Kosmos Q Original Competition BBQ Sauce
Background
Darian Khosravi, aka Kosmo, learned a lot about cooking in his first job at an Oklahoma onion burger joint in El Reno. He formed a love for grilling, but it remained mainly a weekend hobby while he drove a hazardous waste truck as a day job, which allowed him to save money to buy his first smoker and start out on the competition circuit. At first he was using other people's rubs and sauces, but as he learned more, he began crafting his own recipes that were taking home hardware. This gave him the confidence to quit his day job and go all in on barbecue by selling his products and also operating a food truck. The product line really took off, which led to the shuttering of the truck and going all in on developing his offerings and also making content for his YouTube channel. Kosmos Q currently produces out of Oklahoma City and has seven different barbecue sauces along with a ton of other rubs, seasonings, marinades, and more available at groceries throughout the United States, in some international locations, and online.
Aroma
A pretty classic barbecue aroma greets the nose on an initial whiff that combines molasses, Worcestershire, tomato, vinegar, and smoke. While the molasses is the strongest player in the sweetness, there's a honey undertone that's easy to point out. With a deeper intake, a little bit of garlic starts to emerge, but mainly all those upfront, hallmark barbecue traits dominate.
Thickness & Texture
This glossy sauce has a medium-thin thickness and a super smooth, lightly syrupy consistency. Its dark maroon hue and opaqueness makes it hard to see the spices, but in direct sunlight, small and medium red specks become visible. The sauce pours off of a suspended spoon in a fast and even stream that changes to numerous fast drips followed by just a few slow ones before stopping and leaving a thin coating of sauce on the silverware.
Out of the Jar
A very sweet honey start to the flavor gains depth first by tomato followed by Worcestershire. Now with a good amount of complexity and savoriness, the sauce dials both up without ever going overboard with a molasses and vinegar combo next followed closely behind by smoke and a touch of heat. The other spices play minor parts, but there's some oniony and garlicky notes right before the tang and heat get punched up a couple notches. Those two items define the aftertaste, but there's still strong representation by molasses, smoke, and tomato to keep a robust barbecue flavor lingering.
Slathered & Cooked
This sauce brushed onto the chicken in a thin and even layer that set well over indirect heat. This helped prevent any sauce loss over direct heat while there was attractive caramelization and only blackening where the leg touched the grates. Like with the flavor out of the jar, a honey sweet tomato was most prominent in the first few bites. After that, all the additional elements came in to give the meat a robust barbecue taste that never completely overwhelmed the chicken. By the end of the leg a mellow heat had joined the party too.
Put to Use
I did my first Kosmo's Q review six years ago and it left me so impressed that I followed it up with a couple more sauces from the line in quick succession, but never did any more since then. So I was all too happy to see my local grocery recently began carrying Kosmo's Q and grabbed a recipe I hadn't tried yet and it just kept the hits going. Compared to the previous sauces I tested, this one treads more familiar ground, but it kind of has to being a competition-style sauce that has to hit all the barbecue notes judges are looking for. This sauce certainly delivers that, but with more depth, complexity, and balance than most others I've sampled. It was a pretty great feat in my mind that this sauce also was able to deliver a fairly "bold" flavor without being overpowering, which is what you want both in competition and in the backyard because sauces should work with the meat and not against it. So I can wholeheartedly recommend this sauce in both scenarios for just about anything—it's not going to drown out your poultry or fish, but also is strong enough for beef and pork.
