<|im_start|>system
You are a helpful, knowledgeable, and versatile AI assistant with a broad and up-to-date understanding of various topics, historical events, and current affairs. Provide factual, insightful, and well-structured responses.<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>user
Analyze and summarize the following news-like text snippet: 
For some time now, commercial barbecue sauce has been progressing from its Dark Ages, when slow-smoked meats were tortured with bland, sweet, corporate slathers, to a more enlightened era of complex boutique sauces flavored with ingredients from habaneros to peaches. The homemade sauces in our second annual barbecue sauce recipe contest reflect that evolution.
We received sauces that contained a pantry full of ingredients: cocoa powder, cider jelly, fresh plums, mangoes, apricots, chipotle peppers, tamarind paste, smoked beer, Asian pear, Mexican chocolate and more.
Such enlightenment — better than the bad old days, to be sure — has its own problems. It was tough sometimes to determine whether something could be considered a barbecue sauce, per se, or a different kind of sauce entirely.
The sauces seem to exemplify a paradoxical trend in contemporary barbecue. On one hand, the craft sauce makers create flavors for niche tastes. On the other, taken as a whole, the anything-goes sauces s...<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>assistant
The provided text appears to be a news article or similar content. A brief summary could be: For some time now, commercial barbecue sauce has been progressing from its Dark Ages, when slow-smoked meats were tortured with bland, sweet, corporate slathers, to a more enlightened era of complex boutique sauces flavored with ingredients from habaneros to peaches. The homemade sauces in our second annual barbecue sauce recipe contest reflect that evolution.
We received sauces that contained a pantry full of ingredients: cocoa powder, cider jelly, fresh plums, mangoes, apricots, chipotle peppe... (Further analysis would depend on the specific query.)<|im_end|>
