"The Last BBQ Sauce"

Long before there was a bottle of Shasta Smoke, there was the smell of oak smoke and onions in the air.

When I was young, my father ran a BBQ and smoked-meat food trailer outside the BX military store in Fairfield, California. I remember watching him work the grill with a huge sack of yellow onions beside him. Every time he added oak wood to the hot coals, he tossed a whole onion directly into the fire.

The aroma was unforgettable.

Oak smoke and roasting onion filled the air, drawing people from all corners of the base. As a kid, I remember thinking it smelled so good, you could almost taste it before taking a bite.

I didn’t realize it then, but those sights, smells, and flavors would stay with me for years.

Much later, I entered a BBQ competition with my own onion-smoked tri-tip. I didn’t win, but the response from the judges and people who tasted it confirmed something I had begun to believe: there was something special about that flavor.

So I kept experimenting.

At backyard BBQs, I played with bacon, mustard, maple syrup, seasonings, and layers of sweet, savory, and smoky flavors. I wasn’t trying to make just another BBQ sauce. I was chasing a flavor that could hit all the senses at once.

Eventually, I found it.

Smoky bacon. Onion smoke. Sweet. Savory. Smoky.

One taste took me right back to those childhood moments near my father’s grill.

That became the inspiration behind Shasta Smoke Smoky Bacon BBQ Sauce.

Today, Shasta Smoke brings that family history together with the place I call home: Northern California. Inspired by the mountains and rugged beauty of the Shasta region, I wanted to create a bold flavor with an identity people would recognize and remember.

And before you fire up your own grill, here’s a little inspiration from our family to yours.

Place a whole yellow onion directly into the coals if you’re cooking with wood or charcoal. If you’re using propane, cut it in half and set it cut-side down on the grate. Then just let it roast while you cook.

The aroma mingles with the smoke and gently infuses the whole grilling experience. It’s not about making your food taste like onion. It’s something different—subtle and hard to describe until you’ve experienced it yourself.

Let the onion show you the magic.

Give it a try. Let the smoke do its thing. You might just understand why, for me, you can almost taste the experience before the first bite.

And then, thank us later.

Smoke Inspired. Family Rooted.

Shasta Smoke — The Last BBQ Sauce.