BBQ (Sauce): Rufus Teague Honey Sweet

This past weekend was the last weekend of "freedom" for my nephew before he had to go back to school, as it was Spring Break for him. I was doing my writing at home when I was asked if I was interested in going to a kite festival in Prosser, about a half hour drive from here. Me, a kite festival? My immediate thought was no, I'm not into kites. But I needed to unwind a bit, get some fresh air, and to be honest I don't mind watching kites. I needed to take a break, and I did, or I should say we all did.

We got to Prosser but we didn't see a thing. It was then I found out that the kite festival was at some winery. I'm not a winery person either, I drink wine maybe twice a year and get heavily drunk from one glass and tend to show how I have the ancient Chinese secret (a/k/a red cheeks as an indication of intoxication). I have been wanting to cook with wine, and if there was ever a way to learn about how to grow grapes for harvesting towards making wine, I would do it. Well, I know there's a way but that way involves a lot of cash and time, which I don't have much of right now. But to look at land and the vineyards, I was into that. We made the wrong exit, but my sister had her cell phone with internet access, and we found that while we were in the general area, the winery was about half an hour south from where the off-ramp was, in the town of Paterson, Washington. Paterson? We've never been there, but we're driving and all we see is land. No buiildings, no bridges, nothing, just acres of land. It continues like this for a good half an hour and we thought we might miss the festival, but we see a few signs. Eventually we see the sign for a Columbia Crest Winery. We head into the parking lot, we see a few kites, and we park.

As we're looking at the kites, it's about four kites. Nice and breezy, but not exactly a festival. A lot of families are sitting, a few eating cheese & crackers, and my sister goes "are we the only brown people here?" It was very... how do I say this, vanilla, and there have been times when I have been to events where it feels that someone like myself am not welcome. I don't like the stares and gawking, plus I'm a big guy so I get insecure about stupid things I can't control. I almost didn't want to bother, was ready to leave and go back home but I thought nah, we're here. The kite festival looked like a waste so my mom and I decide to look for the gift shop. We look and I got a chance to look inside of the winery with all of the barrels, about six levels deep. It was just one section, I can only imagine what I didn't see, perhaps the winery warehouse. My sister and nephew make it up and we go into the gift shop. I wish I could be enthused about wine, but I'm not, at least not yet. I can tank a good bottle of grape juice, but wine is beyond me. I did notice some books of interest, one called The Pike Place Market: 100 Years and Pike Place Market Cookbook (both published by Sasquatch Books, and unfortunately I didn't have a lot of money on me so I couldn't buy either of them (but my eyes are on the Pike Place Market Cookbook). I see some candies, chocolates, anc crackers, but what catches my eye is what was sitting in a bbq grill. I couldn't believe it, I saw the bottle I had seen online, the face, and the logo. I love BBQ and enjoy trying BBQ sauces and this was one that was high on my list. But here it was, a bottle (or I should say a flask) of Rufus Teague Honey Sweet.

A few months ago I came across a website for the BBQ Sauce Of The Month Club, and one site lead to another until I came across one that promoted the greatness of Rufus Teague. Found the website, and with an old look to their graphics, the font, the use of the whiskey flask, and the rugged photo of Mr. Teague, I wanted to become a firm believer of the sauce just by hype alone. Of course, one can't believe on hype, and in this case I wanted to try it but did not have the money to get it. I opted to wait for next time, but my nephew came to the rescue. He has become a BBQ sauce freak as well, so while he bought it for himself, he did buy it so I could try it. The winery was very nice and I want to visit again and maybe take a tour, but with BBQ sauce in a bag, it was decided that this sauce had to be tried. My mom had a BBQ the day before, but who cares, we have Rufus Teague.

Let's cut to the chase. Hot dogs went on the grill, but there was a piece of steak from the BBQ the night before, and it was coated with the sauce. It went on the grill. A few minutes later we tried the steak. Mmmmm. The flavor was nice and smooth, you can taste the honey but it's not too sweet, it still has that nice tang to it. The consistency is about mid-way, in that it's not too runny nor is it slow like molasses, so if you buy a bottle and put it on a sandwich, be careful. I did try the sauce on the hot dog too, and it was great there. Today, I had a piece of turkey in a roll for lunch, with some Rufus Teague on the side, and it made the sandwich even better. With the weather now in the 60's and 70's, it would be a good time to buy some chicken and grill it with this sauce, or make some meat loaf and let that do its magic. As the Home of BBQ blog says, this cause can be addicting. One can find BBQ sauce at any supermarket, but Rufus Teague is not widely distributed and because of that can be a little pricey (this one went for $6.50). This sauce is worth the price, and I may have to buy a jug or box and give these out as gifts. Finger lickin' and toe lickin' good.