The Best Sauces
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| “ | The butcher said that every customer who tried it said: "These are the best sauces I've ever tasted." | ” |
| Jack's alleged origin story behind the sauces' name. | ||
The Best Sauces' You'll Ever Taste, often referred to as The Best Sauces or just dubbed Jacksauce was a brand of sauces, seasoning, and jerky started by Jack Scalfani.
The sauce gained infamy on the internet for its excessive use of high fructose corn syrup and jelly-like consistency. Despite this, Jack has insisted on the superior quality of his sauces, and made it nearly impossible for customers to actually get their hands on them. Jack stocked his sauces in obscure hardware stores, requiring customers to call in and personally order a jar of sauce before picking it up in person. This bizarre and inconvenient system has led to numerous complaints from frustrated customers. But the strangeness does not stop there: The sauces are also made in a generic factory, similar to those used by Sodexo foods. This has led to speculation that Jack's sauces may not be as "hand-crafted" as he claims.
Despite the mockery and criticism, Jack remained steadfast in his belief that The Best Sauces are, in fact, the best.
History
Creation
In 2000, after leaving his career as the late-night DJ for KIK-FM country radio, Jack briefly worked at a large-scale artist management company before starting his own management company, GiveMe Entertainment. Jack managed musicians, singers, screenwriters, and soon picked up a chef as a client. According to Jack, for unknown reasons, his chef client bailed on him and left behind around 300 pounds of spices. With these abandoned spices, Jack concocted a barbecue sauce which later became The Best Barbeque Sauce You'll Ever Taste.[1] One day, Jack brought his sauce to Brees' Quality Meats in Garden Grove, where one of the butchers there set out samples of his sauce for customers to try. Returning a few days later, Jack was informed by the butcher that customers were a fan of his sauce and that some customers wanted to order his sauce by the case, and thus the brand name was born.
With the initial success of his sauce, Jack began selling his sauce at the Orange County Market Place and soon on his now defunct website, TheBestSauces.com. Throughout the 2000s, Jack expanded his sauce line to include hot barbecue, teriyaki, Caribbean jerk, and a gourmet seasoning. In 2008, Jack's brother, Charles Scalfani, suggested making a YouTube channel to promote his sauces while giving cooking tips.[2] Following his brother's idea, Jack created his channel called the Cooking with Jack Show and used his sauce in many recipes. Jack claims that in 2011 alone, his sauce made $60,000.
West Texas Investors Club
Main article: West Texas Investors Club
In 2015, Jack appeared in season 1 episode 2 of West Texas Investors Club, a redneck's version of Shark Tank. In the episode, the investors test Jack's lacking barbecue skills by having him face off against local pitmaster Dustin Freeman. With the meat prepared (The investors had to cook the meat for Jack), the investors did a blind-taste of Jack's and Dustin's sauce and wound up with a 2-2 tie. To break the tie, the crowd took part in a taste test and in the end, Dustin's sauce won with a 34-19 vote. Despite this loss, the investors were still interested in Jack but more concerned about his show than his sauce. In the end, no deal was made because of Jack's ego and his resistance to bringing change to his show.
Controversies
Stocking
Following his popularity on YouTube, Jack was able to stock his sauce in multiple grocery chains such as Whole Foods and most famously, Walmart. In 2013, Jack released a video revealing that his sauce was available to purchase at 185 Walmart locations on the West Coast starting April 2013.
During this time, Jack’s other brother, Jim Scalfani, was a Senior Product Development Manager at Walmart Headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. It is widely speculated that Jack's connection to Jim was a significant factor in getting his sauce picked up by Walmart. This theory gained further traction in 2021, when Jack's sauce reemerged online on the website of D It Best, a nationwide hardware store company. It was later confirmed that Jim briefly worked as the Senior Merchandise Manager of Outdoor Living & Holiday for Do It Best from February 2021 to February 2022, which likely facilitated the deal.
Despite securing a listing on Do It Best's website, ordering the sauces was an exercise in frustration. Customers could not simply order online and have the product shipped to their homes. Instead, they were required to call a specific Do It Best store in their area, request the sauce over the phone, and then pick it up in person—a convoluted process that discouraged many potential buyers. Unsurprisingly, the venture failed, and the sauces quietly disappeared from the site. Records indicate that Jim no longer works for Do It Best, further signaling the collapse of this distribution effort.
