Bachan's Japanese Barbecue Sauce Hot Honey
Background
Bachan translates to grandma in Japanese and was dubbed this brand's name because it was the grandmother of owner Justin Gill who taught him how to make the family's barbecue sauce. The sauce was one that they had been making for years and shared with family and friends who all had a great love and appreciation for it. Justin decided there was something to that and saw an opportunity in bringing the sauce to market, but before he did so, he spent six years fine tuning his recipes until the sauce hit shelves in 2019. The brand found fast success and growth and the ten different varieties of barbecue sauce they currently produce can be found in groceries all throughout the United States.
Aroma
Super savory soy sauce dominates the aroma, but there's a good amount of sweetness too that keeps the soy sauce from being too harsh. The sugar has notes of honey, but smells like other sweeteners may at work too. A deeper whiff releases notes of sesame and vinegar, and while there's definitely more complexity mixed in, the powerful soy sauce makes it hard to pick out individual ingredients by smell alone.
Thickness & Texture
This very dark brown sauce is super smooth and glossy with a medium-thin thickness and syrupy consistency. If there's any spices to be seen in there, the dark hue masks them even though the sauce is semi-transparent. From a suspended spoon, the sauce falls in a quick stream that's smooth and steady until right at the end when a couple slower drips release and a thin layer of sauce is left clinging to the silverware.
Out of the Jar
A honey sweetness starts off the flavor profile that quickly turns incredibly savory with a far amount of saltiness thanks to the soy sauce. At the same time, the sauce turns very tangy with a hefty vinegar layer. As the sauce settles on the tongue, the honey sweetness makes a comeback and tempers the soy and vinegar, letting tastes of sesame, ginger, and garlic add complexity right before a peppery heat begins to impart a mild burn on the tongue. The heat, soy, and vinegar all ramp up as the sauce makes its exit and leaves an aftertaste that's medium spicy, super savory, very tangy, and still retains a faint honey flavor.
Slathered & Cooked
This sauce brushed onto the chicken in a very thin layer that slid off in spots, but what stuck did set quite well. A better color and sauce layer built up on the second brushing, but it took three applications over indirect heat for the leg to get a real saucy appearance. When moved over to direct heat, there was no sauce loss at all with some darkening in spots, but no overt burning. With a flavor that leaned more into sweetness, the strong soy and vinegar stamp tasted out of the jar was tempered and better balanced. Those three primary traits dominated though and the nuances of garlic, sesame, and more were almost completely diminished. At first the heat felt like it suffered the same fate, but it came in just as I was finishing the piece of chicken to add a slight burn in the back of the throat.
Put to Use
I feel like the wall of Bachan sauces at grocery store gets larger and more diverse all the time and I've taken a more keen interest in seeing how they all differ from each other. This is only my second out of ten sauces, but I was pleased with how Hot Honey differed from Hot and Spicy. As expected, the sweetness was amped up, providing a nice contrast to the soy sauce base that can be hard to come out from. A strong vinegar tang and good heat helped this taste like a barbecue sauce, while undertones provided a subtle, but necessary complexity out of the jar. I struggled to maintain my high regards after the sauce was cooked though because the flavor lost a lot of its depth, even though the heavy tang and sweet soy taste did give the chicken a lot of flavor. All-in-all, I was digging this variation a bit more than the Hot and Spicy and wouldn't hesitate to use it for my chicken, meatballs, wings, veggies, etc. if I wanted them to have that unique Japanese barbecue flavor.
