Gunther Gourmet’s Wing Sauce Experiment
Michael Lampros of Gunther’s Gourmet had an idea to host a little wing eating party and make it into a taste test. So he gathered some people, got a whole bunch of wing sauces, and the fun was had by all. We mixed up a lot of sauces on fried wings, and Mike created some rating sheets for us to vote on. We had so many wing sauces we had to make 2 videos to discuss it all. If you want to skip through all the comments and see the results, go to the 8:14 mark on the 2nd video.
While the sampling might have been all over the place at times, and people getting too full to continue, I think the cream rose to the crop so to speak. The only issue we might have had was that some people complained that a few of the sauces were too hot and became flavorless to them because of it. These people were not chileheads in our sense, but they were troopers willing to try anything including the jolokia sauces. I think we could improve the rating chart to something much like our new reviewer rating system if we do this again. Also, I think everyone participating should have their own rating chart with each wing sauce on it. That way we know they had every sauce available to be judges. For an experiment made to be fun, it was a good first effort, and I applaud the attempt.
One note that I feel bad about is that the majority of people ran out of stomach capacity, and we never got to try the Suck Creek Original nor their “WFR” hot sauce. Considering they have an award winning product, it would’ve been fair to include them in the final results. Yet we just could not eat anymore. I feel obligated to do a review of their sauces in the near future. We did try 2 out of 4 of their products though. Also, the Rippin Red wing sauce that some other people have recently reviewed got to Firehead Thomas’ house 1 day too late.
Part 1
Part 2
I would like to thank Mike Lampros of Gunther’s Gourmet and all those who participated in this taste experiment. Mike, thanks for inviting Firehead Thomas and myself. We would love to do it again.
The Danny Cash Jolokia and Defcon 2 are some of my favorites too.
66 pounds of wings, just how many of you were there? 🙂
About 20 or so, but not everyone stayed for every wing sauce. People were milling around inside and out of the warehouse.
Nice job Buddah! Thanks Mike, it was a blast. I would love to do that again, there are many more sauces to try, and we can add BBQ sauces as well:)
Well done Buddha, well done. Pretty good selection too. I thought it was a little weird how there were different numbers of votes fo nearly each product.
Also, it seemed people were pretty much ‘burned out’ by the time the hot stuff was offered. Non-chileheads will rate hot stuff MUCH differently than people who can taste food even with heat. I did get a chuckle when a couple people said our #1 had absolutely no flavor, considering they said the #2 had great flavor. It’s the same basic sauce, LOL!
I alluded to that. It was funny with the no flavor comment, but I am just figuring his tongue had run it’s course and all the heat was just too much at that point.
I do think it could be done, but maybe over a 2 day weekend so people can rest their tummies. Those that do it have to be committed to eat each one, so we get even results. People either got full or were intimidated to try the hotter version. I think we should have stuck to mild or medium sauces for this crowd. It is also hard to compare to levels of heat against each other. Thomas and I loved the heat and wanted that as part of our wing eating experience, but others wanted total flavor with only little to no heat.
Great videos, Buddah. They were very entertaining and I didn’t mind the long running times.
It was very informal, not everybody who ate the wings voted, we had to remind them.
Yeah, I couldn’t believe the comments about DC#1, especially the bitter comments. To me, it tastes almost identical to #2 but just more heat.
I would love to see something like this done at an upcoming hot sauce show, whether it be ZF, FFS or WOF, just as long as a large group of us chileheads are there. That way the heat of the wing sauces wouldn’t effect us the same way as this crowd.
I think Peppers at the Beach has good potential for that. Maybe Brian could orchestrate that since he knows many in the bbq sauce arena. If Peppers allowed for it. It is a good idea at any rate.
Damm, I would of loved for my sauce to get there in time. Oh well i will just have to wait for the Rippin Red Vs Defcon challenge!!! Cant wait!
Yeah, people do hit sensory overload after a while. It probably wouldn’t have to be back to back days, maybe two Saturdays or Sundays in a row. I do like the Peppers at the Beach idea. One day we could do the mild & mediums and the other day for the hots. I have a feeling there will be a much bigger crowd next year.
Sorry John, it was just something that we had talked about over the last few months, and all the bottles were bought in advance. That was before we had known about your product.
Good job editing Buddah, Thanks to you and Thomas for making the trip.
