Luna Mercato BBQ Sauce --- FREE!!!

Thanks, I guess I forgot about the previous review, I meant to go back and look before posting that but 11 PM told me not to.

I assure you theres no product consistancy although thanks for pointing it out, one person can sauce the sauce is extremely spicy, the other not, a lot is left to personal interpretation.

I feel very very confident in product consistancy.

Looking forward to rest of the reviews.

Brad,

I wasn't meaning taste wise, just chunky vs smooth. It really doesn't matter to me, as long as it tastes the same. It is going on some grilled chicken thighs tonight.

understood as well, good luck with the chicken tonight!

Though my post count isn't what you're wanting, I'll nonetheless express my interest. I'd also be willing to write a review and post it on my blog which you can find a link to below in my signature line. My email address is visible on the blog!

Hope to hear from you!

Cheers...

Chef Dan

Though my post count isn't what you're wanting, I'll nonetheless express my interest. I'd also be willing to write a review and post it on my blog which you can find a link to below in my signature line. My email address is visible on the blog!

Hope to hear from you!

Cheers...

Chef Dan

Thanks for stopping in and expressing your interest. The promotion right now is closed as I was looking for 12 applicants and I over did it by even going to 13. I posted earlier locations you can buy the product if you wish and write your own review.

The blog looks awesome, the food pictures are fantastic!

BLUEBERRY:

Short review: we WOULD purchase this sauce, but only for an occasional difference!

Longer comments (in no particular order):

• Poured the sauce into a small bowl for ease of basting . . . separated easily . . . had to re-stir each time dipped brush . . . neither good nor bad, just a comment! . . . appeared that it was in fact blueberry jelly not wholly blended with the tomato.

• “Raw” from bottle, the first hit was very sweet, followed by a peppery balance . . . net was acceptable, but first slight sweet note was surprising in a disconcerting way until got used to it. . . the positive end did have some bitterness –maybe pepper mixed with smoke? – OK for us but may not be universal (and just “OK” for us).

• I put a standard “rub” on chicken, beef ribs, and pork ribs, slow-roasted all, then sauced and put into very hot (500 degree +) oven to caramelize.

o For whatever reason, we did not like the sauce on the pork. . . it could be that the pork was a milder meat, and the rub and sauce just did not match to the same degree as a more tomatoey sauce might have . . . at some time I’ll try it without the rub, or with a more “plain” rub than I usually use.

o The chicken was in the middle . . . not our favorite, but not bad . . . when we took an interior piece of chicken (without rub) and dipped it into uncooked sauce, the results were very good! . . . at some time we will roast a plain chicken with the sauce.

o The beef was the best, with a beefy flavor predominate, and a sweet-fruity-spicy blend of sauce and rub lingering.

• We had oven-baked potato wedges with the Q, and used the sauce instead of Ketchup . . . very good! . . . maybe a tad too thin to be truly outstanding, but still great flavor.

• We will try it with a Brie or even cream cheese appetizer (split the cheese, put the sauce between the layers, and serve), and I think it will go over very well there.

Andrew, I think you hit the sauce right on the head!!!

As I mentioned before, I wasn't out to create a universal sauce, nor 1 that's going to fit the "perfect criteria" for everyone. I wanted to find something as you said "occasional difference".

It's interesting to hear all the methods you attemped, including using it as a sauce for the wedges, good idea!

I actually had a lady at the Craft Show where her first and "strong" suggestion for her use was going to be to put it over cream cheese.


I am amazed how fast and detailed you all are in your review. This has been more then I can ask for in every way. Thanks to everyone so far!

I put a quick marinade (45 minutes) on some boneless, skinless, chick thighs with the blackberry sauce and grilled them on medium heat for dinner. The sauce did very well on the grill, with no excessive burning. After the thighs were finished on the grill I lightly tossed them with some warmed sauce and ate them straight up. The sauce became less sweet when grilled and balanced the richness of the thighs nicely. Still no blackberry taste, but a sauce I like.

