Every Sweet Baby Ray's Sauce Flavor Ranked Worst To Best

The sheer variety of Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauces invites enough cookout vibes to keep you dining in style for the whole summer. This beloved brand was voted in one survey as the best barbecue sauce on shelves by fans who know their way around a basting brush. But the untold truth about Sweet Baby Ray's is that while the flavors abound, not all are created equally. Even eaters who've chosen a favorite bottle will agree that while the selection is good, some are plainly better than others.

We thought it best not to keep the truth bottled up, so we're spreading the sauce about which Sweet Baby Ray's flavor is the best (minus Maple, which was unavailable at the time of our taste test). Competition was fierce and fiery for the top spot. After all, the brand has been circling the block since creator Chef Larry first used the blend in 1985 to win the biggest barbecue rib competition in the U.S., according to the company website. After decades of delighting fans and expanding the line, it's time to pop the lid and find out how each Sweet Baby Ray's selection stands up to the proverbial heat. The suspense is utterly delicious.

The idea of adding a glowingly sweet tone like honey to barbecue sauce has made sense for generations. There are already sugar layers for the golden goop to get in on, and the umami elements create a tasty interplay that gives your taste buds something new to celebrate with every bite. So how does Sweet Baby Ray's go so far afield with its Honey sauce? The blend that should elevate such a condiment turns it into something false-tasting instead. Nothing on the ingredient list stands out as the culprit. Maybe it's the concentration of additives or the quality of the honey chosen for this blend. Whatever the cause, there's nothing to celebrate in this bottle.

There is, however, a possibility of mixing the Honey barbecue sauce with a bottle of Original to temper the strangeness and turn it into something more festive. If you happen to have both flavors on hand and want to give it a go, we can personally recommend this as a fast fix food hack. The better option is to avoid this misstep and pick up one of the better flavors instead. It's also a cheaper option and one that will take up less room in your fridge.

While not technically barbecue, Buffalo wings are a fun addition to backyard banquets and special occasion spreads, so it's not entirely out of left field for Sweet Baby Ray's to have Buffalo Wing Sauce in its extended line of products. For anyone who loves the tangy heat of vinegar mixed with cayenne, this is the bottle you want in your kitchen. Ray's expertly captures the best of Louisiana cuisine in a brush-on wing dressing fiery enough to ring the alarm and with enough flavor to keep the fire engine idling while you go back for another round.

As with other marinade-style sauces, this Buffalo Wing Sauce is on the liquidy side, which means dipping and dressing rather than brushing and basting will make the best uses. Wing fans looking for extra kick in their favorite game-day snack can sneak a dish of the sauce and keep it on the table for drizzling on wings before the blue cheese dressing. We can imagine it bringing a more-than-modest blaze to homemade burgers in place of steak sauce, steaming up a black bean patty, or doing its duty as a coating for home fries in need of a saucy spark.

There's no reason for placing Sweet Baby Ray's Original blend barbecue sauce center-list, other than the availability of so many other great flavors. After all, this is where the story began — with a robust sauce that captures the culinary romance of so much Southern cooking without missing a note. You want sweetness? You've got it. A little smokiness? It's in there, too. A feeling of old-fashioned satisfaction every time you break open a bottle so you can live your best life at the grill? Would it even be on the list if the answer was "no?"

The familiar uses are already in your cookbook, so how about trying Original as a dipping sauce for fries or thinning it down with water or red wine vinegar as a dressing for salads or veggies? It also makes a spectacular coating to add tons of flavor to more anonymous ingredients like tofu and cauliflower, items just waiting for the taste brigade to come along and give them a reason to join the spread. No matter how you choose to use it, having a bottle or two on hand to provide culinary inspiration in a variety of ways is always a good idea.

With Sweet Golden Mustard as part of its saucy selection, Sweet Baby Ray's brings a colorful cohort into the fold. There's no disguising the fact that this isn't a traditional barbecue sauce, as evidenced by the golden hue that shows through the body of the bottle. Pineapple juice joins the party as a sweet element to soften the sharpness of the yellow mustard, two ingredients that make agreeable partners for your barbecue adventures. This sauce can also serve as a dip rather than a baste or a marinade; it's sturdy enough to keep its place on a plate as much as in a dunking-ready ramekin to add fancy fun to the table. In fact, it's an ideal stand-in for traditional mustard of any kind. It just may be the most underrated barbecue sauce Ray's makes.

Soft pretzels are a snacking weakness you can't overcome, you say? Well, SGM as the hip dippers call it (or they should, anyway) is a perfect accent to a chewy knot of doughy goodness. If your fries are aching for a new vibe, use a little of this sauce on its own or mixed with mayonnaise or ketchup and create a sensation!

Of course Sweet Baby Ray's is going to have a Hickory & Brown Sugar flavor. What self-respecting barbecue sauce producer wouldn't? The good news here is how well the two flavors cooperate without becoming either too sweet or too hickory-ish, a troublesome tilt to one side or the other that many sauces find themselves sliding into. With this delightful spread, the perfect balance is achieved, delivering a taste profile that comes through as a classic. It may seem a bit ordinary for a sauce, but what it does, it does spectacularly. No need to mess with near-perfection.

This is one bottle you'll want in your arsenal when the hunger for old-fashioned barbecue comes calling. Slather it on pork chops, brush it on ribs of all sorts and sizes, and incorporate it into ground beef for burgers — or better yet, sliders — and double-up with another dash on top for good measure. Your backyard will be sending out smoke signals no one can resist. No matter what your memories of barbecue have been up to this moment, they'll seem shiny and new when you let Sweet Baby Ray's sprinkle a little hickory and brown sugar glitter all over them.

This bottle is the undeniable best of the barbecue bunch. While there's a secret ingredient in Sweet Baby Ray's that provides a layer of undeniable heat in the company's general recipe, Honey Chipotle adds a hearty helping of both sweetness and fire to the formula for a double-shot of fabulous flavor. The result is a smoky, sweet, and thoroughly satisfying sauce that you'll be inventing new uses for, just to keep it in your dining routine as much as possible. Whether you lean into the Southwestern notes or push it in a more traditional barbecue direction, you can't go wrong.

With such a versatile addition to your culinary toolbox, you'll be hard-pressed to find a dining occasion that can't be improved by this wonderful blend. Use it in place of steak sauce, and elevate a meat-and-potatoes dinner to the realm of gourmet dining. Mix it in with ground poultry to create chicken chipotle meatballs, and serve up hot hoagies topped with Monterey Jack for the big game. Roll potato wedges around in it, and make roasted home fries that will be gone as soon as they hit the table. This list topper is bound to make everything better.