The Guy Fieri BBQ Sauce We Thought Was The Worst

In Guy Fieri we trust. After traveling the country for years tasting the best recipes American chefs have to offer and developing recipes for his own restaurants, the celebrity chef and TV personality launched his own line of kitchen essentials from cookware to creamy aioli. When developing his brand of barbecue sauce, however, Fieri didn't just stop at one. In fact he has five different versions of the sauce, which you can find at select stores and on Amazon.

Curious about the celebrity brand, Chowhound writer Katie Melynn, who knows her way around a grocery store ranking, put them to the test. She can tell you everything from the best boxed mac and cheese brand to the worst pre-made pizza crust. Now she's back after a trip to Flavortown with a helpful list of all of Guy Fieri's BBQ sauces ranked from worst to best. Melynn considered texture and taste in her rankings, focusing on which sauce would best accompany the rich, savory flavor of meat while also working well as a dipping sauce.

Her favorites, like the Smokin' Hickory barbecue sauce or the Carolina BBQ sauce, had a delicious balance of smoky, spicy, savory, and sweet flavors. Although some bite from mustard or vinegar was welcome, her least favorite sauce, Guy Fieri's Flavortown Mop Sauce barbecue sauce, was too acidic and a little too thin for top-tier dip-ability.

Katie Melynn points out that this mop sauce has its uses. Its dark, rich, and vinegary taste is meant to be mopped, or poured, onto meat on the grill to keep it moist. Unfortunately, neither the taste nor the texture hold up to everyday uses. Melynn notes that it's too thin for a dip or a sandwich spread. Plus, the vinegar overpowers the savory, umami taste you expect from barbecue sauce. Although it's tangy, it's neither spicy nor sweet nor smoky, which doesn't work well for adding flavor.

In terms of ingredients, the Flavortown Mop Sauce is lower in added sugar (6 grams in a 2-tablespoon serving), likely because the flavors of molasses and brown sugar take a back seat to the other ingredients. It also has less sodium per serving than the other Flavortown barbecue sauces save one, potentially because it omits the anchovy present in most of the other varieties. Still, the slight nutritional differences come at a cost: This not-so-savory mop sauce tastes too strongly of tomato paste and apple cider vinegar.

Melynn's second least favorite flavor, honey barbecue sauce, also lacked balance. In this instance, the sauce is too sweet rather than too vinegary. So, if you're looking for the more traditional flavors found in great barbecue sauce, stick with Guy Fieri's Flavortown Smokin' Hickory Barbecue Sauce and you won't be disappointed.