The Best Sweet Baby Ray's Sauce Tops The Original BBQ Flavor

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Sweet Baby Ray's is known for its original barbecue sauce — and it may be your go-to sauce for when you make delicious dishes like pulled pork sandwiches, baby back ribs, or chicken wings. While the brand's original barbecue sauce is a great choice, it's far from the only sauce that Sweet Baby Ray's sells. There's actually almost 30 sauces to choose from (including barbecue sauces, wing sauces, and hot sauces). Because it would be difficult for the average shopper to try every single one, we did a ranking of 17 Sweet Baby Ray's sauce flavors to help you weed out the best options. And the sauce that took our top spot was actually not the original flavor — rather, Sweet Baby Ray's Hickory and Brown Sugar Barbecue Sauce landed at number one.

Our tester made the ranking based mostly on texture and taste, using their food industry expertise. With all that in mind, the hickory and brown sugar flavor excelled in both aspects. The tester found the sauce to have a complex, delicious flavor — the smoky element hit first, followed by the classic barbecue sauce flavor, and ended with a nice brown sugar sweetness. It also had a perfectly thick consistency. As a plus, it's also gluten-free, so it's more accessible to everyone.

Shoppers seem to agree with our assessment. For example, if you look at the Walmart product page for the Sweet Baby Ray's Hickory and Brown Sugar Barbecue Sauce, you'll find almost 500 reviews, with an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars. In other words, most reviewers loved this sauce.

In the Walmart reviews for Sweet Baby Ray's Hickory and Brown Sugar Barbecue Sauce, customers love the sweet, smoky flavor. One person declared it "the best BBQ sauce ever," noting that they bought it in bulk to give it out as a gift. Another reviewer wrote that this sauce has "the perfect blend of bbq spices." And one reviewer wrote, "This sauce has a well-balanced taste [and] has a sweetness that does not overpower the [other] flavors." Similarly, a couple reviewers note that this is a great choice for anyone who loves a hint of sweetness in a savory sauce.

Just like our tester thought, reviewers also love the texture as much as the flavor. One reviewer wrote that it's "thick and delicious," noting that they also use it as a dipping sauce. Another customer praised its "smooth" element.

Amongst all the praise, there are a few bad reviews in there. One person complained that it's not as good as homemade, but, of course, that doesn't mean it's not a well-made and tasty store-bought option. One three-star review said that it's "good enough," which isn't exactly high praise, but the reviewer also, notably, found nothing to complain about. But all in all, the reviewers rave about this product — as do we — so we definitely recommend you give it a try for a smoky, sweet, and flavorful barbecue sauce option.