That’s right, pulling out my Gary Coleman…

So I sent an email to Sweet Baby Ray’s about my confusion with their labeling and story on the back.  I thought my email was fairly simple and easy to understand but you can decide for yourselves:

Consumer LineFrom: Marcus Croman [mailto:marcus@croman.us]
Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2010 2:01 PM
To: service@sweetbabyrays.com
Subject: “Original” Sauce

The front of your bottle states that your barbecue sauce is “award winning”.

On the back, there is a story about Chef Larry Raymond perfecting the recipe and beating out nearly 700 entries in the riboff. I assume this is the award that your sauce won but I’m having a hard time figuring out the story with what appears to be nothing more than a marketing claim.

The story goes on to say that your company is formed around that award-winning sauce but I highly doubt that Chef Larry Raymond put high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, which is most likely produced using high dextrose corn syrup and sodium benzoate (half of what makes Benzene).

Now, perhaps I’m wrong and Chef Larry Raymond really did put this stuff in the “perfected family recipe” but I just don’t think that’s how it
played out.

Is this really the original recipe from 1985?

Marcus Croman
Kingston, WA

A few days went by and I finally received a response.  Although I’m not sure it’s really a response since it didn’t answer anything and, well, was pretty hard to even figure out what they were trying to say, here it is:

From: service@sweetbabyrays.com
Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2010 6:11 AM
To: marcus@croman.us
Subject: “Original” Sauce

Good Morning,
Thank you for your email.
Orgianl recipe was simple, not as complex as today recipes are.
Regular most likely contained Tomatoes paste, molasses, spices ,honey other
spices.
Thank you for your inquiry have a good day.
Patricia Ajemian
Ken’s Foods

Ummm…  say what?

So the original was a simple recipe.  Today’s isn’t.

Regular (whatever regular is) most likely contained some ingredients you’d expect to find in BBQ sauce.  Most likely.  They aren’t really sure, but they are pretty sure it had some tomatoes and some spices and some honey and stuff.

Okay, so what’s in the bottle is or isn’t original like the bottle says?  It is or isn’t  the award winning, perfected family recipe like the bottle eludes to?

And are you kidding me…   Orgianl?  Tomatoes paste?

Patricia, if you’re going to be the e-Face of Sweet Baby Ray’s, you might want to run a spell checker before you reply to inquiries.  I’m not a perfect speller by any means but come on, you work for the fastest growing barbecue sauce company in the United States…

This was my response to her, sent today:

I’m sorry, I’m having a very hard time figuring out exactly what you’re trying to say.

Are you telling me that what’s in the bottle that I have, which was purchased recently that clearly states on the front, ORIGINAL is not original?

is the sauce in the bottle the same sauce that won the award at the “rib-off” or not? If it’s not, then what is original about what’s in this bottle I have?

It says original, but original what?

You just told me that the original recipe was simple and the one I have isn’t simple, it’s complex and the original recipe most likely contained some ingredients you’d expect to find in barbecue sauce, but it might not have.

Is the sauce that I have in this bottle original like the label claims or not? If it’s not original, then why is your company claiming that it is?

Also, what award did the original sauce that’s not in this bottle win? I owned a pig that won 3rd place in the county fair, should I write a story about the award I won and put it on a bottle of barbecue sauce claiming it’s award winning and original?  If the story about winning an award for being one of the best sauces has nothing to do with what is in the bottle, it’s just as irrelevant as my pig in the county fair.  Neither have anything to do with the other.

If what’s in the bottle isn’t what won the award and isn’t original, then the bottle shouldn’t elude to that.

That’s deceptive marketing.

Regards,

_________________________
Marcus G Croman
8487 NE Country Woods Lane
Kingston, WA 98346
360.930.3018
marcus@croman.us

Web: http://www.croman.us

“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”
- Benjamin Franklin
_________________________

I can hardly wait for her response…