The Overly Sweet BBQ Sauce You Should Leave On The Shelf

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The best barbecue sauces can incorporate smoky, spicy, sweet, and tangy elements without them undermining each other. If one flavor greatly overpowers the rest, you're left with a sauce that's at best, one-note, and at worst, off-putting. For this reason, in our ranking of grocery store barbecue sauces from worst to best, we determined that Kraft Original Slow-Simmered BBQ Barbecue Sauce has no business at your summer cookouts and grilling sessions. Our reviewer had major issues with its cloying taste, stating, "Adding a little bit of sweetness to your sauce is one thing, but turning [it] into a bottle of nothing but sugar is just plain gross."

For clarification, as of this writing, Kraft Original Slow-Simmered BBQ Barbecue Sauce is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, which shows up first on the ingredient list. The order of ingredients on a food label means more than you might realize. In this case, it indicates that the sauce contains more high fructose corn syrup by weight than other components. Our reviewer also took umbrage with the spicy flavor notes in the sauce. They likened it to "stale black pepper" and claimed that the taste clashed with the overwhelming sweetness of the sauce.

Those familiar with older versions of the condiment might understandably be confused by its current use of high fructose corn syrup. Back in 2015, Kraft reconfigured its line of sauces and removed that ingredient in favor of options like cane sugar and molasses. It's possible that the brand made the switch due to high fructose corn syrup's poor reputation. However, it's worth noting that sugar and high fructose corn syrup are associated with the same health effects when consumed in excess. Some studies have linked the latter sweetener with markers of increased inflammation, though there is inconsistent evidence of whether table sugar has the same level of impact.

Curiously, Kraft Original Slow-Simmered BBQ Barbecue Sauce is still listed as being free of high fructose corn syrup on the Kraft website and in the product's Amazon page. One Amazon reviewer was particularly irritated by the discrepancy, stating, "I bought this because the label says there is no high fructose corn syrup ... However, this time when it arrives it now says there is high fructose corn syrup as the FIRST ingredient." It's not clear why the discrepancy exists or whether the pages will be updated, but one thing is certain: There are far better barbecue sauces to spend your money on this summer.