbecue sauce
The Bronx, NYC
(Really nice and smooth.)

Gourmet Road sauce company , Louisiana style original
Maurice, Louisiana

Cuban Kitchen. Guava-Habanero BBQ Sauce
Lynna Martinez
San Mateo, California

Ass Kicking BBQ , jerk sauce
Frank Sullivan
Staten Island NYC

EROC’S , The Other Sauce, BBQ sauce
Eric Lofthus
Dodge Center, Minnesota


INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

Best International Sauce Family – Spotlight

Firefly BBQ, UK
Judges’ Notes:
*the Firefly full lineup of sauces was just such a judges’ favorite. It stood out because:

  • unique flavors (even though not always what the bottle titled it)
  • unified packaging, making it recognizable and easy to grab off a shelf, whether at store or in your kitchen.

Four Favorites

Carolina Mustard BBQ Sauce
“VERSATILE: Sweet mustard. Very good and distinctive, as all the firefly flavors are.”

  • “For pork shoulder, ribs, porkchops”
  • ” Sandwich with ham or lots of sandwich ideas”
  • “A mustard vinaigrette dressing”

Caribbean Hot Mango Sauce
“Loved it. Good heat that stays on the tongue. Peppery but not too hot.”

Oaxaca Chilli Ketchup
“Great name. Good heat, and lots of actual tomato flavor, as opposed to ketchup at the grocery store.”

  • ” It’s ketchup. Good on so much. Great on EGGS…”

Japanese Yuzu BBQ Sauce
“ginger forward, sweet, just FUN”

  • ” Use on salmon, steak, veggies – very WELL BALANCED sauce “
  • ” GREAT marinade”


HOT SAUCES

Best Hot Sauce

718 Heat Factory Sweet Heat
John Hercel
NYC

Most Versatile Hot Sauce

Rocket Fuel Foods, Fresca Salsa Verde, mild hot sauce

Favorite Hot Sauce Family Pack

Rocket Fuel Foods , Dead Red.
Rocket Fuel Foods, Louisiana Style Red.
Rocket Fuel Foods. Super High Octane.
Rocket Fuel Foods. Liquid Atomic Fire.

Best Farm Sourced Flavor

Morning Glory Pepperworks, Smokebomb wicked hot verde
(smoked green chili.hot sauce)
Morning Glory Farm x Culinary school collaboration!
Bethel, Maine

HONORABLE MENTIONS

CRAIC SAUCE
The Golden Pumpkin,
Lowell, Massachusetts.

CRAIC SAUCE
Mill City Red, Louisiana style.
Lowell, Massachusetts.

Pure Grit BBQ, The Hot Stuff, hot sauce.
Manhattan NYC.

BBQ Buddha, Mantra hot sauce.
Asbury, NJ.

CONDIMENTS, RUBS

Best Ketchup
Rocket Fuel , Granny Smith Apple Ketchup.
(“Great for French fries.)

Noteworthy
Harissa- El Fassy( metro nyc)

Rubs

Judges’ Award-
Bayou Gotham,
BAYOU BOURRÉ Creole Seasoning & Craft BBQ Rub.
NYC.

Noteworthy.
Uncle Tony’s BBQ rub.
Anthony Hester
Hampton, Virginia


METRO NYC START UP CATEGORY

METRO NYC- PROMISING FAMILY OF SAUCES

Overall Favorite
International Wings Factory
multiple WINGS and dipping sauces….
Deepak Ballaney, Manhattan NYC.


NOTEWORTHY METRO NYC

Sands Jerk Hut
Darlene Lawrence
Brooklyn NYC

Dirty Jerz BBQ
Wolfgang Tsoutsourus
Milburn NJ

Craft House Staten Island, bbq sauce
Chef, Kurron Mangin
Staten island NYC


PRIZES


Kikuichi Cutlery – Japanese knives.
Porter Road meat gift certificates.
Prime 6 Charcoal.
Burlap and Barrel.
Taste of the Bronx.