We are a condiment-obsessed nation. That’s not a bad thing, though! Sure, we can get gluttonous and douse our fries in too much ketchup or overdo it with the mayo. But if we seek out sauces whipped up by people who devote themselves to the craft, we have the opportunity to add a lot more excitement to our plates.

Subscriptions are a good way to immerse yourself in the world of craft barbecue and hot sauces. There is a wider array of creative and experimental ingredients than ever, and trying funky combinations is a fun way to play around in the kitchen. I surprised myself at how much I liked some out-of-the-box flavors. Most of these companies are pretty small operations, so the people behind them are putting a lot of thought into the sauces and rubs they want to surprise their customers with. Subscriptions are also a great gift—for a loved one or even yourself. (Check out some of our other hand-picked gift guides while you’re here.)

Generally, you do not pick exactly which sauces you want to receive in your subscription boxes but rather surrender to the expert sauce masters, who work to send you the best and newest small-batch sauces. The amount of flavors they come up with is impressive. The subscription boxes I included here primarily include curated sauces and rubs, with exceptions for including small accessories like tools or swag. If there’s a bottle that you become obsessed with, you can purchase more individually through most of these services.

Updated November 2024: We’ve added subscriptions from Kinzie Foods, HI Spice, and Bradshaw Sauce Co., changed some rankings, and updated links and prices.

• Best Sauce Box for Beginners: Grill Masters Club
• Best for Barbecue Rubs: Boost Your BBQ
• Best for Texas Barbecue: BBQ Distro
• Best Hot Sauce Customization: Scovilled
• Most Interactive Hot Sauce Box: Heatonist
• Best Hot Sauce Box for Gifting: Fuego Box
• Best Barbecue Sauce Box for Gifting: Kinzie Foods
• Best for Hot Sauce Fanatics: Heat Hot Sauce Shop
• Other Great Options

How We Tested

When testing, I considered variety, price, the breadth of subscription options, the type of packaging, and customer service. “Subscription options” includes the number of bottles that customers can select to receive per box plus the frequency options available, like monthly or quarterly. When it comes to the variety of brands, I included information on whether the subscription box includes bottles from brands that the company curates, or if you’re getting a box of sauces that the company itself makes. Finally, some services allow you to customize what you want to receive—primarily the heat level of each sauce. Others are a complete surprise every time you open your box.

Best Sauce Box for Beginners

The Grill Masters Club is curated by professional pitmasters who treat barbecue sauce and rub combos like an art form. Its boxes typically contain more experimental sauces and rubs. For example, I still think fondly of the Smokey Horseradish Sauce from Torchbearer Sauces when I think back on all the sauces I tried for this article. It has that horseradish kick that opens your sinuses, but it’s simultaneously sweet and goes well with everything. It’ll make you rethink everything you once thought about horseradish. One recent box included Torchbearer’s Coffee and BBQ Sauce, Blackbeard Spice Company’s Triton Ancient Greek Spice Rub, and PS Seasoning’s Chicken and Waffle Wing Rub.

Each box includes two sauces and two rubs. Many of the rubs come in smaller, roughly 3.5-ounce sizes, so you get to try your hand at a wider variety of flavors. The boxes come with a small booklet with recipes by the pitmasters, including ways that they recommend using the sauce and rub combos on different types of meat.

Additionally, you will receive some sort of tool. The tools can range from a pair of tongs to a spatula or a brush. I was pleasantly surprised at the good quality of the tools. These come in handy for newbies who may not already have the necessary grilling tools.

You have the option to have boxes sent to you monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly. Whichever you pick, you also have the option to prepay for up to 12 boxes. So if you choose to purchase three boxes bimonthly, that means you will receive a box every other month for the next six months. Grill Masters Club also provides the option of paying month-to-month for $50 a box. If you buy 12 boxes for bimonthly delivery, you pay $444.

Best for Barbecue Rubs

Boost Your BBQ sends boxes of the latest and greatest sauces and rubs from the barbecue competition world. It’s curated by one man, Chris Kossman, an award-winning barbecue competitor. Each box comes with three full-size products, two rubs, and one sauce. The products inside are matched very intentionally. One of the boxes I received from Boost Your BBQ contained Elk Creek Bar-B-Q Co.’s Hog Knuckle Honey Chipotle Rub, DB 180’s Sizzlin’ Steak Seasoning, and SmokinGhost’s Spooky Sweet BBQ Sauce. Kossman put these three together because he felt they would be amazing as a blend. I tried this combo on chicken breasts, which gave them a sweet and smokey profile.

Kossman also attempts to make his boxes seasonally appropriate; my first box was in October, so I got the SmokinGhost sauce as an homage to Halloween. In November, the box included a flavorful Hardcore Carnivore fried turkey seasoning. Kossman prides his company on coming up with atypical flavor combos, although each can, of course, be used individually as you please.

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 for Texas Barbecue

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.)

With the monthly subscription, you get a three-pack of sauces that are on the current season of the show. That’ll cost you $30 a month, with three-, six-, or 12-month options. With the annual subscription, you’ll get the full 10-bottle lineup three times a year (yes, the current season’s box includes Da Bomb, although it’s a slightly altered version from the one on Hot Ones). The box ships out at the beginning of each new season of Hot Ones and costs $330, which saves you $30 compared to buying three individual 10-packs.

Best Hot Sauce Box for Gifting

Fuego Box has the best packaging. The sauces arrive in fun red boxes that get your taste buds ready. While it’s not part of the subscription plan, you can also purchase a one-time gift that comes in a rustic-looking wooden crate. Fuego Box also has a “Tame to Insane” challenge box that resembles the Heatonist Hot Ones 10-pack for the same price, although this is a one-off box and not part of a subscription.

