event 2012 Zestfest Pics and stories

It was you said not to take pics of the bad labels,so I just thought is blame it on the wife,haha. Were in Dallas at moment by the way,I can't wait to get home.
 
Wow I want to say a huge thank you to Salsa Lady for turning out a great product! Pure Evil!

I had hot dogs tonight and I mixed 4 drops with a little bowl of ketchup and it was so enjoyable. No change in taste and I was left with flaming lips. So so good.

Thus far I have not sampled it neat and I never had any plans on doing so but it's kind of sitting there looking at me...

For anyone who hasn't tried Pure Evil yet don't confuse it with a nasty extract sauce, it's a really nice additive to add fire to otherwise tame food without messing up the taste (like I've done in the past with Da Bomb...Yuck!).

Cheers Salsa Lady!
 
Well my trip is done. We had a great time, Ann thank you so much for having dinner with us it was a delight. It was great meeting you john,Ronnie,lunchbok,Dr.p,and woody. Hope everyone had,and has a safe trip home.
 
Great to meet you too, sic. And...the wife really wants me to start producing, and marketing my dry mixes, and rubs...so you and I may become very close...very soon.
 
sicman said:
It was you said not to take pics of the bad labels,so I just thought is blame it on the wife,haha. Were in Dallas at moment by the way,I can't wait to get home.
Click to expand...

Well sicman, if you'd of said YOU had spilled the pickle juice, I'd of let it go, but ain't no way Sonya's gonna get blamed for that. :lol:

Glad you're home safe. :cool: Evan and I enjoyed hanging with you and MsSic for the evening. We'll be talkin', fo' sho'


Ringside- you're still on my $#!^& list for not saying "Hi", but it's all good....I'll get over it...I just need to be alone right now....:sniff: (OK just kidding! Just listening to an old "Friends" episode right now. :D )

On a positive note, the product we brought the most of was Pure Evil, and...we SOLD OUT of Pure Evil! We've had all the other products out for sale a different venues, and have been able to get a feel for how much of which variety sells. Pure Evil was first time out at ZestFest. And it sold out.


Here's a few thoughts and observations of the show from a first time vendor's view-
Friday- trade show time seemed a little slow, and I was not sure if everyone was a trade buyer or what. I think there were other people there (FFC judges and other VIPs who have "backstage pass" status). That's good but I wasn't sure who I was supposed to be schmoozing.

Saturday- It was a non-stop flow of consumers (not customers). It wasn't totally wall-to-wall people. But there were 2-3 people waiting to try samples all day.

This is for future vendors who might be reading this thread next year or ~~~
I was not prepared for the number of samplers. From past experiences at farmers markets etc, I had an idea of how much to bring for spoons and crackers. Well, I used up 4 boxes of crackers on Friday, but had lots of sample spoons. Saturday morning, I made the mad-dash to the store for 6 more boxes of crackers. (I'm using saltine crackers, broken in half[or whatever] ) Those were gone by the end of the day...so....BACK to the store on Saturday night for 5 more boxes!

OK- 5 boxes of crackers should get us through Sunday...right???? NOT!!! We were out of those crackers by 2:00 Sunday. AwWWWW...%$@*! LUCKILY, the booth next door had someone at the store buying crackers for themselves, and they graciously picked up a couple more boxes of saltines for us. (Thank you Texas Chili Bowl ladies)


Another first time vendor shared the same situation of not having enough sample cups. SO! for future vendors, bring enough sample supplies for every customer to taste every product. My impression is that most festival attendees taste everything and then buy the few that they really like. Many of the experienced attendees will use their event brochure to "star" the booths that had products they were interested in, and then they would come back and make their purchases on their last trip around the show.

The show seemed to run smoothly, at least for us. Load ins, and load outs, quick and smooth. Box lunches... a nice touch as I wasn't able to leave the booth most of the weekend. They had some issues with parking due to Mother Nature, (a grass lot they usually used for parking got flooded by the Thursday morning rain storm), so they procurred an alternative parking solution that involved parking in a nearby appartment building parking garage and a shuttle bus back to the venue.

