The annual Sauce King NYC competition assembles judges from the culinary world to rate and honor top barbecue, hot, culinary, and other sauces from around NYC and the world. This week, the winners of the fifth year of the competition were announced. (Top winners first appeared in The Smoke Sheet newsletter.)

As usual, the competition was fierce, with the judges noting that the variety of sauces continues to increase. This year's batch included more international entries than in years past, including submissions from the UK, Japan, and Thailand.

This year's Grand Champion prize was awarded to NYC-based Elfassy Foods' Mild Harissa Sauce, a small-batch Moroccan paste that is great with eggs, bread, and other dishes. Ethan Fedida and his family founded Elfassy Foods in honor of his grandmother Renee Elfassy Fedida—who emigrated from Morocco to New York City in 1959 and passed on her culinary traditions. Elfassy Foods had previously competed in Sauce King NYC, steadily gaining more fans.

The Metro NYC Startup Award, named for former judge Duane Joseph (who passed away suddenly in 2021), was awarded to Piketu Original Puerto Rican Hot Sauce. The founders of the sauce are Bronx-based but originally from Puerto Rico, and the sauce embraces Puerto Rican styles. One judge noted that this sauce has routine ingredients and is familiar in flavor, but is extremely versatile and delicious.

With an enormous amount of competition, Sauce King NYC awarded five BBQ sauces as a list of the best five, dubbed "In a League of Their Own." This group of the most impressive sauces included: Chef Ray Sheehan Memphis Mop BBQ Sauce; FireFly Barbecue Spicy Agave & Chipotle; B.T. Leigh’s The Magical Mop B.T. Leigh’s Something Nutorious; and GWB Hot Sauce Apple Cinnamon BBQ. The diversity of the flavors on this list is mind-boggling.

The award for Best Hot Sauce went to Craic Sauce Mill City Red. This is a "Louisiana-style sauce with the added zing of fermentation, inspired by the blend of cultures and cuisines among the red bricks of Craic Sauce's hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts," per Craic Sauce's site. It has a Medium heat rating.