News & Updates
MG now available at Publix in Georgia
We are happy to announce that you can now get Mrs. Griffins at all Publix in Georgia! Look for us on the Georgia local rack.
Mrs. Griffins now available through Faire Wholesale
- Free returns on first orders
- 60-day payment terms for eligible retailers
- $100 credit & 1 year of free shipping for retailers who are new to Faire
http://faire.com/direct/mrsgriffinsbbqsauceoldestbbqsauceinusa
Mrs. Griffins A Historic Sauce
Roland Neel gets boxes of sauce ready to ship at his manufacturing facility in Macon. Mrs. Griffin’s has been in Macon over 80 years, making it the oldest barbecue sauce in Georgia and second oldest in the United States.
“People seem very surprised number one that it’s made in Macon and number two that it’s as old as it is and it has a historical significance that it does in the barbecue sauce industry.”
The business started in 1935 at a restaurant on Houston Avenue. Neel is the third owner. He describes their sauce as “regionally correct” with a blend of vinegar, mustard, tomato and spices.
“Mustard comes out of South carolina and the further you push toward Texas the more tomato paste you get. We’re the great hybrid blend of tomato paste and mustard, right here in Central Georgia.”
The sauce is served in local restaurants, sold online and in many grocery stores. But Neel would like to expand north.
“Our strength is from Forsyth, Georgia down to the Florida line, although we are really trying to get a foothold in Atlanta.”
That exposure would help them expand into the already crowded Atlanta market.
Mrs. Griffins with the tagline, “Putting the south in your mouth since 1935.”
That’s Right Here.
Macon’s Mrs. Griffin’s barbecue sauce spreading to more Sam’s Clubs
Mrs. Griffin’s, the Macon- and mustard-based barbecue sauce, is expanding its market, with Sam’s Club adding it to eight new stores, including three in Florida.
“For a small business like us, this is huge,” said owner Roland Neel.
Mrs. Griffin’s shipped its first pallets of the sauce to the new Sam’s locations Wednesday afternoon. The Florida locations are Pensacola, Panama City and Tallahassee.
“We had some distribution down there (Florida), but never through something like a Sam’s Club,” Neel said.
The new Georgia stores include Sam’s sites in Augusta, Savannah, Pooler, Morrow and Peachtree City. The sauce is also carried at Sam’s stores in Macon, Albany, Valdosta and McDonough.
“When I first bought the company about two years ago, we were in one — Macon,” Neel said.
Mrs. Griffin’s has been made in Macon for more than 75 years. It’s carried on the shelves in Kroger, Ingles, Food Lion, Wal-Mart, Harvey’s and other grocers from just south of Atlanta to Florida.
Neel said the company has done research that shows Mrs. Griffin’s is the third-oldest commercially sold barbecue sauce in the country.
“We’re the oldest in the South, where barbecue sauce really matters,” Neel said.
The barbecue sauce is said to have gotten its start at the annual Griffin family Fourth of July picnics, where M.E. Griffin’s recipe was so good that word of it spread and he was asked to start selling the sauce. He named it after his wife, Etta, and began mixing it up in a 5-gallon milk churn in the kitchen of their Second Street home.
His brother ran a grocery store in Warner Robins and put some of the sauce on the shelves. It sold out quickly. Soon, the hand-and-funnel method of bottling the product could not keep up with demand. Griffin bought an automated bottling machine and started manufacturing 2,400 gallons a week in an 800-gallon stainless steel tank.
Mrs. Griffin’s Barbecue Sauce has been around for 80 years
How did the company start out?
One of the relatives of the Griffin family would bring mustard down to Macon from South Carolina, and the Griffins would use it at the family’s annual 4th of July cookouts. After the Great Depression, they decided to start selling it at stores in South Georgia.
How has the company grown over the years?
It started in Mrs. Griffin’s kitchen in Macon, and now we have a 8,000 square foot facility and produce 1,600 gallons a week. We started selling just in Macon and South Georgia, and now we’ve expanded to the Atlanta market and South Carolina.
Why do you think Georgia is the best state for barbecue?
We always knew Georgia had the best barbecue sauce, we’re just glad everyone else figured it out. Georgia’s traditional barbecue sauce is a hybrid that the barbecue region rules were written around: vinegar, tomato and mustard bases combined.
How is Mrs. Griffin’s Barbecue Sauce different?
We stuck to the old-fashioned way and our goal is to make traditional sauce with the finest ingredients. We don’t cook our sauce, because that takes away some of the flavor. Our sauce takes four days to make and involves 12 steps. We mix it for three to four hours in a 60-gallon vat and add seven secret spices. The sauce lends itself to a thinner version. And there is less sugar and no artificial flavors, so it isn’t as sweet as traditional sauces.
Is there a season for barbecue sauce?
July 4th is the peak demand for barbecue, although we see an increase in sales during football and hunting season as well.
Mrs. Griffin’s has expanded to Atlanta, and is available in Kroger and Food Depot. You can also order online here
Thank you, Simply Buckhead, for the honor!
Barbecue is a summer tradition in the South. Whether it’s served between a bun, off the bone or low and slow, it all comes down to choosing the right sauce to create that perfect flavor.
With so many saucy options available, knowing the basics about flavors and products is the first step toward perfecting this savory Southern staple.
1. Mrs. Griffin’s Original Barbecue Sauce ($4.25)
The history of Mrs. Griffin’s dates to 1935, when Macon native Mangham Edward Griffin started bottling and selling a recipe he had concocted for his family’s yearly Fourth of July picnic. Though a product of Georgia, this ultra-tangy mustard-vinegar blend, which Griffin named in honor of his wife, displays the characteristics of sauces typically found in the Low Country of South Carolina. Unique to Mrs. Griffin’s is a 12-step process that takes four days to complete. The ingredients are mixed, not cooked, before bottling, which retains the strong tang of mustard and vinegar (heat typically mellows both tang and spice). As a dip, the sauce works well with sausage and meatballs, or on chicken and ribs.
Ga. man at Waffle House screams, ‘I’ll go to jail over some barbecue sauce!
Three women who work there later told police that the fellow asked for some barbecue sauce. The women, one of whom was named Basil, informed him that they had none.
A Bibb County sheriff’s report of the episode notes that the man “then began screaming obscenities and insulting” the workers, trying “to create conflict, saying things such as, ‘I wouldn’t (expletive) ask you if I didn’t know you had it!”
The man reportedly added: “I’ll go to (expletive) jail over some barbecue sauce!”
And he did.
The remarks, the report goes on, “caused the employees and customers to fear for their safety.”
When the cops got there, the man who is accused of causing the disturbance, Willie Edward Drake, 43, was said to be “uncooperative and disorderly.”
Drake, from Columbus, was jailed on a disorderly conduct charge. He had been staying in Macon at a Rodeway Inn up the street from the Waffle House.
A Telegraph reporter called the Waffle House to ask if the restaurant does, in fact, have barbecue sauce. It does not.
Nor, it appears, does the county jail, where Drake was still being held Thursday evening in lieu of $390 bond.
“We stay with the basics on condiments,” Sheriff David Davis said. “Mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise.”
Read more here: http://www.macon.com/news/local/crime/article196677124.html#storylink=cpy