Brad,

Just got back from a business trip and it was a nice treat to find your box with both Blueberry and Blackberry sauces. Unfortunately, I'm heading in for major surgery on Monday and I won't be able to try them out for a while.

Comments on the packaging:

As a former retailer, I'd like to see you with a more eye-catching labels- the black is a little too dark to stand-out on the shelf; I do like the different color necks on the different bottles. The Luna Mercato logo is just fine ( then again, I know the history of that brand and associate it with quality and good tasting gourmet foods.) My strongest suggestion is to invest in some recipe cards or neck tags that would go on each bottle with suggested uses. I found that the general population has no idea what to do with specialty sauces and giving them suggestions dramatically increases sales . The "Earth & Vine" brand products do a great job of this in my opinion. They put a nice stocker on the neck of the bottle that suggests a couple of uses- we moved a lot more product after they did that. For example, your Blackberry Sauce could have a sticker/neck tag that says "Great on Beef and over Cream Cheese". If you are interested and can't find the brand, let me know and I can show you an example. Stickers are preferable over neck tags- lots of retailers won't take the time to put the neck tags on.

I promise I'll post a review as soon as I'm able.

Thanks,
Deb

Thanks again for the product!

Deb, I'm so sorry to hear about your surgery, I hope it all goes well and you recover!!!

Please don't worry about the review, if you get to it in amonth, then you get to it, if not, I understand, your health is way more important then this!

Best of luck and speedy recover!

More on the Strawberry...and the mustard...

This makes a really phenomenal dunking sauce for cheese, tried it with Havarti, Cheddar, and some Mexican quesadilla cheese I had in the crisper and it rocked. You really notice the fruitiness. I sometimes use a honey mustard to dip snack cheese in, this replaces it nicely. Also dunked a bit of Whole Foods uncured pepperoni into it, that wasn't such a success. Then I decided to cook some Alexia Onion RIngs. No snarky comments about my food choices please... OMG good with the SBBQ sauce. Who would have guessed? I'm betting it would be tasty on fries as well.

Opened the Kenny's Banana Pepper Mustard. Very strong smell of banana peppers on opening, very yellow, I thought CURRY! No curry though, very thin in texture. I would be afraid to swab this on bread for a sandie, I think it would totally soak the bread. It's quite sweet, mild mild mustard flavor. I tried this with cheese too, it was ok, not as good as the strawberry BBQ on the different cheeses. Not a player on the onion rings either. This is the Kenny who makes the excellent Cajun Corn? I do love that popcorn...

This is the Kenny who makes the excellent Cajun Corn? I do love that popcorn...

Yes, there is also Kenny's Hot Sauce an awesome blend of Peaches and Orange Habaneros, I was going to send some of that to you all, but I knew it would be a big hit or miss, considering kentuckians aren't really " spicy heads" so to speak.

On a side note, there is going to be a huge announcement about Kenny's Popcorn in about a month. This announcement is in every way, for the better!!! I promise you!


I am so glad you loved the bbq sauce and it's amazing to see how creative people are! I may try some quesadilla with it!

The hubby and I finally got around to tasting the Strawberry BBQ sauce.

The pros:

Straight out of the bottle, I noticed it was sweet, smoky, and really flavorful. I didn't think strawberry would lend itself so well to a BBQ sauce.

I liked the packaging, I think it's eye-catching and attractive.

The only con:
The sauce needs *something*. I'm not sure if it's a little more salt, a pinch of this and a dash of that, or what. It was strong and flavorful out of the bottle, but I noticed that once we had it on the chicken, it was somewhat, for lack of a better word, bland.

Don't get me wrong, it is very, very good, but I think with a little bit of tweaking, this could be a GREAT sauce.

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to try your sauce, I LOVE Luna Mercato!

Thanks for the review Michelle R.

I am glad you are a big fan of Luna Mercato.

