On Wed, 10 Mar 1999, Dave Hendricks wrote: > Looks to me like they just give everyone an award, so why > bother? If the purpose of these awards is something > meaningful then at least make it look like it. Seems to me that > they are one big advertisement. Well, Dave, I'm not saying you're wrong but a lot of people don't understand just how many entries there are. This show attracts a ton of products! Still, I would like to see them reduce the number of categories. Although I think the awards are quite competetive, it *does* all come down to advertising. I don't personally find them useful in any sense. > I don't know if I own any award winners because I don't bother to > check (they probably all have awards "everyone gets at least one") > but I don't buy them because of that. Agreed. My experience is that the judge's taste and my taste are sometimes a lot different. By a mile. And a half! I've never bought a sauce because it won an award and I've never not bought a sauce because it didn't. Recommendations from people on this list go a heck of a lot further in my eye than any award. We have far better taste than any of those judges! :^) > I have very little habenero based products on the shelf as I really > don't like them. I think habs are too hot for my taste, I don't like > the flavor, and they smell bad when I cook with them. Lots of vendors (by which I mean "just about everybody") had a hab sauce or three. I noticed quite a few of them were quite mild, though - habs are the popular pepper, but a lot of people can't take the heat. It's marketing 101. A lot of "hab" sauces had so little hab in them that I don't think I would've been able to identify them as such in a blind testing. Of course, my perception of "mild" might've been influenced by trying Jim's Backdraft as my first sacue of the show. Yowza, now *that* is hot! JLB -- Jody L. Baze Blue Sky Tours, Inc. Director 10832 Prospect Avenue N.E. Information Systems Albuquerque, NM 87112 jody@BlueSkyTours.COM (505) 293-9462