Boxes are $34 with $8 shipping and with the option of delivery every month, three months, or six months. You can subscribe monthly or sign up for three, six, or 12 months, but unlike most other companies, there’s no discount for signing up for a longer subscription.
Best Hidden Gem
BBQ Distro is the pride of Grand Prairie, Texas, and it’s the key to making the best Texas-style barbecue in your backyard. BBQ Distro is run by pitmaster and chief smoke officer Joe Zavala of Zavala’s BBQ, an award-winning barbecue joint, and it distributes sauces and rubs from Texas Monthly’s Top 50 Texas Barbecue Joints, which is regarded as the Oscars of Texas barbecue. You are receiving the best of the best Texas-style barbecue sauces, which includes Zavala’s—his Sloppy Juan BBQ Sauce is the best sauce I tried for this list.
There are two size options for a BBQ Distro subscription. You can choose the “Fatty” box, which includes two primary products (say, a sauce and a rub), or the “Lean” box, which includes just one. To get your smoker going (if you have one), every monthly box also includes tumbleweed fire starters from Nomad Grills. Many pitmasters consider Nomad to make the best-quality tumbleweed. Boxes also include a small bag of authentically smoked potato or corn chips from Dallas-based Low and Slow Snacks. They also have swag, like keychains and koozies from partners like Topo Chico.
However, a membership with BBQ Distro is much more than the box you receive in the mail. It gives you access to full-length videos of Zavala and other pitmasters providing invaluable education about grilling and smoking, including a three-hour brisket smoking class led by Zavala. This is in-person at Zavala’s BBQ, and yes, people travel from across the country to attend. This typically costs $200, but you can attend one time for free with a subscription.
The Fatty box costs $39 for one month, $109 for three months, or $399 for a year (saves you $6 per month). The Lean box costs $24 for one month, $64 for three months, or $229 for a whole year (saves you $5/month).
Best Hot Sauce Customization
Scovilled is the only company on this list from which you can get both barbecue sauce and hot sauce. It’s also the best service for customizing your subscription, because you answer questions about your preferences. You can select your preferred heat level, flavors (like blueberry or garlic), and your food pairings (like burgers or chicken). I also requested barbecue sauce.
I was amazed at the accuracy of what I received, which included a delicious Chipotle Blueberry BBQ Sauce. Being able to customize your preferences means that you’re less likely to be surprised. However, you are more likely to enjoy the sauces, because you provide guidance on what you know you like. If you don’t care, you can always choose the “Surprise me!” option.
Scovilled gives you the option of subscribing to three bottles or one bottle per box. If you choose to pay as you go, the subscription costs $30 or $12, respectively, whether you choose to have a box sent to you every month or every three months. You can also choose to pay for six months at a time, which saves you 5 percent, or one year at a time, which saves you 10 percent.
Most Interactive Hot Sauce Box
If you’re a fan of the wildly popular YouTube series Hot Ones, you may be inclined to pick Heatonist as your hot sauce subscription box of choice. Heatonist has a partnership with First We Feast, the company that produces the show, so you can film your famous (or not-so-famous) friends with the entire 10-sauce lineup as their throats catch fire and their eyes become waterfalls. You can even buy bottles from previous seasons.
I received a monthly subscription box that included Butterfly Bakery of Vermont’s Cucumber Jalapeño Chermoula hot sauce (native to Morocco), Seed Ranch Flavor Co’s NashSeoul Hot (with a gochujang base) and Chili Lengua de Fuego’s Me-So Hot (with a miso base). I loved the inclusion of international flavors and fusion that made up this incredible variety with flavor combos that I didn’t know I needed. (My favorite here is the cucumber jalapeño—a solid kick that cools on the way down.)