Vernon BBQ sauce maker grills up awards

Mar 7, 2023 | 6:00 AM

Vernon-based ‘House of Q’ has been making award-winning barbeque sauces and spices for over sixteen years and during that time has accumulated dozens of awards for their sauces and barbeque Pitmaster skills.

This year is already proving to be another award-winning year for them with the presentation of three product awards as well as induction into the Pacific Northwest Barbeque Association Hall of Fame.

At the recent National Barbecue Association’s (NBBQA) annual Awards of Excellence in Orlando, Florida, House of Q added three more awards to their resume.

They were awarded fourth place for Five Star barbeque sauce in the Tomato Mild Category; Fifth Place for Competition Rib Rub in the Pork Rub Category; and second place for Apple Butter barbeque sauce in the Fruit Sauce Category.

“I am in awe that after 16 years Apple Butter barbeque sauce still gets awards. I know it’s super-delicious and the judges still agree with me,” owner of House of Q, Brian Misko, aka BBQ Brian, said.

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Five Star BBQ Sauce is the most recent sauce product in the lineup and is in the most competitive category with the most entries. It has won three awards in three years from the NBBQA.

In February, Misko and his wife, Corinne Misko, were inducted into the Pacific Northwest Barbeque Association’s Hall of Fame. They were awarded with a plaque from their long-time mentor and Hall of Fame inductee Rockin’ Ronnie Shewchuk of North Vancouver.

“One of the reasons we started our company is to share our love of barbeque and the flavours we craft to win cooking events. Our products are now in jars and on hundreds of stores shelves with thousands of fans.” Misko said.

House of Q products include sauces, rubs and seasonings and are available in over 400 stores in Canada and 150-plus stores in the USA.

A Grandview Research report pegs the global barbeque seasoning market size was 13.38 billion US in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.6 per cent from 2022 to 2030.

The growth is primarily driven by the rising demand for barbeque seasoning as a flavoring sauce, increasing usage of barbeque sauces and rubs in residential and food service, and growing product launches with ethnic tastes. Additionally, increasing interest in ethnic tastes and consumer inclination towards experimenting with new flavors has caused a proliferation of diverse product portfolios increasing the sales of barbecue sauces and seasonings.

It is estimated that 70 per cent of Canadians own a grill.

For more information on the House of Q, visit: https://houseofq.com

by Kevin Rothwell

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