Honey Chili Barbecue Sauce

Easton Reed Honey Chili Barbecue Sauce with a gentle heat

Easton Reed’s Honey Chili Barbecue Sauce pits honey against red chili. Tomato paste and brown sugar form the smooth base, while a paste made from salted chilies provides a kick that warms rather than burns.

Honey Chili Barbecue Sauce is the honey-chili sauce from Augsburg-based Easton Reed, bottled in 260 ml glass jars. Following sugar, water, and double-concentrated tomato paste are honey, brown sugar, and a red chili paste. Mustard, apple cider vinegar, garlic, and cumin round out the recipe and provide a savory foundation.

First honey, then a warm trace of chili

In the glass, the sauce looks like its mild sibling—dark red and thick—but what happens in the mouth is a different story. The difference only becomes apparent after swallowing, and then very clearly so. When cooking with it, you barely notice it anyway because it behaves exactly like the mild version.

First, the honey comes through, soft and round, followed immediately by the tomato with its concentrated fruit acidity. The chili makes itself felt after a delay of one or two seconds and lingers as a pleasant warmth at the back of the mouth, without anyone needing to reach for water.

Sweet, fruity, mildly spicy—everything builds up in this order, and the cumin adds a warm underlying note. Experience shows that those who usually avoid heat generally get along well with this dosage.

For grilled meat, finger food, and cheese

This sauce is the all-rounder for evenings when many different snacks are on the table at once and everyone helps themselves to what they like. Chicken wings, spareribs, and burgers take it straight from the brush without any need for further marinade.

Sandwiches and wraps benefit from it as a spread, it serves as a dip for fries and sweet potato wedges, and on a piece of young Gouda or cream cheese, it proves that honey and chili also work well alongside dairy products. Even grilled pineapple slices and roasted cashews go surprisingly well with it, because the sweetness of the sauce finds an echo there.

For a version without any heat, try the Honey BBQ Sauce; for a fruity-smoky option, check out the Raspberry Chipotle Sauce. The rest of the house displays the Easton Reed assortment.

Chili paste brings fruit, not just heat

This recipe contains neither dried pods nor powder, but rather a paste made from salted red chilies, and this difference is palpable. It determines how the heat is perceived in the mouth.

Dried chili primarily provides heat, whereas a pickled paste also brings the fruitiness of the ripe pod, along with a slight acidity from the pickling process. That is why the heat here feels juicy instead of dusty and coats the sauce instead of overpowering it.

At five percent content, the paste remains clearly in the background behind the honey and tomato, which is exactly where it belongs. The sauce was developed by Ryan's Specialties in Augsburg and is produced in Europe. Further companions for the grill can be found in our collection of BBQ sauces, ranging from mild to intensely spicy.