Barbecue Quickly Becoming Nation's Past-time

The world of cooking has been smoking lately…and we mean that literally! Barbecuing is now the No.1 summer home leisure activity, with nearly one in two households owning a barbecue grill.

In 2003, the average number of barbecues held over the summer was 8 per family, with at least 10 million homes reaching for the barbecue! A total of approximately 70 million cookouts - that is 35 million more than just 3 years ago!!!

That news is just what Shane Best, president of Kentucky BourbonQ, has been saying for years: "Baseball is not America’s pastime, barbecue is!”

What it means for Best, who has been marketing his brand of sauces to the specialty and tourism industries, is "an explosion in the growth of not only grills, but also of sauces such as ours, which in years past have been limited to a niche market, but are now going bonkers in the mainstream as well. Who would have imagined that barbecue products would sell so well in hardware stores, pool & patios, and housewares!”

Best, who is an accomplished award winner in the barbecue cook-off circuit, used to see his sales limited to specialty meat markets and stores within the Louisville, Kentucky area, but now has sales nationwide.

Best attributes most of this success not only to the flavors of the award-winning barbecue sauces he has created, but also to the unique packaging of his products that is consistently bringing customers back for more. Kentucky BourbonQ’s recent awards include a 2004 Scovie Award, as well as a sweep of 1st & 2nd Place People’s Choice Awards at the 2004 International Zesty Food Show!

Barbecues are now seen as fun, trendy, and sophisticated. "When I finally sat down and realized what was happening at our cookouts, I made an all out effort to put that level of fun into our packaging and WOW! We haven't looked back.”