The BBQ Sauce vs. Buffalo Sauce Debate: Who Wins?

By now you should know we like a good old debate. We’ve talked about the pineapple pizza debate on Twitter, the cold vs. hot pizza debate, and we dared to find a winner on the Chicago vs. New York pizza debate. So, you know we’re not afraid of looking at different opinions to find the truth.

Following that debate spirit, we’re now tapping into the condiments debate. We know you all have favorite pizza dipping sauces, and we all know you have your opinions about chicken wing sauces. But, when it comes to the original hot sauces, should BBQ sauce win over Buffalo sauce? Or does Buffalo sauce take the lead in this debate?

Team BBQ Sauce

Let’s start with the basics. BBQ sauce is said to be with us since the 17th century - that makes it the original condiment by definition. A version of tomato sauce with mustard, brown sugar, and chili powder, BBQ sauce has been a favorite American condiment for years. The first commercial BBQ sauce was invented in 1909, and Buffalo sauce was nowhere to be seen on store shelves before then.

But, let’s move to a more practical scenario. BBQ Chicken Pizza was invented in 1985, changing the BBQ sauce game forever. Now, those rooting for the BBQ sauce team had a new way of experiencing their salty and sweet condiment.

We also know we have BBQ Chicken Wings, we have BBQ burgers, and of course we pair our favorite steaks with BBQ sauce. Who knows how many other ways to use BBQ sauce even exist? We say, there’s no limit to your creativity when it comes to BBQ sauce.

One final note that makes BBQ sauce better than Buffalo sauce: BBQ sauce shines on its own, it doesn’t need a vehicle like chicken wings to be utterly delicious. One can easily add it to whatever food they want, from sandwiches to subs, pizzas, and burgers, rice and pasta.

We can see that many of you love BBQ sauce:

https://twitter.com/therealamelhem/status/999721728761835521

https://twitter.com/PrengerSam/status/1001624794402557953

But, we can also see that some of you are not so keen on BBQ sauce:

https://twitter.com/BrownYazz/status/1001450824130859010

https://twitter.com/amymarieg/status/1001285295579381761

Team Buffalo Sauce

Moving on to the Buffalo sauce team. Some people attribute its origin to the invention of Buffalo chicken wings back in 1964 at a small bar in Buffalo, thanks to a woman named Teressa Bellissimo. Legend says she used her special hot sauce to coat the chicken wings and served them with blue cheese and celery on the side. That’s how we got Buffalo chicken wings as we know them today.

Sadly, we can’t really tell when Buffalo chicken pizza became a thing. But, somewhere, somehow, someone thought it would be an excellent idea to pair Buffalo chicken wings with pizza, and we definitely agree. It’s genius!

Of course, we know chicken wings very well. In fact, the average person will consume about 18,000 chicken wings in a lifetime. We know for sure that 1 out of 7 of you want your chicken wings with sauce, and we also know that your top 3rd choice will most likely be Buffalo sauce. But, we have to be honest, Buffalo sauce came after BBQ and Honey BBQ sauce.

However, on the bright side for Buffalo sauce, Americans are loving hot sauce. Since 2012, the hot sauce market has seen a 5% increase in sales year after year. That’s a lot of hot sauce!

And, we can’t leave this debate without saying that you can also add Buffalo sauce on your pizza, your chicken wings, spice up your favorite sub, dip your Howie Bread® for an extra quick burst of heat, add to your rice, and who says Buffalo sauce on pasta is a bad idea?

There are definitely a lot of you rooting for Buffalo sauce:

https://twitter.com/AvaMarieConner/status/1001615504585445377

https://twitter.com/CookieOlaphante/status/999803607154348032

But, some of you are not into hot sauces after all:

https://twitter.com/katelynduh/status/999654708921987072

https://twitter.com/gradadventures/status/960706801082695681

The Ultimate Sauce Champion

We don’t know about you, but on paper, it seems like BBQ sauce is the ultimate winner. However, on social media, we had a hard time finding people who genuinely hated Buffalo sauce. We even found someone on Twitter who couldn’t decide and claims to have invented the ultimate condiment: BBQ sauce and Buffalo sauce combined.

So, we leave it up to you, as always. If you had to choose only one, would you rather BBQ sauce or Buffalo sauce?

Source:

https://qz.com/1034057/sriracha-tabasco-and-franks-america-is-obsessed-with-hot-sauce/

https://nypost.com/2017/07/25/americans-are-chicken-wing-eating-maniacs/

http://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/industry-markets-and-trade/international-agri-food-market-intelligence/united-states-and-mexico/market-intelligence/sector-trend-analysis-sauces-dressings-and-condiments-in-the-united-states/?id=1518721863280

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/today-in-1964-the-chicken-wing-is-born-78580103012.html