Barbecue Sauce InnovationBarbecue Sauce Innovation

Rub. Smoke. Sauce. It’s a summertime mantra adopted by chefs eager to bring the flavors of a backyard barbecue to their diners’ plates. And while that trio of tasks might not be exactly meditative, when performed correctly, guests have been known to experience “ummms” of ecstasy.

Especially so when their barbecue sauces are good. There’s something nearly magical about that balance of a sauce’s tangy and sweet notes anchored to a robust tomato base that captures the smoky goodness of a hardwood and charcoal fire. That can take the form of a bottled sauce, a scratch-made sauce or some combination of both using the bottled product as a base on which to build.

Ali Goss went her own way when she devised an espresso and bourbon barbecue sauce fo...