FireFly Barbecue’s Smoked Jalapeño Jam wins the top prize at Sauce King NYC 2023, plus NYC Metro winners, best barbecue sauces, best hot sauces, and link to buy them all.
Sauce King NYC judges gathered recently to taste test many of the country's best sauces.
The annual Sauce King NYC competition assembles judges from the culinary world to rate and honor top barbecue, hot, and other sauces from around NYC and the world. This week, the winners of the fourth year of the competition were announced. (Top winners first appeared in The Smoke Sheet newsletter.)
The Smoked Jalapeño Jam Hot Sauce (middle right) from FireFly Barbecue out of the U.K. won the top prize at Sauce King NYC.
The Grand Champion award for best overall sauce went to FireFly Barbecue from Hyde, England, for its Smoked Jalapeño Jam, which left judges fighting over who could take the rest of the bottle home. FireFly owner Noel Bateman revealed the sauce is made from jalapeños slowly fermenting for two years in a Spanish Oak Rioja barrel with apple cider vinegar and a hint of beech smoke.
The FireFly team sells a wide variety of barbecue sauces, rubs, seasonings, and chilli sauces. Their dedication to craft and quality is apparent in taking two years to make a hot sauce.
The FireFly Barbecue line of sauces and rubs is in the spotlight with a win at Sauce King NYC.
“Long story short, we have all seen how they make Tabasco at McIlhenny, and I saw them at Meatopia in London a few years ago with a taste comparison between un-aged and aged Tabasco chili mash,” Bateman said. “That got me thinking of doing something similar with another chili. … So one old Rioja wine barrel [with] 150 kilograms of green jalapeño, and 2 years later, we drained the barrel into 25-liter jerry cans to make the smoked jalapeño jam.”
The L & L Infused Pique hot sauces were delicious and won a top award for local sauce makers.
This year’s Duane Joseph NYC Metro Start Up Award, which honors local sauce makers that don’t have full production, was a tie this year for two operations. One was Kam Rai Thai restaurant in Astoria, Queens (which was impressive at Pig Island NYC, too!) for its Zeed green hot sauce & Sam Rod dipping sauce. The other was L & L Infused Sauces from NYC, who turned in two impressive infused Pique hot sauces. (The Metro Start Up Award is named for Duane Joseph, a Sauce King NYC judge for the past three years and a core team member of Food Karma Projects, who passed away in August.)
Duane Joseph (top left), a mighty presence at Food Karma barbecue events and a Sauce King judge, passed away suddenly in August and had the NYC award named for him.
Nick Bandouveris, a Sauce King judge for the past few years, said he loved the two local sauces that won. He notes that “the first annual Duane Joseph award has not only what I consider the best overall and most delicious and fresh taste of the huge amount of entries, but that those characteristics also have so much of the vibe about it that was the personality of beloved Duane.”
A behind-the-scenes look at the judging at Sauce King NYC.
Many other sauces (including barbecue, hot, and harissa varieties) were honored at Sauce King NYC as well. “This was one of the most diverse years in terms of overall entries, different flavors and types of sauces, and from a larger geographical and cultural swath than in past years,” Bandouveris said.
B.T. Leigh's, a popular sauce maker, tied for Best Barbecue Sauce for The Magical Mop sauce.
See many of the top awards listed below.
Top Barbecue Sauce (tie)
B.T. Leigh’s, The Magical Mop; Kentucky
Louisiana Creole Candy, Creole-ish BBQ Sauce; Louisiana
Top Hot Sauce of 2023
Coney Island Saucery, Ricky's Smokes Let's Go Hot Sauce; New York City
Runner Up, Top Hot Sauce of 2023
Craic Sauce, 40 Shades of Green Chili; Lowell, Mass.
Homegrown Hero Award
Elfassy Foods, Harissa Paste; NYC
Category Of Their Own Award
Dirty Bird’s Swett Sauce, Dirty Bird’s Swett Sauce Original; Lake Worth, Florida
Runner Ups, Metro NYC Start Up Award
Sotto Voce restaurant, Diablo Sauce; Brooklyn; NYC
International Wings Factory, Cry hot sauce; NYC
Most Delicious Heat Award
RocketFuel Foods, Raspberry Scorcher; Newark, NJ
Best Traditional BBQ Sauce
Ol’Chefskis, Road House BBQ Sauce; Cleveland, Ohio
Classic Everything Sauce Award
B.T. Leigh’s, Somethin' Somethin' Sauce; Kentucky
Rib King NYC Grill Sauce Award
Bear’s Smokehouse; Kansas City Sweet Sauce; Connecticut
The Whole Hog Award (Best Dipping Sauce)
Pork Mafia, Cochon Dippin' Sauce; Chicago
Most Applelicious BBQ Sauce
Big Daddy’s Bar-B-Q, Applelicious Hot BBQ Sauce, Des Moines, Iowa
Top Ketchup
RocketFuel Foods, Granny Smith Apple Ketchup, Newark, NJ
SEE THE FULL AWARDS LIST HERE.
Congrats to all the winners!
Sean Ludwig
Founder, NYC BBQ
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