High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) usage
One of the biggest criticisms of Jack's sauce was its thickness, consistency, and high sugar content—all attributed to its heavy use of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). HFCS has long been associated with various health issues, including obesity, insulin resistance, and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. The sauce’s high sugar content became a frequent topic of discussion among critics who pointed out that it was an odd choice for a man battling multiple health conditions. In 2019, Jack responded to the criticism by switching to a "catchup" base that used real sugar instead of HFCS, though opinions on the improved formula remain mixed.
Decline
In 2021, despite having recently stocked his sauces on Do It Best's website, sauce sales began to decline. Soon, all The Best Sauces products were removed from TheBestSauces.com and FindMySauce.net, a website used to find Do It Best stores, was discontinued. However, the sauces still remain on Do It Best's website. It is believed that this may be the last run of the sauce. As of 2025, searches for "The Best Sauces" fail to return any results on Do It Best's website.
Locations
A list of stores, online sellers, and restaurants where the bowel-cleansing syrup was available in 20oz jars (approximately $8) and gallon bottles (price unknown):
Sauce Locations
- Brees' Quality Meats
- Orange County Market Place
- Whole Foods
- Walmart
- Amazon
- Do It Best
- Ace Hardware
Products
With the success of his barbeque sauce, Jack marketed other products under the "The Best You'll Ever Taste" brand such as other sauces, a seasoning blend, and unsuccessfully, a line of sauce-flavored jerky.
Sauces (2000-present)
- The Best Barbeque Sauce You'll Ever Taste
- The Best Hot Barbeque Sauce You'll Ever Taste
- The Best Teriyaki Sauce You'll Ever Taste
- The Best Caribbean Jerk Sauce You'll Ever Taste
Seasoning (2000-present)
- The Best Gourmet Seasoning You'll Ever Taste
Jerky (2016-2019)
Unbeknownst to most, Jack briefly had a line of sauce-flavored jerky which launched in 2016 and was discontinued in 2019 due to Jack's poor marketing skills and lack of demand for more disgusting slop.
- The Best Barbeque Beef Jerky You'll Ever Taste
- The Best Hot Barbeque Beef Jerky You'll Ever Taste
- The Best Teriyaki Beef Jerky You'll Ever Taste
- The Best Caribbean Jerk Beef Jerky You'll Ever Taste
Reception
Initially, The Best Sauces received mixed reviews with a majority of reviews claiming the sauce is too expensive for the price. However, after Jack started his YouTube channel, reviews of the sauce became overwhelmingly negative as reviewers complained of the jelly-like consistency, dangerous levels of sugar, immense catchup taste, and underwhelming flavor.
| “ | This truly is the best I have ever tasted. | ” |
| Janet Hannay, Senior Buyer Walmart Stores | ||
| “ | Man I put this sauce on my pink chicken which was cooked in a poorly made for tv ad crock pot. That first bite sent made me chock my son out and toss him out of my life and house. 3 stars | ” |
| Tony The Tasamin, Amazon.com | ||
| “ | I bought this about a year ago in an Ace Hardware store, not a very good bbq sauce but it does make for a pretty damn good motor oil. My lawnmower and truck have never ran better. | ” |
| Amazon Customer, Amazon.com | ||
| “ | I wanted to pick up some charcoal bricks for a weekend BBQ and decided to pick this up as well. Best BBQ Sauce can't possibly be bad. BOY WAS I WRONG. I get home to taste the sauce, and it ain't sauce, but jelly. There's no way this mess is going to spread easy on a burger or bun. | ” |
| Grillin' With Doug, DoItBest.com | ||
Gallery
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The Best Barbeque Sauce You'll Ever Taste
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The Best Barbeque Sauce You'll Ever Taste
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The Best Teriyaki Sauce You'll Ever Taste
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The Best Caribbean Jerk Sauce You'll Ever Taste
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The Best Gourmet Seasoning You'll Ever Taste
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Nutritional info of "The Best Barbecue Sauce You'll Ever Taste". Please note the high amount of sugar in just one serving.
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Jack's stand at the Orange County Market Place where he sold his sauce on Sundays.
