The 9 Best Carolina BBQ Sauces You Can Find On Amazon

Real barbecue aficionados know that Carolina BBQ sauce is in a class of its own. South Carolina sauces are known for their golden brown hue and pungent mustard flavor while North Carolina sauces are vinegar based, delivering a zingy acidic element to counter traditionally fatty BBQ meats. These are not the overly sweet bottled barbecue sauces you're used to.

Lucky for us, you don't need to live in Charleston or Fayetteville to get your hands on a quality bottle of Carolina BBQ sauce. Amazon has a wide selection of sauces that can be delivered to your door in less time than it takes to smoke a brisket. I rounded up nine Carolina BBQ sauces I found on Amazon that represented a wide array of sauce styles from vinegar-forward mop sauce to mustard-based Carolina gold.

Once I got my hands on these sauces, I tasted each one, paying close attention to the flavor profile and noting how it might enhance the flavors of the meat it's destined to coat. I also paid attention to texture and overall authenticity, noting how closely each sauce represented its cultural roots. And I ended up with this list of the nine best Carolina BBQ sauces you can find on Amazon.

This vinegar-based sauce is the crown jewel of Carolina BBQ sauce. Lillie Q's ENC Barbecue Sauce balances tang, spice, and sweetness to capture perfectly the true essence of Eastern North Carolina BBQ. The bold vinegar base carries a peppery kick and there's just the right amount of sugar to round out the sharper flavors without compromising the sauce's integrity. Like most vinegar-based sauces, it's pretty thin, so it's not great for dipping, but that's not the point of a sauce like this one. As Stephen Colbert famously said of North Carolina barbecue: "You just **** all over it with vinegar."

Use Lillie Q's as a marinade to tenderize you BBQ meat and impart a piquant peppery taste before cooking or use it as a mop sauce, continually basting your meat with it as it cooks to keep it moist and flavorful. It's got a bit of a chile pepper kick, but not enough to overwhelm the taste buds or leave me running for a glass of water. Anybody who appreciates the true taste of Southern BBQ will love this sauce not only for its fantastic flavor, but for its authenticity. This sauce would work magic on pulled pork and grilled veggies and it could even be used as a dressing for a slaw or a salad.

Cattlemen's is proof that price doesn't always correlate with quality. One of the more affordable sauces on the list, Cattlemen's Caroline Tangy Gold BBQ sauce has just enough sweetness to balance out the tang of mustard without making the sauce too sugary, a fate to which many cheaper BBQ sauces fall prey. Instead of including high-fructose corn syrup, Cattlemen's uses molasses, which gives the sauce a richer, more complex sweet flavor with just a hint of caramel.

But the star of the show here is the mustard. The slightly spicy acidity cuts through the fat in heavier cuts of meat. The consistency is also just right, with a thickness that clings perfectly to a piece of meat without overwhelming it. The only minor gripe I have is with the texture. The sauce is smooth, but when it comes to mustard-based South Carolina sauces, I prefer my BBQ sauce a little grainy to get an authentic mustard mouthfeel. Overall, though, it's a solid sauce at a reasonable price point and I'd buy it again.

Though it's still a BBQ sauce, True Made Foods Classic Carolina Mop Sauce is a far cry from the heavy, sweet, tomato-based sauce that most people consider BBQ sauce typical of Kansas City BBQ. To truly enjoy this sauce, you'll have to let go of your preconceived notions of what a BBQ sauce is. Mop sauce like this one is used a bit differently. While your meat is cooking, you continually baste it with this sour, spicy, tangy liquid, which keeps it nice and moist despite the long hours it spends cooking.

Flavor-wise, this sauce is primarily made of apple cider vinegar, so the first taste that hits you is tart and tangy. Butternut squash and carrots give the sauce a bit of heft and earthy flavor, while red and black pepper round it out with a piquant, gentle spicy finish. While it may not be the ideal sauce for dipping french fries and it won't give your BBQ the sweet, tomato forward flavor you may be used to, the acidity balances out the fattiness of heavy meats like pulled pork and brisket.

If you've never tried South Carolina style BBQ sauce before and you're looking for where to start, Sugarfire Carolina Mustard Barbecue Sauce might be just the place. For those who are used to "standard" tomato-based sauces, the pungent taste of mustard may seem like the wrong flavor for BBQ, but don't tell that to somebody from South Carolina. The state prides itself on its mustard-based sauces and if you keep an open mind, you'll see they're onto something.

Sugarfire has a discernible mustard flavor, but it's offset by other flavors like vinegar, molasses, honey, onion, and spices. While it's a little on the sweet side for a mustard-based sauce, it isn't a cloying sweetness and it has a similar consistency and sugar content as the more typical tomato-based sauces that you're used to. This sauce would make an excellent addition to a plate of smoked chicken, lending a hint of sweetness, an earthy tang, and a moist finish. It would also be great on a pulled pork sandwich where the acidity of the mustard would provide a nice contrast with the fatty pork.

While most of the sauces on this list were made by companies that produce a variety of BBQ sauces, Plochman's is primarily known for its mustard and only makes this one BBQ sauce. While it's hard to consider Plochman's Tangy Carolina BBQ a real South Carolina BBQ sauce, it still has its merits. The most unique aspect is the addition of hickory smoke flavoring, which gives the sauce an earthy flavor reminiscent of a campfire. It may not be typical, but it's still delicious.

