You know what Grinds my Gears!?!? (in the food biz)

Gemini Crow Sauce Company

Gemini Crow Sauce Company

When punk 12 year old kids approach my table and rather asking me 'how hot are my sauce?', but instead 'what are the scolville #'s for your sauce?'
 
Listen punk, if you know all about the term 'scolville', then I should very well assume that you already know that if I tell you the sauce contain, 'Ghost' or 'Scoropion' or 'Habanero' peppers, then you should have a pretty clear understanding of the heat level of each sauce...
 
stop showing off to your parents and/or friends!
 
punk!!  
 
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meh - I have grown ups asking the scoville units of my sauce too. Every festival, often at farmer's markets. 
 
My response is a very flat and sincere "don't know."
 
If they press, I'll say, "I haven't had them tested, and since I don't particularly care it's not really worth the expense" - still polite, just not a topic I need to dive into. 
 
It's like when someone asks "how hot is this?" (pointing to a sauce) - same answer. I don't know.  I say "to most people it's a medium" - that usually does it, but again, if they press I'll tell them the truth: it's impossible for me to know what they perceive as hot. Warm milk might be spicy to them, whereas I can put a sippy straw in my Black Label. 
 
I label products to what I think the average consumer rating is - and I probably f**k that up anyway. It's all just guesswork. 
 
I wouldn't let it get to you - there are far more significant concerns to deal with in this business. 
 
Kids - that's a whole other subject for different reasons. The obnoxious ones are usually a PITA, but you never know. So it pays to bite your tongue and be polite. At ABQ I had a group of alpha-type teens, came over all blustery and showboaty asking "WHAT'S YOUR HOTTEST SAUCE?!?" - I pointed to the Black and said "that one, now - who wants to try my line of delicious products?" 
 
They tried them all, loved the flavor and the group bought 3-4 bottles between them. I always take the position that I am driving the demo - if a customer wants to take the wheel they can buy their own damn car. 
 
That's actually my gear grinder - when I have 8-9 people sampling sauce (10 was about the biggest group at 1 time over the weekend) & I'm going 1 flavor at a time, describing each sauce, and I get  someone in the middle of the group saying "I wanna try THAT one!" and point to a sauce. :doh:
 
I'll just say, "i'm demo-ing for the whole group, so you have a choice - you can either sit out for a min until I get to that one, or you can taste them all along with the rest of these folks."
 
I had 2 people walk away, clearly too impatient to wait. And good riddance I sez.   
 
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I think it's pretty cool young kids are into the terms, even if they don't fully understand. Why would you not think those kids were awesome, and why would you not want to help them along with some info? They are at your table.
 
If they are that young, by the time the parents find them chatting at your booth, they may convince them to buy sauce.
 
I think it's cool peppers are their "thing" at that age. 
 
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Hah... It doesn't get to me, outside of a brat kid being a brat kid trying to show off his knowledge of all things spicy. 
 
Usually, I just say that each pepper actual scolville can range by a few thousand based on the crop. If a sauce uses multiple different peppers, I'm not gonna sit there and do math in my head....I usually just says 'it varies'.
 
For the people who ask 'how hot is the sauce?', my typical response is simply, that everyones pallet is different and interprets heat differently...I ask them what kind fo spicy food/sauces do they like, and I try and guid them in the right direction....
 
For people who don't know the difference between habanero, ghost, scorpion, jalapeno, or banana, I have no problems ranking them for them....but don't you come at me with your little smirk as if i tell you that this sauce is 250,000 scoville units as opposed to this other one which is only 225,000, like that is really telling you anything!!! just take the f*cking spoon and taste it, before i put it in your other opening!!!! LOL
 
 
Agreed on the demo'ing.....I try and give my focus and attention to whoever was there first, but usually I found that people like to try sauces with strangers as well, and sometimes they even start selling the sauces for me......If I find an opening and see someone standing there, I try and get them to demo with the others as well...it becomes a party, and it usually ends up with them battling over who can give me $$ first.....that grinds my gears....in the Scarlett Johansson kind of way! :)
 
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The Hot Pepper said:
I think it's pretty cool young kids are into the terms, even if they don't fully understand. Why would you not think those kids were awesome, and why would you not want to help them along with some info? They are at your table.
 
If they are that young, by the time the parents find them chatting at your booth, they may convince them to buy sauce.
 
I think it's coll peppers are their "thing" at that age. 
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I agree - some are incorrigible, super obnoxious, loud and "feeling their oats" - which admittedly makes it harder to tolerate when you're in there working your ass off...but I approach everyone who comes to my table as a potential customer. Even if the kids don't have $, the parents do. 
 
