15 Store-Bought BBQ Sauces That Aren’t Doing You Any Favors

Barbecue sauce can take your ribs, chicken, or burgers to the next level—but not all bottles in the grocery aisle are your friend. Many popular BBQ sauces are packed with more sugar than dessert and enough salt to sink your summer plans.

Some sound smoky and sweet, but a quick glance at the label tells a different story. These 15 store-bought sauces might taste good, but they come with a cost you won’t see until after dinner.

Here are the ones worth rethinking before your next cookout.

1. Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce

It hits with that classic smoky-sweet flavor everyone recognizes, but the first ingredient is high fructose corn syrup. There’s a thick stickiness to it that clings hard and leaves a sugary afterburn.

The taste may win over a crowd, but the ingredients tell a stickier story. It’s more candy glaze than real-deal barbecue.

2. Kraft Original Barbecue Sauce

This one pours dark and smooth, with a mild flavor that tries to please everyone—but ends up feeling flat. A quick read of the label reveals a lineup of sweeteners, thickeners, and barely any actual spice.

It’s cheap and easy, but that shortcut shows. What’s missing in flavor is made up for in additives.

3. Bull’s-Eye Original BBQ Sauce

Bold branding, bold promises, and a load of salt that kicks before you even taste the smoke. The molasses comes through strong, but so does a strange artificial tang.

The bottle wants you to think “Texas pitmaster,” but the recipe screams “lab sample.” It’s barbecue turned up too loud.

4. KC Masterpiece Original BBQ Sauce

Thick and heavy with a sharp sweetness that overpowers instead of enhances. It tries to bring that Kansas City balance but ends up tasting more like syrup than smoke.

The flavor smothers rather than supports. It’s less of a sauce, more of a sugar blanket.

5. Heinz Classic Sweet & Thick BBQ Sauce

The texture feels almost glossy—like it belongs on a doughnut instead of meat. That familiar Heinz tang is buried under too many layers of sweetness and starch.

There’s a richness here, but it’s more about sugar than spice. One squirt too many and it takes over everything.

6. Famous Dave’s Rich & Sassy BBQ Sauce

Sassy might be in the name, but this bottle leans hard on “rich”—and not in a good way. The sauce coats your food like molasses and doesn’t let the meat breathe.

It’s bold to the point of being bossy. Flavorful, sure, but it doesn’t know when to quit.

7. Stubb’s Sweet Heat Bar-B-Q Sauce

This one comes with a reputation for quality, but the “sweet” punches a little too early and too often. The heat never fully catches up, and the balance feels off-kilter.

It promises complexity but ends up flat. Somewhere between spicy candy and a sauce that forgot the fire.

8. Montgomery Inn Barbecue Sauce

Beloved in Ohio, this one’s nostalgic but rides the line between tangy and just plain sharp. The texture is watery, but the flavor clings with an artificial note that lingers a beat too long.

Fans stay loyal, but the ingredients have changed. It’s not quite the hometown hero it used to be.

9. Open Pit Original BBQ Sauce

Bright red and thinner than most, it packs a vinegar punch that’s more acidic than smoky. What it lacks in body, it tries to make up for with sharpness—and overshoots.

It tastes dated in a way that isn’t charming. Less backyard barbecue, more kitchen science experiment.

10. Bone Suckin’ Sauce

This one’s got the name and the cult following, but the sugar content sneaks up fast. The natural label can be misleading when the syrupy sweetness takes over the profile.

It wants to feel homemade, but it leans more dessert than dinner. Not the clean swap you might expect.

11. Jack Daniel’s Barbecue Sauce – Original No. 7

There’s whiskey in the name, but not much depth in the sauce. The sweetness is dialed up high, masking any real smoke or tang.

It feels more like a marketing play than a pitmaster’s pick. The alcohol edge doesn’t add much beyond buzz.

12. Sticky Fingers Carolina Sweet BBQ Sauce

Supposed to channel Carolina vibes, but this sauce is so sugary it misses the mark entirely. Instead of a vinegar kick, you get a sticky glaze that’s more like candy coating.

It drowns the meat in sweetness and leaves no room for nuance. More frosting than fire.

13. Sonny’s Sweet Bar-B-Q Sauce

Southern-style and generous with the sugar, this sauce feels heavy on the tongue. It coats everything in a glaze that’s more about gloss than depth.

There’s no room for the meat to speak. A one-note wonder that quickly turns cloying.

14. Ken Davis Original BBQ Sauce

This Minnesota classic comes with regional pride, but the ingredient list reads like a chem lab. Thickeners, sweeteners, and preservatives pile up behind a surprisingly bland taste.

The texture’s too slick, and the flavor too muted. It’s trying, but the effort feels buried under artificial weight.

15. Cattlemen’s Classic Barbecue Sauce

Often used in food service, this one delivers consistency—but not in a good way. It’s thick, processed, and salty to a fault, with a flavor that feels built more for shelf life than satisfaction.

There’s no complexity, just a wall of salt and sugar. Reliable for volume, forgettable in taste.