One of the booths were giving away large tote bags, it would be great if the coordinators would supply a Zestfest shopping bag to attendees. I'd pay $2 more on the entry fee if the customers couls have a shopping bag. The biggest thing I heard was that they didn't want to "carry the bottles all the way around the venue" . That could have been code for "I'm interested, but I might find something better", or it could just be that they didn't want to hand carry bottles.

fwiw, I packed the roll of produce bags that we use when selling at farmers markets. .. that was a definite bonus!
 
I bought a backpack on the way up on advice I read here. That's the only way to go to a show like this! My first thought was "nah, no way I'll need that". It was full by the time I left and I was only done because I was outta cash =)
 
Yea I almost feel bad for sampling vendors wares then not buying but it's impossible to buy everything! (or like everything). I worked my way around the show and then went back for my purchases at the end...for the most part. When CaJohn told me he only had 4 bottles of Scorpion BBQ sauce left I didn't hesitate.
 
After I made my purchases, I took them out to my car and returned. I hate carrying those around. And 5-6 bottles is sort of heavy. Maybe if I was used to carrying a purse!

So, yes, to avoid that, you take meticulous notes as you sample and come back later to buy your favorites. I'm sort of a nerd regarding this... I used the list of exhibitors from the Zestfest site, created a spreadsheet. Then I took the results of 4 recent contests (including the Pepper Awards on this site) and bounced those results against the vendor list. So, I knew what each vendor's most DECORATED prooduct(s) was... and I tried to go for those when possible.

Now, I'll get through the year with occasional orders from these sites:

http://texascreekproducts.com/products.html
https://sicmanshotpeppersandpowders.com/
http://www.defconsauces.com/index.html


Let me know if I'm forgetting any other vendors friendly to this site.
 
Just had the pleasure of hangin' with Cory for a bit at his place. Thanks for the goodies, man!

And I got to try two of Brian's sauces and two of Texas Creek's. I was very impressed with both. My wife would love the Garlic/Smoked Hab sauce from Texas Creek. Mild enough for everyday/cooking use but with enough spice to add to a dish.

Tried the Pure Evil, too. That's a nice product, I must say. When I first hopped in the product testing thread, I wasn't sure if it'd be up my alley, but it was very pleasant. A good burn with one drop on a pickle, but not so much that I had streaming bodily fluids. I can dig it.

Thanks again for the hospitality, CH! I hope we can get together some sort of semi-regular think 'n' drink for the Austin/RR/San Marcos THP folks (or anyone in the region, for that matter). Would be fun to get together one a quarter or something...

-E
 
It was fun Eric, Glad you came by...I am totally game for a Think 'n' Drink! We can use my house, no issues there. Need to post a new topic and line it out...
 
I have Happy Beaver right next to me... the sauce that is.... I only bought it b/c I had to buy that Trinidad Scorpion BBQ... and John would bundle it with something. So I said, "what do you recommend" and he said Happy Beaver. It's indescribable. It kisses you first, then slaps your face... then tosses you around like a rag doll.
 
Yea I thought it was a nice sweet but hot one! I tasted that one and Angry Cock and I wanted them both but Cock was labelled at $15 and Beaver $10...I didn't really want to pay $25 for 2 bottles so I left them. Later in Scott Roberts pics I noticed a sign on the CaJohn table saying both for $20. How did I miss that! I don't really want to mail order yet cause postage will be another 5 - 10. Oh well.

At least I have the Heartbreaking Dawns triple superhot set on the way to me!
 
[sub]Some more booth pics. Sorry for the poor quality. I sent the 'Kid out to snap some pics and he wasn't really into it~[/sub]
[sub]
zestfestawards2012011.jpg
[/sub]
[sub]
zestfestawards2012012.jpg
[/sub]
[sub]
zestfestawards2012016.jpg
[/sub]
[sub]
zestfestawards2012019.jpg
[/sub]
[sub]
zestfestawards2012026.jpg
[/sub]
[sub]
zestfestawards2012029.jpg
[/sub]
[sub]
zestfestawards2012030.jpg
[/sub]
[sub]
zestfestawards2012032.jpg
[/sub]
[sub]
zestfestawards2012033.jpg
[/sub]

[sub]
zestfestawards2012034.jpg
[/sub]
[sub]as soon as someone else posts, I'll add some more. Can't do back-to-back posts~[/sub]
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top