This was a group of my friends (non chile heads) I invited over to visit my new office/warehouse. So, as predicted, the mild sauces scored better. Plus, by the time we got to the hotter ones, flavors were blurred, more adult beverages had been consumed and people had come and gone. So voting started to wane.
Overall, for my first gathering at the shop – it was fun, I will do it again with some changes. 1)less wing sauces 2)an organized tasting table 3) get people to vote on all samples 4)add 3-4 BBQ sauces, some hot sauces and a few other entries.
Next time – the worst case scenario – good friends, lots of food and cold beverages – not a bad way to spend the day.
It would be even more incentive for me to come to PATB next year.
Then you can come try the bacon ice cream that Chip makes. :lick:
Are you thinking of BBQ wings, too? Not to open up a potential can of worms, but that may be interesting to do that as well. Perhaps we could crown a “king of hot/buffalo-style wings” and a “king of BBQ wings” which the winning sauce makers could wear as a badge of honor.:)
Ribs would be better 🙂
Someone would have to make a LOT of ribs. 🙂 But a combination chicken wing and BBQ ribs contest would draw a helluva lot more people to the event, especially if this were advertised.
I’d settle for scoops of Booger ice cream and the new Heartbreaking Dawns ice cream.
I never heard of the HBD ice cream.
For a first time thing – It went well, there are a lot of sauces out there so I am sure we left off several good ones, I got most of them at WoF – I will let you know next time I do something, if you want to kick in/trade products let me know – your just up the road a bit – so if you have time – come on down and join us.
According to Johnny it is a Peach Ice Cream with chunks of Mango, Cranberries, Ginger and a dash of Sea Salt and Cayenne.
Sounds yummy, sign me up
Looks like you guys had a great time. Thanks for putting that together Buddah.
Sure wish you guys would have had a chance to try the “Original” Suck Creek Wings Sauce. You chili-heads would have liked both the flavor and the heat on wings. Glad to see the “Mild” went over so well. When you do the review, which is very cool of you, it may help to know that some people use the WFR as wing sauce (I do), but it was made as a traditional all purpose hot sauce.
I appreciate all of your comments on the Mango Hab, but, for the record, the Mango Habanero wasn’t made as a wing sauce. It just isnt strong enough to stand up to a wing in my opinion (and all of yours too!!) It was made to add flavor and just a little heat to a light fish like tilapia and veggies. You can taste it on those. It really is pretty good as a dip for chicken fingers too. I am a little biased, but I do like it a little better than vasoline!
Wish we could have been there!
John
John, I think the Suck Creek medium, along with Defcom #2 and Wy’s Wing – were the big winners. I liked the Mango Habby by itself, but it did not do well on the wings – I am sure you are right about it being better on a lighter protein. I am sorry if we used it wrong, giving it a bad review. Next time we will do less sauces, but Suck Creek will be one of them as it was one of the favorites.
Eh. That mango sauce was not good. I don’t care if it is meant to be on chicken or not. The first Suck Creek sauce we tried was decent, not great but decent. I’m sorry we didn’t get to the others, but as a wing conesuier (sp?) I welcome the opportunity. John, please send us your sauces so we can do a concentrated, non-biased, non inebriated review!:)
I respect your opinion Thomas, inebriated or not. Glad others felt differently. I suppose thats why there will always be room for new sauces on the market.
Mike, Thanks and enjoy those other sauces. Always appreciate the feedback.
I agree about the Suck Creek Wings Original and the WFR sauces. Great stuff: http://www.scottrobertsweb.com/Review-Suck-Creek-Wings-Original-and-WFR-Sauces
Did I hear you right? I’ve never heard you say something didn’t taste good. I thought you were the “Anti-Mikie”
[img]http://www.iloveitspicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mikeydead-thumb-580xauto-23716.jpg[/img]
Just the Mango Hab…
There were a couple of others I thought were not good that day in my opinion, The Mercy Bocoup for istance is not my cup of tea, but plenty of people like it, so……
Dear Suck Creek, if you make a WFR version in the big bottle, nice and thick made especially for wings, I will buy it. Sauces in small bottles always seem too hot for me. I like them in big bottles all nice and diluted by other stuff, but thick and slathery. :hungry:
Is the Original Suck Creek wing sauce orange or red? Does it have any ground pepper powder in it? I guess it’s usually the sauces that are a step above Hot that add the ground pepper powder, but they don’t have an extra hot wing sauce do they, only that WTF sauce, but I think someone said that is a regular hot sauce, not wing sauce?