We just found out, one of the cheeses we use to make our spreads, placed 1st in world cheese competition, 99.9/100 rating (highest ever, ever , ever ever for any cheese in world! lol)...


This is just a little of the gourmet of our products.

Sorry for the delay in my review, but at least it's a fresh bump for this thread with the brand name in the title.

I received the Blueberry BBQ and "Gourmet" Salsa...

Label: Completely appropriate for something with "Luna" and "Blueberry" in the title. I recently watched a movie called "My Blueberry nights" and it was centered around a cafe that served a good blueberry pie. There were a couple sensory evocative scenes that combined clips of a full moon and a slice of blueberry pie with melting ice cream running through the crevices. The label reminded me of this, and that doesn't harm the mood considering Norah Jones was the shining star of the film and did the entire soundtrack. In one scene she was passed out on the counter drunk from blueberry pie with melted ice cream dotting her lips. Very sensuous.

Back to the sauce...

1st impression: Very smoky, sweet and peppery. And thin. Very little hint of blueberry.

So I took it to my uncle's house and it reminded him of Bull's Eye, but he's fairly country. I kind of saw where he was coming from, but I don't have much experience with Bull's Eye that I know of.

Preparation: I recently adopted a pescetarian diet, so this was a big challenge. I went with extra firm tofu and fresh tiger shrimp. I fired up my cheap charcoal grill in the cold last Sunday and wound up with a distaster of over smoked and toxic crap. That's all I'll say about that. I followed up the following day in my kitchen with the second half of my purchased protiens.

So this... I marinated the cleaned, peeled, deveined shrimp for 2 hrs. In the meantime, I pan-fried thick strips of tofu in olive oil with a spinkle of salt and white pepper til brown then added about a quarter cup of the sauce to caramelize. By itself, it was delicious and the sauce was sweet and gooey, still no detected blueberry. Then I dipped it in the sauce and noticed a lot more fruit. And while it was still very hot, I made a sandwich on wheaberry slices with farmer's cheese, dipping it. Still good. Then I had the brilliant idea of applying slices of bread and butter pickles and that won't be the last dance. I really liked dipping my sandwich in the sauce (syrup) in between bites. The other two sauces I have in my fridge at the moment (disclosure, BBQ cooking is NOT my field) are Mark's Feed Store Original and Rooties (a local - pretty sure Steve P.'s a big fan of their's - I did some work for them and the very nice owner gave me a thank you bottle). So I tasted them all against one another. Luna's sauce is waaay different than the others, much much sweeter / juicier. I would never have guessed that to be a plus, but it charmed me big time.

For the Shrimp... I roasted them in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes in a bath of olive oil and BBQ sauce. No good. Shrimp NEEDS a tang. So I sqeezed some lemon on it to hit the mark. Such a great decision. I would do this twice. I've recently realized that just about EVERYTHING is better with squeezed lemon, and wouldn't ya know, Lynne Rosetto Casper said exactly that this afternoon on The Splendid Table. Evidently I ain't no dummy after all.

For the salsa: I would never purchase this. I'm sorry to say that to you, Brad, after reading your response to another that you really love it. I really don't love it. I tried it several different ways, cause much like (I think it was) Trisha, I can eat salsa on just about anything. I honestly don't even buy salsa from the shelves much at all anymore, so maybe I'm the wrong audience, but when I do, one of the 1st things I look at is the calorie content, to guage how sweet it'll taste. Sugar is just about the only contributor to calories in a salsa. Having this jar on hand, I repeatedly tried to find something to work with it, and that ='s about ten different foods. The only paletable item for me was eggs, and even there I wished I had something else. Not my thing, maybe someone else's, though.

In summary, this was FUN, so thank you for the chance.

Hey Jackie R!

Thanks for the review! It's always pleasurable to see how people choose to use the sauce and I'm so glad to see you liked it!


No need for an apology on the late review

I updated my original post to include my review.