Best store-bought bottled barbecue sauce, ranked

Barbecue season prompted a taste test of four store-bought bottled sauces: three brand originals and one no-sugar-added variant. Each sauce was sampled on its own and with chicken nuggets to judge texture, balance of sweet, tangy, and smoky flavors, and overall value.

Kraft's slow-simmered original was my least favorite. An 18-ounce bottle cost $4.69 at Key Food in Brooklyn, New York. The sauce was thinner and more ketchup-like than the others — light and tangy with a honey-like sweetness that leaned toward sweet-and-sour, and not quite viscous or smoky enough to coat chicken or ribs well.

KC Masterpiece American Original was the cheapest 18-ounce bottle I tried, $3.29 at Key Food. It was the thickest sauce, clinging to nuggets with a dark, molasses-forward character. The balance tilted toward a robust, sugary molasses sweetness with solid smokiness, but I missed a sharper tang to make the flavor profile more dynamic.

United States, Brooklyn, New York

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