Cattleboyz was launched in 1998 by a family of cattle ranchers in Alberta, Canada. In search of a gourmet sauce to compliment their prime beef, the Ternes family developed their own rich, full bodied sauce. While originally produced at home for family and friends, the family eventually made the sauce available to the Canadian public. The company started with their Original BBQ sauce, but has expanded to feature Sweet Chili Sauce and several spice blends.
Cattleboyz Original BBQ Sauce is packaged in unique 17 oz (500 ml) bottles. Pictured above, they resemble old school rootbeer bottles. It's definitely one of the coolest looking bottles on the market. The lone drawback is that the bottle is tinted dark which makes it impossible to get a good look at the sauce.

The sauce, too, is quite unique. The flavor hardly fits the description of a classic BBQ sauce...regardless of region. Though the sauce contains traditional ingredients like tomato paste and vinegar, the first ingredients listed on the label are actually sugar and water. The unusual proportions of familiar ingredients give the sauce a flavor that is difficult to categorize. The closest comparison that I can make is an Asian Hoisin sauce.

I used Cattleboyz Original BBQ Sauce on a couple of occasions. First, I brushed the sauce on grilled chicken. The dark, brown sauce gave the chicken great color on the grill. The bold, tangy flavor was muted a bit by the heat. However, the flame did seem to bring out a slight bitterness. I later used the sauce for BBQ meatballs. It wasn't quite the flavor profile I was looking for. I didn't feel like the sauce complimented th savory beef / pork meatballs the way a traditional BBQ sauce would.

It's hard to recommend Cattleboyz Original as a BBQ sauce. While it was fair as a finishing sauce for grilled chicken, I would suggest that Cattleboyz is best suited for use as a cooking sauce. Stir fry and fajitas may be good applications for Cattleboyz.

For more information about Cattleboyz, click here to visit their website. See how their Original BBQ Sauce rates on our "Product Reviews" page.