BBQ SAUCE OF THE WEEK: BBQ'n Fools Barbecue Sauce

After talking last week about how regionalized barbecue (and barbecue sauce) is, this week I am going to go an completely contradict myself. But hey, life is like that, right? Rules were made to be broken.

This week's sauce is from a competition team in...Southern California! Just the fact that there are barbecue teams and barbecue events thiving in SoCal is a testament to just how boundary-less the Art and Science of barbecue is becoming in our day and age.

The BBQ'n Fools are two-time California State Grand Champions and the 2000 Southern California Barbecue Association Team of the Year. But their barbecue sauce tastes straight outta the deep south. It's a slick ketchup-based sauce with a nice vinegar-enhanced tanginess. It's got a little bit of brown sugar sweetness, a little bit of smooth bourbon warmth, and a lot of red pepper spice. This sauce has a serious bite for a sauce not labeled "hot". All in all, though it could be a bit overpowering, it's not a bad sauce.

Grade: B