Bachan's The Original Japanese Barbecue Sauce

Bachan's The Original Japanese Barbecue Sauce, founded in 2019 and based on a family recipe passed down since 1936, brings a soy-mirin-ginger-sesame profile to the BBQ aisle that reads more savory-umami than sweet. At $9.49 for a 17-ounce bottle (about $0.56/oz), it's a premium choice, with a lightly sweet, umami-forward taste — about 40 calories and 8 grams of sugar per tablespoon — that uses cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup. Cold-filled without preservatives, it's certified vegan and non-GMO, giving it a shorter, cleaner ingredient list than most mainstream store-bought sauces. It excels beyond grilling too: as a beef marinade for ribeye, a wing glaze under the broiler, a stir-fry sauce, a seafood drizzle for grilled shrimp, or a finishing sauce for noodle bowls.