And yeah - it's cool they love spicy food. I always greet littler kids as "my future customers" or thank their parents for ensuring my future customers. Makes for a good conversation piece. 
 
in ABQ I did a lot of tastings for parents & their kids. For every obnoxious little ragamuffin, I had 15 or more extremely polite kids. The majority ain't bad. 
 
But you do get the occasional group of obnoxious free range chil'rens from time to time. Just gotta wrangle 'em and show them a good time. I think a lot of vendors just mentally paint a bulls-eye on them and go right for the 2 mil extract.  I just take them through a normal tasting & see how they handle the Pink & Black.  A couple from the "tough" group got pretty lit up.  Which I thought was funny since I had kids much younger handle those easily earlier in the day. 
 
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The Hot Pepper said:
I think it's pretty cool young kids are into the terms, even if they don't fully understand. Why would you not think those kids were awesome, and why would you not want to help them along with some info? They are at your table.
 
If they are that young, by the time the parents find them chatting at your booth, they may convince them to buy sauce.
 
I think it's cool peppers are their "thing" at that age. 
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It was more of an observation of the kids who are asking me , more than anything...
 
To me, if you already know the term 'Scoville' and can make an assessment on the heat level of the sauce, based on whatever #'s i throw back at you, then I think that these people already have a clear understanding that a moruga scorpion based sauce is most likely gonna be hotter than a franks red hot type sauce....
 
 
When I go to buy a car, I'm not gonna go to the dealer and ask if the car has a 321 re-built engine with four on the florr flux capaciatior yadda yadda....im gonna ask how fast can it go and what kind of gas mileage it gets...
 
my observation was that these kids were showing off to their friends...
 
all in good fun...just annoying...lol
 
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The Hot Pepper said:
Yeah kids like to show off their knowledge and adults do too. I'd have more patience with the kids myself as they are eager to learn, and the adults are sometimes trying to prove you wrong.
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I like to think I am a decent 'eye' for people, and I treat them how they treat me. There is no place in the world that I am happier then when I am at a show selling sauce. I love the interaction, and I still get a tingle when someone tries a sauce and likes it, even if they don't buy at that time.
At the same time, I don't tolerate nonsense and not afraid to give it back should the customer try and give it to me....I won't cower to make a sale.....I learned that selling print advertising for 15 years....
 
Little old lady looked at my sauces. I knew she wasn't gonna buy at all, but was happy to try and sell to her...She was rude from minute one. Her las words were how '$8.00 was too much for a bottle of sauce and that I was crazy'. I told her that' of the 247 bottles i sold this weekend, that was the firs person who thought so'.... BAM. ROASTED!
 
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I pretty much take most people with a grain of salt at demos and the farmers markets. A lot of kids and men go right for our Ghost Pepper and then they decide to taste the rest of our sauces and by that time they can't really taste anything. I always tell people about each sauce starting with the mildest to the hottest and encourage them to start mild and work their way up in heat. When they ask about heat we show them the little heat scale on the side of the bottle. When making our sauces our first goal is flavor and then heat but like anything else everyone has their own taste. What's hot for one is mild for someone else.  :halo:  
 
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Another one...
On my table, I have a empty plastic bottle of milk (filled with baking powder) with a sign that says, 'Cold Milk - $500'
 
8 out of 10 people who pass or approach my table, give a nice chuckle as they get the joke, and its a conversation starter.
1 of out 10, who ask me why the milk is so much, laugh heartedly when I explain to them the bit.
the other 1 person, simply remarks to me that $500 for cold milk is outragious and that I should be ashamed of myself as milk shouldn't be more than $2.50 for that size bottle and I am what is wrong with America....
 
Now, I know, I am not the best thing for America, but my milk / pepper sense of humor isn't my first problem....LOL
 
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pep 1 said:
I pretty much take most people with a grain of salt at demos and the farmers markets. A lot of kids and men go right for our Ghost Pepper Classyand then they decide to taste the rest of our sauces and by that time they can't really taste anything. I always tell people about each sauce starting with the mildest to the hottest and encourage them to start mild and work their way up in heat. When they ask about heat we show them the little heat scale on the side of the bottle. When making our sauces our first goal is flavor and then heat but like anything else everyone has their own taste. What's hot for one is mild for someone else.  :halo:  
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Classy!
 
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lol remember that thread....where the OP discussed chasing down some kids who gave him the finger, and then discussed how scared the kids were and what ever else?
 
this thread made me recall that for some reason. someone find that thread. it was so ridiculous  i thought he was trolling.
 
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Considering I have Hab sauces hotter then some ghost sauces I explain to people while the pepper does add the heat, it also adds flavor. So when you try a ghost or scorpion sauce and love the flavor but the heat is lacking you don't need a hotter pepper, just more of it.
 
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