MACON, Ga. — A lot of barbeque sauces in Georgia are mustard-based, but now a sauce made in Macon is ready to branch out.
They churn out a half a million bottles of barbeque sauce a year at Mrs. Griffin's processing plant off Roff Avenue in Macon. CEO and owner, Roland Neel, says they do have a claim to fame.
"It's the oldest sauce in the United States," said Neel.
He's not above putting in work and helping the guys on the line bottle up the vinegar and mustard-based sauce.
"We can run up to 4,000 bottles a day," he said. "This is a big moment for us."
It's a big moment because there's a new player in the mix. A huge vat holds 750 gallons of sweet sauce. It took about a year and a half for the crews to develop just the right flavor profile.
It's Josh Debose's job to make sales with the sauce. "My goal is to get it nationwide," he said.
Debose says Mrs. Griffin's does well in the Southeast, but they want to drop bottles from coast to coast.
"Typically from South Carolina down is more your mustard base, and you go into your Kansas City and you get sweeter, and that's where we want to be... I want it to be in California killin' Sweet Baby Ray's," he said.
With every box that goes out on a truck, Debose says Macon gets more exposure.
"You can look at the bottle and see that it's been made in Macon since 1935," he said.
It's a Central Georgia tradition that may jump barbecue state lines and become a saucy staple out west.
If you'd like a bottle yourself, it will appear in Food Depot locations in a couple of weeks. Neel says it will take a bit longer to get into Kroger and Walmart, which also carries the line.
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