Old Mule Full Kick Hot
Background
Cheryl Modlin is half of the team behind Old Mule, which was named for the working mules on her family farm growing up that were so loved that Cheryl's father wanted to name her after one. The barbecue portion of the story started with Cheryl's husband Steve, who crafted his barbecue sauce recipe back in his college years. Once paired up, the duo would make that sauce and give it out as Christmas gifts during the holidays. This was back in the 1980's, then in mid-90's, after some prodding from friends and family, the couple brought their sauce to market and they've been keeping it up since then. The operation remains family run with the sauce still produced by themselves and some some of their children on their farm north of Columbus in Western North Carolina. The brand has expanded their recipes over the years though and now are up to seven sauces along with two rubs that are available in stores throughout the United States as well as online.
Aroma
This sauce has a very subdued aroma with a light sweet tomato base that has notes of Worcestershire and pepper to help give it a little bit of a barbecue profile. It takes some really deep nosefuls for more players to make themselves known with molasses being the next strongest in the pack and a faint onion hanging around in the background
Thickness & Texture
This glossy sauce has an opaque maroon hue that masks whatever spices might be mixed in except for a lone black pepper spec here and there. The sauce's consistency is very smooth and syrupy with a thickness that sits right at the medium mark. The sauce falls first in a large drip from a suspended spoon, then an even stream moving at a good speed before starting to slow and changing to numerous drips. Once the sauce stops falling, a medium coating is left on the silverware in which you can now see a lot of small red spice bits.
Out of the Jar
A very ketchup-like taste begins the flavor progression with that sweet tomato taste gaining depth first from molasses. As the sauce rests on the tongue, complexity builds quickly thanks to Worcestershire and various spices like onion powder and cayenne pepper. The vinegar layer strengthens the tang at this point, while the peppers also increase, but neither drown out the tomato sweetness, Worcestershire, or molasses, leaving a varied and full bodied barbecue aftertaste.
Slathered & Cooked
This sauce coated the chicken in a medium and uneven layer that also set a bit splotchy as well. This led to slightly higher than average sauce loss over direct heat with some thicker sauce areas blackening quickly. While the first bite of the leg was all tomato sweetness, the peppers were at play by the second bite, adding a nice contrast to the sugar. It took many more bites for additional depth to enter from mainly the Worcestershire and molasses. When done with the chicken, the peppers and sugars stayed in a good balance, ensuring the chicken was never too spicy or too sweet.
Put to Use
Now that I have a local source that carries all of the Old Mule sauces, I plan on working my way through the entire line-up, but have a good feeling that Full Kick will outperform many of the other recipes I have yet to still try. That's because the base of this sauce is pretty sugary with a strong tomato ketchup flavor, and for my taste buds, contrast from peppers is really needed to step up the flavor profile. Without the peppers, the flavor would still be good, but not entirely noteworthy with the other barbecue players of Worcestershire, molasses, and vinegar helping define the sauce, but not making something that stands out in crowd. This general feeling, paired with some just okay grilling properties, left Full Kick as something I can recommend, but probably not worth hunting for. With more complexity and heat out of the jar, I would personally get the most satisfaction from this sauce as a condiment—I think it would be very tasty on burgers in particular.
