Posted February 14, 2013 by David in Reviews

Pork Barrel BBQ – Mustard BBQ

Today I’m checking out the Mustard BBQ sauce from Pork Barrel BBQ. If you haven’t heard of Pork Barrel, you might have been under a rock for a while. While there are plenty of small industry super stars, many which rely on a site like ours as part of their marketing strategy, Pork Barrel enjoyed a bit luck and received broad exposure to the mainstream market through the television show Shark Tank, in which they solicited for an investor in the company, and through that appearance gained some unintended, but great marketing for their product as well.

After the show aired, they essentially went viral and quickly had to adjust to the pressures of going from a smaller regional manufacturer to trying to handle this nationwide instant appeal. While that’s a good problem to have, it comes with lots of challenges, and with us reviewing one of their newer products as proof, I can gladly say that they survived the transition period and were able to expand their line with this Mustard sauce being one of the their more recent adaptions of regional or state specific BBQ styles. Let’s dig in and see how it goes.

Ingredients:

I was actually a bit surprised to see Chipotle and Ketchup included in the list here, as I figured this would likely end up as just a sweet and tart mustard sauce, but we’ll see how those being added in adjust the flavor. Here’s the list of what we’re working with: Mustard, Honey, Cider Vinegar, Catsup, Sugar, Worcestershire Sauce, Chipotle Puree, and Natural spices.

Aroma/Color/Texture:

Now that I’m looking at the color of this sauce more closely, I suppose I should have been less surprised by the idea of ketchup in this, as there is an orange tint to this sauce, which would make sense if traditional mustard and traditional ketchup were combined. Along with that is a liberal inclusion of various spices that you can see throughout the sauce. There is a very herbaceous and tart aroma to this sauce, with a background of sweetness. The chiles don’t stand out in this at all, but the tartness of it is already getting the mouth watering, which is usually a good sign. There is a moderate thickness to the sauce, but it pours easily enough.