In the background, the taste of mild mustard rounds out the sauce's flavor profile, as does the addition of sugar. The sauce is pleasantly sweet, but doesn't have so much sugar that it's overwhelming, a pitfall to which many BBQ sauces fall prey. This sauce is great for those who love smoky flavor, and it has a thick texture that would be great for spreading on pulled pork sandwiches. Smoky flavor can be divisive, but if you're a fan of the taste of hickory chips, this may be the sauce for you.

If you like a distinctly South Carolina BBQ with flavors that are anything but shy, pick up a bottle of Traeger Liquid Gold Carolina-Style BBQ Sauce. Before you even open the bottle, you'll notice that this sauce is swimming with spices. Flecks of black and red pepper pop among the brown-gold color of the sauce's mustard base and they foreshadow the intense pepper flavor that awaits you when you slather Traeger Liquid Gold over your favorite BBQ meats.

The mustard base of this sauce has a great balance of sweet and savory, with just enough sugar to mellow out the earthy, potent flavor of mustard. My only issue with this sauce was the amount of black pepper. The large flakes of pepper dominate the sauce's flavor and drown out the taste of mustard, which should be the main attraction. It's not a mortal sin and the sauce is still perfectly edible, especially if you're a fan of black pepper. And like all BBQ sauces, it's only as good as the context in which you use it. This sauce would be a great addition to a plate of smoked pork, where the slightly piney, bitter taste of black pepper would counter the fatty, earthy flavor of the pork. 

Heinz played it super safe with this Carolina Vinegar BBQ Sauce. The sauce is labeled as "sweet and tangy," and it certainly is, but it doesn't taste like an authentic Carolina sauce. While it's perfectly delicious, this sauce tastes suspiciously like the sweet, tomato-heavy Kansas City-style sauce that dominates the BBQ sauce market. Western North Carolina does have traditional sauces that include tomato, but they're not as sweet and they only contain enough tomato to have a gentle pink color as opposed to this sauce's deep red hue.

That said, the sauce does contain more vinegar than the average BBQ sauce, and the slightly sweet tang of apple cider vinegar is discernible among the more bold, pronounced flavor of tomato and spices. It's also much thicker than your average vinegar-based BBQ sauce, which means you can use it as a dip. For BBQ fans who are just dipping their toes in the vinegar-forward sauces typical of North Carolina, this might be a good place to start.

I was a bit perplexed when I looked at Carolina Treet Original Cooking Barbecue Sauce for the first time. South Carolina BBQ sauces are usually an opaque golden brown, while North Carolina sauces are a translucent amber color, sometimes with a reddish-pink hue. This sauce is a class of its own, with an intense orange hue that foreshadows the spice-heavy sauce within.

Like many North Carolina sauces, this one has vinegar high up on the ingredient list and its zingy, sour taste is the first thing you notice when it hits your tongue. Beyond that, a blend of spices make this a super savory option, especially when you consider that the sauce has no added sugar. Also, Carolina Treet is labeled cooking sauce for a reason. The intense spices may seem like a lot on their own, but they stand up nicely to the intense heft of BBQ meats like a fatty brisket or slow-roasted pulled pork.

If you're in the market for a South Carolina-style sauce that gives you that pungent mustard flavor without overwhelming the senses, grab a bottle of Duke's Carolina Gold BBQ. The sauce has a well-rounded mix of flavors, starting with mustard seed, which gives this sauce its characteristic flavor and golden brown color. The addition of cayenne-based hot sauce lends a zingy vinegar taste and just the right amount of subtle heat.

This is probably the sweetest of all the sauces on this list, so if you're a fan of sugary BBQ, this is the sauce for you. While I'm not usually a fan of sweet sauces, this one had enough bold, acidic flavors in the form of mustard and vinegar to cut through the sugar and deliver a balanced product. A healthy helping of this sauce over a plate of pulled chicken would add color, flavor, and a rich, moist texture. I'd also use this sauce in a classic South Carolina-style pulled pork sandwich to add a dash of flavor to the rich fattiness of pork. If you're looking to make the most of summer grilling season with a diverse array of sauces, this one would make a great addition.

Ranking a whole lineup of Carolina barbecue sauces requires a discerning palate and a healthy imagination. Since I didn't have time to slow roast a whole hog with each sauce, I had to imagine what these sauces would taste like if they were used on meats. As somebody who has a long line of ancestors from North Carolina, Carolina BBQ sauce was a staple in my house growing up and I ate it with all kinds of meats and sides, so I have a pretty good sense of how these different sauces would fare in the real world.

Primarily, I was looking for taste. Each sauce should have a mix of flavors that has the capacity to elevate a plate of BBQ. This can be achieved in sauces that are sweet, savory, spicy, or a mix of all three. Beyond that, I was judging based on authenticity. If a sauce claims to be an Eastern North Carolina BBQ sauce, does it have the sweet tang of apple cider vinegar? How about a subtle, earthiness and a perfectly balanced mix of spices? What I ended up with was a definitive list of the best Carolina BBQ sauces you can buy on Amazon.