The Worst Store-Brand BBQ Sauce Is Also The Most Affordable

When you taste a bad barbecue sauce, you know it right away. Maybe it's too sweet, too tangy, or the overall flavor profile seems off. Whatever the case, an unappealing barbecue sauce can ruin a nice piece of smoked pork or grilled chicken. The good news is you have plenty of excellent store-bought barbecue sauces to choose from. That said, when we reviewed 12 grocery store barbecue sauces, we thought Kroger's Honey Sweet BBQ Sauce was the worst of the bunch.

The only real positive with this sauce is the cost. You can find it for somewhere between $1.25 to $1.79 at Kroger or Kroger-owned grocery stores, such as Ralph's, Dillons, Smith's, or Food 4 Less, depending on where you live. But that's where the fun stops. Honey barbecue is typically a fantastic flavor combination, but this one just doesn't work. Kroger's Honey Sweet BBQ Sauce is just sweet on top of sweet on top of sweet — even the smell is overly sweet. There's no balance of smokiness or spiciness to offset the over-the-top sugar profile. On top of the sweetness, this sauce has a fruity flavor to it — similar to a Hawaiian glaze — but it just has zero depth. The texture is thicker than some sauces, which is a plus, but the overall sweetness is just a non-starter for us.

Kroger customers seem to hate the store's Honey Sweet BBQ Sauce. One customer says, "This stuff used to be good. Now it tastes like garbage." Another comment might explain the overly sweet flavor profile: "Fraudulent label information making you [think] this is a decent food product when in fact the [number one] ingredient is high fructose corn syrup!" Another reviewer from Smith's agrees, saying, "I should have known better to read the label before buying this has high fructose corn syrup I won't purchase again and I threw away [the] whole bottle."

Ironically, our favorite barbecue sauce in our taste test also came from Kroger, though it came from Kroger's more high-end brand: the Private Selection Southern Smokehouse BBQ Sauce. Unlike the Honey Sweet BBQ Sauce, it doesn't overwhelm you with sweetness, and has smoky and savory notes with flavors of hickory, brown sugar, tomato, and bone broth. So, if you're shopping for barbecue sauce at Kroger, we suggest walking right past the Honey Sweet BBQ Sauce and opting for the Private Selection Southern Smokehouse BBQ Sauce. But, really, anything is better than the Honey Sweet version — unless you really enjoy straight up sugar in liquid form.