Scovie Award Winners for 2011 Announced

World’s Most Competitive Fiery Foods Competition Announces 2011 Scovie Award Winners

Unprecedented tie for grand prize fires up competitors

For Immediate Release – October 20, 2011

Contact: The Garrity Group

Albuquerque, NM – For the first time in 15 years, the annual Scovie Awards has announced that two products will take home the coveted overall grand prize. Barhyte Specialty Foods’ Saucy Mama Creamy Horseradish and Poco Dolce’s Super Chile Toffee Squares were separated by less than a thousandth of a point, leading to the first two-way tie in Scovie Award history.

Barhyte’s Saucy Mama Creamy Horseradish took top honors in the condiments category, in addition to placing overall. Poco Dolce’s Super Chile Toffee Squares beat out the competition in the sweet heat category.

Barhyte Specialty Foods is located in Pendleton, Oregon and produces a variety of specialty mustards, condiments and sauces. Poco Dolce originated in San Francisco, California and today retails their savory chocolate products in stores across the United States.

Crazy Uncle Jester’s, a family-owned specialty food manufacturer from Ohio, took home the grand prize award in advertising and marketing for their product logo and label.

This year’s competition featured two new categories: extreme sauce and wing sauce. In all, 139 companies entered 639 different products for a chance at Scovie glory. Dave DeWitt, creator of the Scovie awards, said competition was particularly fierce this year, with entries from 37 states and six countries.

DeWitt, the “Pope of Peppers”, was impressed by the variety and creativity of entries. “This year I was blown away by all of the great submissions. Some are out of this world and the new ideas and flavors never cease to amaze me. The competition gets better and better each year,” DeWitt said.

Some of the most interesting entries included Honey Jalapeno Infusion from Smoke’n Jacks, Panama Red Hot Sauce from Pancali Foods, Lavender Vinaigrette and Marinade from Montebello Kitchens, Bali Boo Yah from Sean’s Boo Yah! and Dennis’ Mango Habanero BBQ Sauce from Reva Foods.

The Scovie Award winners can be seen and tasted at the 2011 Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show March 4-6, 2011 at Sandia Resort and Casino nettcasino in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Learn more at easyslots.com Vendors from across the country will be in attendance. For more information please visit: canadascasino.ca.

About:
The Scovie Awards is an annual competition created by Dave DeWitt that recognizes the top fiery foods products in the world. It is one of the most competitive blind tasted food competitions. Hundred of products are entered and go through rigorous tastings to receive the top honors. The Scovie Awards take place annually in the month of October.

——————- end of press release ——————-

Editor’s notes:

Read Dave’s take on the competition this year on his Supersite Fiery-Foods.com.

You can see all the winners on ScovieAwards.com (sort of… read on)

Congratulations to all the Scovie Awards winners and to all the entrants. The Scovies are a HUGE deal in the world of fiery food and hot sauce.

Having said that, I must say I am disappointed that the Grand Prize was awarded to a condiment and a candy. Surely the Scovies were launched 15 years ago to award the best of the best in the hot sauce world, with new categories added each year. And I applaud and support all the categories… but for the grand prize to be awarded to anything but a true hot sauce product seems to rub me the wrong way.

This is not “sour grapes” as I have no vested interest in the outcome. I’m just sayin’.

And finally (Dave are you listening?) I feel the ScovieAwards.com site makes it difficult to see the winners. To have to use drop-down boxes and search terms to see the categories is cumbersome at best.
Why can’t you publish all of the 2011 winners in one huge chart?

I personally would welcome a better presentation of such an outstanding best-of-the-best list of fantastic products, companies and the families and people that work so hard to make and market their products. I feel they deserve a better display of their awards. ~brian

Update: 10/22/10 – Turns out there is a way to see the whole list. Thanks to Jason Russo of TexasFoods.com for the tip! Here’s the URL:

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8 Comments

  1. I hope my comments at the end of the post didn’t offend anyone. I just wished some real hot sauce products would have made the grade for the grand prizes.
    ~brian

  2. Nice article!! I agree with your thoughts about 1 winner and the layout of the winners on the Firey-Foods site. It NEEDS to be posted in a chart. Not hard. Also, while we did take 2nd place in our first ever competition entry, I would rather pay a little more to have the “analysis” of my losing products included. Who wants to fork over extra clams to find out how many other entries there were in your catagory and how you stacked up? You just paid around 70.00 bucks to enter, now you find you didn’t place, and have to pay another 60.00 or so to find out why? Not GOOD. I hope to go this year to experience the whole scene and get our company name out there. I like Dave and Emily and appreciate how hard they work to do what they do.

    1. Thanks David and congrats on the 2nd Place Win in Condiments – Table Seasoning for Dave’s Dragon Dust! DragonsDust.com

      If you get to the Fiery Foods Show in Albuquerque and display, you won’t be sorry. It’s a ZOO and people spend money at the booths. Good luck and again thanks for chiming in! ~brian

  3. First of all, congratulations to all the this years ( or I suppose next years) winners!

    Brian,

    You can actually view all the winners on one big chart. If you click on Winners Archive , then choose just 2011, then Go, it shows all the winners on one page.

    Here is the URL : http://www.scovieawards.com/scoviearchives/index.php?qsYear=2011&qsKey=&qsCategory=&qsSubcategory=&qsPlace=&runMode=Archive

    Once the list is expanded, it’s pretty overwhelming. In my opinion too many similar categories. For example in hot sauce, Authentic Caribbean and Caribbean style. I am sure there is a difference but is it that much that it needs it’s own category? There are 15 different salsa categories, 45 total salsa winners. You could almost sample a different NATIONAL AWARD WINNING salsa each week for a year. Uhh ok…. they must all be amazing, right? Too saturated in my opinion.

    One other gripe I have is that there is no disclosure on how many entrants were received for each category. “Only 1 entry, congrats your the best in the nation.” On the other hand, if you had disclosure “your jerky beat out 17 other jerkys, bad ass!” Obviously disclosure of this type is unlikely to ever happen because it’s not beneficial to Sunbelt ( although it would make it more beneficial to the consumers).

    Then again, when you have as many entrants as the Scovies get, it’s probably pretty hard to resist the urge to expand it even more. The real question to ask here is, ” Do consumers find value in the award winners and are they willing to buy without sampling, based solely on the award?”

    1. Thanks for that URL Jason!

      I stand corrected… you CAN see all the 2011 winners via that link. Here’s a short version to view all the 2011 winners:

      I’ve heard more than once that the entrants would have liked to know how many they were up against in each category.
      ~brian

  4. I agree with your position about the overall winner of the Scovies. I would think it would be reserved for the best hot sauce. This seems like someone winning the Grand Champion in a BBQ contest for their “anything but” entry. Just my opinion.

  5. Great awards, I wonder what the Honey Jalapeno Infusion tastes like?

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