One of the best hot sauces I tried from Fuego Box was Down to Ferment’s That’s What Shishito Said. Yep—a shishito-pepper-based hot sauce that’s mild, with a kick that dissipates quickly. It allows you to really appreciate the sweet and savory features of the shishito pepper. If you’re looking for hot sauce that’s going to set your tongue ablaze, Fuego Box has the “Pain Seeker” subscription option.

Boxes of one bottle of hot sauce cost $16 to $18, depending on whether you pay as you go or prepay for six or 12 months. For boxes of one bottle, you only have the option to subscribe to a monthly box. The standard Sauce Lover box, which includes a variety of sauces at a variety of heat levels, costs $28 to $30. You can receive this box monthly or quarterly and prepay up to 12 months. Shipping is $5.

Best Barbecue Sauce Box for Gifting

Kinzie Foods was founded by Walter Kinzie, who is a live event and concert producer but has expanded his love for bringing people together with his line of barbecue sauces. These recipes are family recipes that he would make for the artists at the concerts, and they kept asking for more and more of it to the point where he just decided to make it a business. I find this subscription box to be the best for gifting because of the packaging—it stands out from all the others in this guide. First, the bottles themselves are squeeze bottles. When it comes to condiments, who doesn’t love a squeeze bottle? And the packaging of the subscription box itself is upscale—sleek and elegant, and it displays the sauces nicely.

Kinzie has a line of five standard barbecue sauces, including some experimental flavors like espresso and pickle. The subscription box takes you further into the brand by including sauces that aren’t yet ready to purchase individually. That could include a jalapeño ranch dressing, a spicy lime mayo, or a smoked ghost-pepper-cinnamon-plum jelly—aka condiment heaven. This service auto-renews, so you have to make sure to cancel it when you’re ready to stop the shipments. Kinzie’s barbecue sauce subscription boxes are brand-new to the market, so you have the opportunity to be one of the first to try! You can choose three or six bottles every one, two, or three months. Three-bottle options are $56, six-bottle options will cost you $110.

Best for Hot Sauce Fanatics

Heat Hot Sauce Shop is where the die-hard chili heads shop for their hot sauce. Cofounders Dylan and Becky Keenen are active members of the hot sauce community. From the r/spicy subreddit to Facebook groups like For the Love of Hot Sauce, they interact with their customers and take feedback very much into consideration. Their website has unbelievably specific filters. Looking for a sauce with a Scotch bonnet pepper base with blackberry and onion but no sodium? Perfect—sounds like Chile Lengua de Fuego’s Rosalila Fire is the one for you.

While the monthly subscription boxes, known as the Hot Sauce of the Month Club, come as is, the shop takes dietary restrictions and allergies into consideration. You can reach out directly to note any allergy you may have, and the Keenens will make sure that your restrictions are met. If you’re looking for a specific flavor, they will also work to cater to your request. You have the option to have one or three bottles sent in your box and can customize your heat preferences. The shop also carries select barbecue sauces and seasonings, although those will not come in the subscription box.

A box of one bottle costs $15 to $17, depending on the duration of your subscription (every one, three, six, or 12 months). A box of three bottles costs $30 to $32. You can have either box sent to you monthly or quarterly. For an extra $2 per bottle, you can choose to have extra hot sauces sent to you. Boxes ship for free!

Other Great Options:

• Pig of the Month Sauce and Marinade of the Month Club: Pig of the Month is a comprehensive barbecue subscription site for everything you could possibly need to grill. Most notably, it sells meat, and you can even subscribe to get new cuts of bacon sent to you on a monthly basis. To supplement all that meat, it makes some really delicious barbecue sauce, too. What’s really cute about its line of sauces in its Sauce and Marinade of the Month Club is that they’re mostly tied to a certain region’s barbecue culture. So you may get a bottle of citrus Key West sauce, smoky Texas sauce, or perhaps a tangy Memphis sauce. You may also receive one of its quirky limited-time sauces like a cherry cola, peach sriracha, or hazy IPA barbecue sauce. It makes for a really fun surprise when you open it each month. One bottle a month for three months costs $60 or six months for $115. Shipping is free.

• HI Spice Sauce of the Month: If you have a loved one who took a trip to Hawaii and always talks about going back, they’re going to love this box of hot sauces and will be saying mahalo to you for a while. HI Spice makes small-batch, craft hot sauces using local ingredients that reflect the beauty of the islands. For example, the brand makes Kiawe Smoked Sriracha, Papaya Guava, Pineapple Ginger, Lilikoi Lava, and Molten Mango hot sauces. You have the option to purchase a box of four or a box of eight bottles. For each of those options, you can choose to subscribe month-to-month, or commit to two or three months. Prices range from $35 to $77. You can choose to receive a variety of heat levels or specifically low, medium, or high heat.

• Bradshaw Sauce Co. Subscription: Most people I know buy wine based on how cool the label looks. You might do the same with the bottles of hot sauce from Bradshaw Sauce Co. Sauces have names like El Tigre, Spooky Wagons, Arghandab Promise, and Scarlet Snake. Each of those names matches a label that brings those names to life. I really love Bradshaw’s Trail Sauce, which isn’t too hot but very savory and easy to use on so many foods. For each box, you are able to pick which ones you want to receive, but you’ll also receive Bradshaw’s surprise monthly release, which could include seasonal staples like themed ones for holidays. I received a “Spooky Wagons” sauce for October leading up to Halloween. While the subscription boxes are only for hot sauce, Bradshaw also sells BBQ sauce that you can buy individually or in multi-packs. You have the option for boxes every month for a year, every three months for a year, or every month for three months.