The New Smoke of the West: Defining Colorado Barbecue
By Glenn Connaughton
Published September 2, 2025 on Revolution Barbecue
Colorado barbecue does not come from a family feud or a century-old pit recipe. It comes from the mountains, the cattle, and the campfire. Out here, the air is thin, the wood burns hotter, and the smoke rolls slow against the Rockies. Every cook in Colorado learns to work with what the land gives you: beef that is bold, beans that tell a story, and coffee roasted with enough soul to meet the sunrise.
Colorado barbecue is not a copy of Texas, Kansas City, or Memphis. It is the next frontier. It is the sound of a sizzle echoing through the foothills and the scent of cherry wood drifting over a backyard smoker. It is hard-working, independent, and built on flavor instead of fame. For me, that is the heartbeat of the Revolution. It is a style of barbecue born in the high country and fueled by the same grit that built the West.
The Roots of Western Smoke
Long before the word “barbecue” hit a Colorado menu, the people here were already cooking over fire. The first pitmasters of this region were not chasing trophies. They were ranchers, miners, and cowhands trying to feed themselves after a long day of breaking ground and chasing cattle.
They cooked beef because that is what they had. They threw dried beans into cast-iron pots because they lasted the trail. They brewed coffee that could strip paint, then used the leftovers as seasoning. They did not call it barbecue, but they built the foundation for what it could become.
That is the flavor I chase every time I fire up my smoker. It is the same spirit that shaped Colorado. Simple ingredients, honest fire, and big flavor that does not need a lot of talking. When you bite into it, you taste the work, the weather, and the will that made this state what it is.
Those early cooks did not have digital thermometers or pellet grills. They judged heat by feel and instinct. They used pine knots for kindling and a steady hand to hold temperature. What they lacked in equipment, they made up for in determination. That determination still defines us today. The modern Colorado cook may stand behind a stainless steel Traeger instead of a stone fire ring, but the fire in the heart is the same.
The Ingredients of a Colorado BBQ Identity
Every region has its signature. In Colorado, we are still writing ours, but the blueprint is becoming clear. This is barbecue that speaks the language of the West with clean smoke, open flame, and bold ingredients that tell the truth about where we live.
It begins, as it always has, with beef. This is cattle country. It always will be. The difference today is how that beef is raised. Colorado’s new generation of ranchers is leaning into heritage breeds and regenerative practices that honor the land as much as the livestock. Small ranches along the Front Range and across the Western Slope are producing beef that carries both story and flavor. The beef still has that rugged, mineral-rich taste, but now it is handled with care and intention. Colorado barbecue honors the herd and the land it comes from, and celebrates the ranchers who treat stewardship as seriously as smoke.
Beans and coffee still hold a place at the Colorado table. Both are simple, humble, and powerful ingredients that speak to our roots. On the trail, they were fuel for long days and cold nights. Today, they are part of our flavor DNA. Dried beans still show up in smokehouse sides, slow-cooked until creamy and touched with the essence of fire. Coffee has evolved into a deeper ingredient, roasted with precision by local artisans like Huckleberry Roasters. Their beans bring warmth and complexity to our I’m Your Huckleberry Cowboy Rub. The roasted depth of coffee, paired with smoke and spice, gives Colorado barbecue its distinctive backbone. It is bold, earthy, and balanced.
Then there is the fire itself, the element that defines every pit and every cook. At altitude, everything burns differently. The air is drier, the wood burns hotter, and patience runs shorter. Barbecue in Colorado is not just about smoke and time. It is about finesse. The same way baking recipes must be adjusted for altitude, smoking meat here requires its own set of instincts. The thinner air and lower humidity can pull moisture from meat faster. That means you often smoke at slightly higher temperatures to keep it tender and juicy. It is a constant balance between heat and hydration. You learn to read the fire by sound and smell. You learn when to mist the meat, when to close the vents, and when to trust your gut. Technology helps, but it never replaces feel.
Cooking outdoors can test your patience in any state, but in Colorado it demands real dedication. The late summer brings sudden winds that can rip a flame sideways without warning. Hail falls often enough that you learn to keep an eye on the sky even when the sun is shining. Winter comes hard and early, and it stays long after the calendar says it should be gone. Out here, you do not talk about a barbecue season. You either cook year-round or you do not cook at all. When you find yourself shoveling a path to your smoker before you clear the driveway, that is when you know the craft has taken root. Colorado rewards the pitmasters who do not quit when the temperature drops or when the wind picks up. The fire tastes better when you have to work for it.
