Bash Brothers BBQ Sauce Honey Ghost
Background
The Bash Brothers BBQ story is one of those types I can write with my eyes closed: Founder Chris Halloran was into backyard barbecue, cooking for family and friends out of his home in Derby, Kansas, which is just south of Wichita. He crafted his own sauces and rubs that folks told him he ought to be selling, so that's exactly what he did. The popularity of his products grew, and in 2013 he reached a point that he had to go to a co-packer to help out, and with that, the Bash Brothers brand was born. Today, Bash Brothers BBQ produces eight different varieties of barbecue sauce, along with five rubs, and a handful of other types of sauces as well.
Aroma
The first whiff of this sauce brings with it a strong molasses character with a semi-sweet tomato depth. There's also an upfront mixture of vinegar and chiles, providing strong clues that there will be a good heat in the flavor. Taking in deeper nosefuls, the aroma introduces honey to the sweetness, a touch of garlic, and a more robust pepper profile that includes elements of earthiness and smokiness to go along with the heat.
Thickness & Texture
This semi-glossy sauce is dark maroon and opaque, which makes it difficult to see any spices except for lone white specs here and there. The thickness weighs in a notch or two below the medium mark, and the consistency is like watered down tomato paste. From a suspended spoon, the sauce falls in a fast, uneven pour that changes to many fast drips before releasing a few slower ones and then ceasing, leaving a thin coating of sauce left adhered to the silverware.
Out of the Jar
Like in the aroma, there a pretty equal combo of sweet molasses and tomato to start off the taste, but unlike the aroma, those two traits more quickly get overtaken by vinegar and peppers. There's a few seconds of a well balanced combo of all of those elements, and its during this time that honey and garlic become decreeable, but it doesn't take long for both the tartness to ramp up and the heat to take a firm hold of the flavor profile. While not insanely spicy, the heat's strength and flavor has tell tale elements of ghost pepper, and once the sauce has exited the mouth, it's really only heat and tang that's left in the aftertaste.
Slathered & Cooked
This sauce brushed onto the chicken in a thin and even layer that baked down very well over indirect heat. The sauce lost enough moisture during this process to leave it looking drier than the average barbecue sauce. Once moved over direct heat, there wasn't any sauce loss, but the dry appearance only became enhanced, and the sauce also blackened quickly and stuck to the grates. A final brushing of sauce before consuming helped improve the appearance. The first bite of the leg brought a sweet tomato flavor backed by honey, then tang and heat became part of the equation by the second bite. It wasn't until closer to when the chicken was done being consumed that the heat really built up though, which left space for those smoky and earthy tastes to come through, although they were a bit more subdued after being cooked.
Put to Use
I'm a sucker for a spicy barbecue sauce and Bash Brothers BBQ Honey Ghost delivered the heat I'm attracted to, but between the sweet tomato start and mouth burning peppery and tart end, the barbecue flavor didn't hold up to the best of the best barbecue sauces. When I took that into consideration, along with some of the less than ideal grilling properties, like fast burning, this sauce dropped down a few points, but all-in-all it's still a pretty solid contender. If you like spicy sauces, the ghost and other peppers in here are going to give you a lot to love while still delivering classic barbecue traits like molasses, tomato, and smoke. Even though the sauce worked well on the grill, the presence of honey lead to quick blackening, so I think it's a safer bet to use this sauce for dipping and finishing applications such as a coating for wings, dunker for sweet potato spuds, or a burger sauce.
