10/13/2026
The judges never saw our label.
Scovie Award judging is blind. In 2022, our first year entering, Habanero won Silver in the Natural Habanero category and Habanero won Bronze in Habanero, out of a competition field of more than a thousand products.
The bottles we sent came from a normal production batch, and the recipe hasn't changed since. We never got score sheets back, so the new post sticks to what we know: how the judging works, what a medal actually tells you, and how to run a blind side-by-side at home.
Have you ever done a blind tasting and been surprised by the result?
https://www.offthedeckhotsauce.com/blogs/stories/scovie-award-winning-hot-sauce