Kinder's BBQ Sauce Roasted Garlic
Background
John Kinder opened the first Kinder's meat market in Pablo, CA in 1946. The shop remained under John's ownership until his son, Dan, purchased the business along with his wife, Paula, in 1982. A few years after that, the duo moved the market to Concord, CA and then started to open additional locations. At the same time, Paula spun up the brand name P. K. Kinder Co in order to begin producing and distributing sauces and marinades. Both the products and markets continue to this day as family run businesses, and the former now has a total of seven barbecue sauces along with numerous other types of sauces and seasonings.
Aroma
The bottle doesn't lie when it promises garlic because the first whiff of this sauce brings an incredibly strong and distinct scent of those cloves. While garlic dominates, sitting right behind it is a mellow sweet tomato that starts off the barbecue aroma which is rounded out by Worcestershire and smoke.
Thickness & Texture
The semi-glossy maroon sauce is opaque and besides some large white bits here and there, which could be garlic, you can't really see any spices. The sauce sits right in the middle of the thickness scale and has a very syrupy consistency which has it flowing from a spoon in an even pour at medium speed after an initial large drop releases. As the sauce stream slows, a few slow drips finishes the pour and a medium coating of sauce is left clinging to the silverware.
Out of the Jar
The garlic that has such a strong presence in the aroma was there from the first taste of this sauce, but its flavor is less harsh than the smell might lead you to believe. Roasting took the edge of the garlic in a manner that allows it to meld well with the barbecue base that has a sweet tomato flavor with a bit of depth at first by way of molasses. As the sauce settles on the tongue, the garlic continues to be present, but tastes of smoke and Worcestershire join the party, while a mellow vinegar tang enters before dialing up and providing some contrast to the sweetness. As the sauce exits the mouth, a oniony taste works its way in, while the garlic remains and the faintest hint of heat finishes out the flavor profile, leaving a sweet, tangy, and garlicky aftertaste.
Slathered & Cooked
This sauce brushed onto the chicken in a medium, uneven layer that also set unevenly over indirect heat. This led to an average amount of sauce loss over high direct heat, and what did remain set and caramelized quickly. The garlic flavor I was expecting wasn't there in the first few bites of the chicken, instead the sauce delivered a fairly standard smoky sweet tomato flavor. By about the fourth bite though, the stamp of garlic was accounted for and present from then on, but was diminished when compared to out of the jar, which was the same story for the Worcestershire and other more nuanced flavors too.
Put to Use
I feel like anything that heavily features garlic is going to be hotly contested because there's a good split between the lovers and haters of this flavor. I can see this sauce playing into those divisions, but I think it has a leg up on being more universally lovable because the garlic flavor is smooth and melds well with the barbecue underpinnings, even though it's undeniably the dominant trait out of the jar. After being cooked though, the sauce treaded more familiar barbecue ground and delivered a flavor that wasn't bad, but also wasn't one I would rank much above middle-of-the-road. So ultimately I think this sauce is going rest best in the arms of garlic lovers, and to get the full benefit of its flavor, it'd be best used as a condiment on things like burgers or a dip for fries or chicken.
