D&W BBQ Co. is a small, family owned and operated sauce company located in College Station, Texas. Though the company was founded just a couple of years ago, the sauce recipe has been in the Wright family for 50 years. Deke Wright grew up watching his mother, Tina, make the sauce for family cook outs and took on the recipe in her honor.

D&W sauce is packaged in 16 oz glass bottles. The bottle has a great looking "Texas Style" logo reminiscent of the old West. It also feature the blue ribbon used to symbolize colon cancer awareness. One dollar from every bottle sold is donated to the Colon Cancer Alliance in honor of Tina Wright who sadly passed from the disease in 2010.

Like many Texas BBQ sauces, D&W is on the thin side. However, the flavor of D&W is unlike any Texas sauce I've encountered. In fact, it's pretty unique to the world of BBQ sauce as a whole. It's a sweet and tangy mixture of both ketchup and mustard. Though technically a tomato based sauce, the mustard is what stands out in the aroma and flavor of the sauce. The main ingredients are accented by standard sauce ingredients like liquid smoke, Worcestershire sauce and sugar.

Though the weather in Michigan still feels like winter, I officially declared last weekend the beginning of BBQ season. D&W was the first product I used open the new season. I smoked three racks of baby back and painted the bones with D&W as the finished smoking. It was just thick enough to cling to the ribs and gave the meat and nice burnt orange shine. The sauce has a pretty bold flavor out of the bottle, but it was muted quite a bit by the heat. The sauce was tasty on the ribs, but pretty mild.

I used D&W BBQ sauce on two other occasions. First, as a dip for chicken nuggets. Later, I poured the sauce over pulled smoked chicken. As Deke Wright had suggested in an email, D&W sauce truly excelled as a dip or table sauce. It was fantastic poured over the smoked chicken and was a hit with the family as a dipping sauce. My wife and I both agreed that it was a great product for dipping french fries as well.

Whether you use it as a grilling glaze or dip, D&W is a top notch choice. The flavors are bold and slightly tangy, but still mild enough (especially when heated) to be served to just about anyone. I love the sauce's unique blend of flavors. It's a great change of pace, especially among Texas sauces.

To learn more about D&W, check out their website. Check out the D&W star rating on our Product Reviews page.