Texas Smokehouse Sauce – Apple BBQ Sauce – Review
They say everything is bigger in Texas and when it comes to BBQ sauces, selection is no exception. I love trying new BBQ sauces, but I find that despite the different labeling and brands, a lot of them end up tasting the same. Texas Smokehouse Sauce's Apple BBQ Sauce is the complete opposite. The Apple BBQ Sauce is described as a competition sauce for the everyday cook, and they're not kidding. According to the manufacturer, the sauce took 4th place at the NBBQA awards of excellence in Greenville, NC. That's good enough to get me interested, and interested is where I stayed from the first bite on. This stuff was so good, I could just pour it in a bowl and make a meal out of sopping it up with bread. I'll talk more about the flavor in a bit, first lets talk about the heat.
Heat: 
I found this sauce to be more about flavor than pure heat, which is something I really liked. It definitely has a bite to it, but it's so perfectly balanced with the sweet flavors of apple that your not overpowered by it. Don't let that scare you if you like a milder sauce, because it's very well balanced with just the right amount of bite. Because of the nice spice to it I give it 3 stars for heat.
Appearance: 
In terms of packaging, the sauce comes in a glass 12oz bottle like most other sauces. It does have a nice commercial quality label with a very "made in Texas" feel. Looking at the bottle, you know you're getting something from Texas and it's probably going to be good. Aside from the logo, there's a small amount of information and not much else. I would have like to see a little more story about it, or even where the sauce comes from, but in this case it was lacking. For me the packaging looked professional and would have definitely had me pick it up off the shelf, but it's the apple in the name that would get me to buy it, if only out of curiosity.
Taste: 
This sauce is top notch. It's got a flavor unlike anything else I've tried but still stays true to what you'd expect from a BBQ sauce. As I mentioned before, the sauce has a bit of a bite to it, and that's what you taste first, but as it lingers in your mouth you pick up a sweet baked apple kind of flavor. The apple flavor is distinct, but not overpowering and balances with the spiciness very well. This is without a doubt one of the most unique BBQ sauces I've tried and it's instantly become my favorite. I tried this sauce on some chopped beef and chicken and it was wonderful. With the sweetness, I wen't ahead and used it to make some BBQ beans as well and it was wonderful. Because of the great baked apple flavor balanced with the spicy BBQ flavor, Texas Smokehouse Sauces's Apple BBQ Sauce is an easy 5 stars for taste.
Value: The Apple BBQ Sauce comes in a 12oz bottle and sells for $4.99. This is about an average price for a good bottle of BBQ sauce and works out to a fair value. The difference is that this isn't a good sauce, it's a great one, which $5 for an excellent bottle of sauce a great deal. For the price this is an excellent sauce, I give it 4 stars for value.
Overall: Overall I give this sauce a solid 4 stars. The combination of flavor, value, and packaging is hard to beat and as I said in the beginning, finding a truly unique BBQ sauce that's good enough for most anything is not an easy thing. The only thing I can really complain about is in the ingredients. For such a great sauce I'd love to see it without the high fructose corn syrup, but this was only in the Tomato puree, so I'll let it slide. Texas Smokehouse Sauce's Apple BBQ Sauce goes great with everything and comes in at a great price, making it my new favorite BBQ sauce and something I'd highly recommend you try.
Texas Smokehouse Sauce - Apple BBQ Sauce $4.99 12oz bottle
About the Author: Rob Sterba (@rsterba) is a Texas transplant, originally from New Mexico living in the Fort Worth area. An IT architect by trade, in his free time he's an avid tea drinker and enjoys writing and learning about tea, food, and technology.
