The sauce is made with ingredients like tomato, molasses, and hickory smoke.

It cost $4.19 for an 18-ounce bottle at my local Key Food supermarket in Brooklyn, New York.

The texture was more watery and ketchup-like compared to the thicker, more molasses-heavy varieties.

Compared to the other brands, I thought this barbecue sauce was lacking. I typically go for a thick, smoky barbecue sauce, and this was much lighter. I think I would struggle to fully coat chicken or ribs in this more viscous sauce, though I did enjoy the flavor.

It was tangy and slightly sweet, with a honey-like flavor, but reminded me more of a sweet-and-sour sauce than a true barbecue sauce.

The sauce is made from molasses, onions, and spices to deliver an authentic Kansas City-style barbecue sauce.

Aside from any store discounts, this barbecue sauce was the cheapest I tried. An 18-ounce bottle cost $2.89 at my local Key Food supermarket in Brooklyn, New York.

It clung to the chicken nugget and had a dark, buttery, molasses-like consistency.

The sauce had a robust, smoky flavor and a consistency that easily clung to the chicken nugget, making for a balanced bite that overtook my tastebuds.

It was really sweet, very much tasting of molasses. However, I was missing that slight tangy flavor that would have really taken this sauce over the edge and provided a more dynamic flavor profile.

Before this taste test, I was already familiar with Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce.

The brand has been cited as the top-selling barbecue sauce in the US, so this sauce had a lot to live up to, especially since it had no added sugar, which I worried would weaken the flavor.

An 18.5-ounce bottle cost $4.89 at my local Key Food, making it the most expensive sauce I tried.

The sauce easily coated the chicken nugget, without being too thick or gloopy.

Overall, this sauce nailed it for me. It was tangy but not sickly sweet, and it had a balanced consistency in terms of texture. I definitely got the smoky flavor without the overpowering molasses flavor I tasted in the KC Masterpiece barbecue sauce.

It was also the lowest-calorie sauce of the ones I tried, with 15 calories per serving.

However, when it came down to price, it was beaten out by the original version.

It perhaps comes as no surprise that this sauce was my favorite. After all, the brand has won awards at various barbecue competitions for its sauce.

An 18-ounce bottle cost $2 at my local Key Food after a markdown of $1.89, making it the least expensive barbecue sauce I tried.

It was just a touch less thick than the other sauce from Sweet Baby Ray's, but it still managed to coat the chicken nugget easily. In my opinion, this was the best sauce for dipping.

The sauce had a slightly acidic, tart flavor that balanced out the sweet notes and an undercurrent of earthy flavor that made me feel like I was at a backyard barbecue.

Next time I'm firing up the grill for some barbecue ribs or just need a dipping sauce for my nuggets or chicken tenders, I know exactly which barbecue sauce I'm grabbing.

Smashburger, a Colorado-based chain now found across 34 states, sells a BBQ bacon smash burger for $10.86, excluding tax and fees, at my nearest location in Brooklyn, New York. It was the cheapest of the three burgers I tried.

The burger came topped with cheddar cheese, applewood smoked bacon, crispy fried onions, and barbecue sauce.

Beneath a pile of crispy onion bits, I could clearly see the barbecue sauce, although overall, the burger looked and felt a little dry when I picked it up.

The crispy onions seemed to soak up a lot of the moisture from the beef patty and the sauce in my mouth, leaving a dry bite.

I'm not a fan of any burger cooked past medium, so this well-done patty simply wasn't doing it for me, but how a burger is cooked is a matter of personal preference.

The cheese on the burger I tried also wasn't melted enough to provide enough moisture to counteract the dryness of the burger.

However, the bacon on this burger blew me away. It was smoky and perfectly cooked.

I ordered the BBQ bacon Whopper Jr. and added cheese. It cost $11.09, excluding tax and fees, which I thought was a little pricey for a junior-sized burger.

The burger was served on a sesame seed bun and topped with barbecue sauce, mayonnaise, pickles, and strips of crispy bacon.

There was a generous amount of all the toppings, creating a balanced bite.

The bacon was crispy, though not as flavorful as the bacon from the other two burgers I tried. However, I thought this was a great classic cheeseburger. The onions, lettuce, and tomato were fresh, and the beef was juicy while still retaining a smoky, chargrilled flavor.

However, it tasted similarly to a classic Whopper, and I didn't get a strong barbecue flavor from it. It was a classic cheeseburger, but I was looking for more barbecue flavor.

Shake Shack, which has US locations in 30 states and Washington, DC, offers two different kinds of barbecue burgers: the Smoky Classic BBQ burger and the Carolina BBQ burger with fried pickles.

I ordered the classic version, which is topped with fried onions and bacon. It cost $13.29, excluding tax and fees, making it the most expensive burger of the bunch.

The barbecue sauce evenly coated the soft, fluffy bun and all of the toppings.

I was impressed by the size and thickness of the pickle slices, as well as the amount of crispy onions and bacon stacked on top of the burger patty.

The cheese was evenly coated on every inch of the thin, crispy patty, and the bun held everything together while still retaining its softness.

Though thin and crispy, the burger was still perfectly cooked at a medium temperature, and the onions, though crispy, weren't hard, crunchy, and dry like the onions on the Smashburger cheeseburger I tried.

Rather than bits of cut-up onions that didn't have much flavor, these onions were more similar to onion rings, and instantly transported me back to summer carnivals and roadside stands.

The pickles added a tart, crunchy flavor, and this was the only burger where I really tasted the barbecue sauce. It was smoky yet light and had a slight vinegar taste that balanced out the richer flavors of the cheese, beef, and bacon.

Though it was the most expensive burger, I thought it was well worth the slightly higher price.