Even the wood carries the mark of this place. We do not have endless hickory forests. We have cherry, apple, oak, and maple that give a sweeter, softer smoke. Colorado wood leaves a gentler kiss of flavor that feels like mountain air in every bite. When cherry smoke curls around a slab of tri-tip, it leaves a light ruby hue and a subtle sweetness that belongs nowhere else.
More than anything, Colorado barbecue is defined by innovation and independence. This has always been a place for pioneers. That spirit lives in our cooking. We borrow what makes sense. We leave the rest behind. Our cooks experiment with whiskey reductions, hatch chiles, and espresso rubs because that is who we are. No sauce wars. No ego. Just good food and good people. Out here, creativity is the seasoning.
The Modern Colorado Table
As Colorado grows, so does its appetite. What started as chuck-wagon sustenance has become a reflection of how this state eats today. You will see barbecue served next to roasted vegetables from a high-altitude farm or beef ribs paired with craft beer brewed a few miles away. Our pitmasters shop at farmers markets instead of feed stores, and they treat ingredients with respect.
The old frontier values of thrift and hard work still run deep, but now they meet a community that values sustainability and local connection. A new generation of cooks is bridging the past and the present, proving that barbecue can evolve without losing its soul. It is still meat, smoke, and patience. It is also about where that meat came from, how it was raised, and how every bite tells a story of this place.
When I reach for Pueblo chiles, I know the fields they came from. Those chiles carry the heat of southern Colorado sun, the mineral soil left by ancient rivers, and the history of growers who have tended those plants for generations. When I cook with Palisade peaches, I can taste the Colorado River running beside the orchards and the cool nights that give the fruit its sweetness. The same goes for the coffee we use in our I’m Your Huckleberry Cowboy Rub. That coffee is roasted in small batches by neighbors who understand our altitude, our climate, and our need for flavor that stands up to smoke and fire. Even the huckleberries that inspire the name speak to the wildness of the Rockies, where fruit has always grown in defiance of the terrain.
These ingredients are not imported ideas. They are not borrowed flavors. They are pieces of Colorado itself, and they shape the way we cook. When you use local beef, chiles, peaches, coffee, or stone fruit, you taste the land in every bite. That is what makes Colorado barbecue different. It is not just cooked here. It is grown here. The ranchers, roasters, farmers, and orchardists are as much a part of this movement as the cooks who tend the fire. Colorado barbecue is a collaboration between the people who raise the ingredients and the people who transform them. It is a story that starts in the soil and ends in the smoke.
When I talk about Revolution Barbecue, I am talking about that bridge. We respect the traditions that shaped us while embracing the progress that defines us. We still light fires, but we think about the wood source. We still love beef, but we know the rancher by name. We still drink coffee by the pot, but now it is roasted down the street by a neighbor who understands flavor the same way we do.
The Spirit of Colorado Barbecue
When Vida and I started Revolution Barbecue, we did not set out to reinvent barbecue. We set out to represent it. We wanted a flavor that spoke to where we live, who we are, and how we cook.
We built our style around the same things that make Colorado unique. Independence. Balance. Heart. Every time we open a booth at a street fair or fire up a smoker in the foothills, we carry that story forward. Our rubs, our brines, and our smoke come from that same spark that started around a campfire more than one hundred years ago, now refined with modern ingredients and a touch of creativity that feels right at home in today’s Colorado.
At its core, Revolution Barbecue is about more than recipes or rubs. It is about reclaiming what barbecue has always been. Barbecue is a human experience. It belongs to everyone. People have been cooking over fire for more than ten thousand years. That tradition does not belong to one state, one region, or one style. Kansas City and Texas have their stories, but so does every place where smoke meets hunger and community. We believe that barbecue is not defined by borders. It is defined by people. It lives in the hands that tend the fire, the families that gather around the table, and the stories that rise with the smoke.
Colorado barbecue is still being written, one pit, one plate, and one cook at a time. If you ask me what it tastes like, I will tell you the truth. It tastes like heritage beef raised with pride, the depth of locally roasted coffee, and the sweetness of smoke rising into mountain air. It tastes like hard work, open sky, and home.
Colorado barbecue is not about following a map. It is about making one. It is the next chapter in American smoke, where the traditions of the West meet the craftsmanship of modern Colorado.
At Revolution Barbecue, that is what we are chasing every day. Not just great food, but a legacy. When you light a fire here, you become part of a movement. You become part of the new smoke of the West.
If you want to taste this story for yourself, explore the recipes that follow. Each one is created with the same spirit of independence, altitude, and fire that defines Colorado barbecue. You can find them all here: The New Smoke of the West Recipes.
The New Smoke of the West™ is a trademark of Revolution Barbecue®.