Hattwood: 'he gives a shit.'
Prizes, Winners and Competitions:
(It is a long, long way to Tipperary.)
One time I went to Tipperary (yes in Ireland ) for a song contest, the eventual 'winner' had made an arrangement ahead of the performances and judging with the person running the so called fair and impartial competition to return the winnings if he was selected. Well how about that! The same guy who set it up and was running it accepted the offer of course. Hilarious Irish gyrations. All all done in full view.
The judges bowed their head in shame and made him the what a surprise! The winner. I was shamed and embarrassed by the then voting. All the rest of the competitors fled the hotel leaving me the lovely Irish girls from the parallel competition, the winner, the fellah and the committee. It is a long, long way to Tipperary. So foolish me, and so Nah, I dont trust no competitions and waste money entering any of those sort of things.
I leave it to the public to make up theor own minds. Judge my sauces using your senses, your taste buds and leave a review for others if you love them. I get all five star reviews from actual customers. Tell your friends if you love my sauces. It's all I got between this and the salt mines.
I don't go in for the hot sauce competitions or look to be included from paid insider picks or being a suck up to the big guys. I am friendly and open to friendship but not to copy cats by automechanics who think they are pirates with fruity hot sauces and bad attitudes. I have been on the wrong side of some funny judging stuff in different industries like in the music biz. So I usually am wary of competitions . I don't know and I have not cuddled up and made pretty with the folks who are doing the judging or selecting the judges form their huddles. Either ways I dont feel I usually fit to their sometimes heavy-metal burning ass focus group and fear they won't understand me, what Hattwood is about or be leery for their part of my Hattwood taste stretches.
'Ain't nobody got time for that.'
What I do is mostly internally motivated and like an artist or Artisan I put everything in to the end result. It's not industrial flavor for generic material results. Its hardly even a business, it's really a mix of the whole- the holistic. It's spicy work of intellect, intuition, science and an overall artistic aim.
To trust judges to be fair competent and upright or for me to be able to even choose a category is just something I don't have enough time or enthusiasm for. I just make great hot sauce to please my own high internal standards, not so much seeking external validation except by direct person to person measurement and feedback of my customers when I am out and about on tastings and Farmers markets and fairs.
Any creator follows their own soul and passion and like that I don't and can't always do as expected (even if I kinda wanted to) I don't have a simplistic category for some of my sauces to fit into or want even to have some of my complicated layered & unique creations be judged among real peers.
I need to seek other metrics, to go to you then reader, and trust my customers to tell me they love Hattwood sauces and it's the absolute best flavor. If the result of my efforts are not the best sauce there is, then I generally feel that I am wasting my & their saucy time.
Simple Simons Three Chord Sauce Tricks
Anyone can, and they do make, in my opinion so many 'only so-so tasting' hot sauces. They are all fairly OK, in they do a job with a predominant flavor and a predominant heat or narrative cudgel but in my opinion they are taking short cuts, not aching to be doing something new or different. They are 'knocking off' someone elses look or feel and producing merely a cheaper watered down version of something someone else does. Try Hattwood Green Go! and tell me it isn't some of the best Green | Verde | Jalapeno style sauce anywhere by anyone.
Sauce Dad and Saucy Son
It was well said by a sauce fan Dad when his newly 21 year old college son suddenly discovered the joys of Hattwoods Original Hot Sauce.
"Why do John's sauces taste better?" the son asked of my OG 'Hot Red' sauce.
"Cause he gives a shit." says the dad (my msuic business talented friend and sauce customer.
There ya go, "Hattwood, he gives a shit."
I'll take that description every day of the week.
Thank you friend, now please do buy my sauces! Keep this 'giving a shit' thing going before the bean counters shut us all down.
John