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Anyone else get sauce stage fright?

Skydiver

Skydiver

So I made two batches of sauce last year. Cross Eyed Rosie was the first, was pretty meh in my opinion. My second sauce was much better as I used all of my tastiest peppers and added some watermelon puree and it's hot as all get out, but I've found myself on both occasions to be nervous about sharing it more widely.
I've given a few bottles of the CER away, and people have said it was good, too hot, etc.
My second batch is better, I know it is, but I'm getting gun shy about it.
I've been using it fairly often and I like it, but giving it to someone in the know who has had some of those really awesome sauces that the masters have made intimidates me to no end.

Anyone else go through that when they were first starting out making sauces?
 
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i do sometimes, but then i jsut give mine away, i don't charge for it. So if people don't really like it oh well, not like they are out anything, just give me the bottle back and i will pass it on to someone else. :)
 
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Skydiver said:
So I made two batches of sauce last year. Cross Eyed Rosie was the first, was pretty meh in my opinion. My second sauce was much better as I used all of my tastiest peppers and added some watermelon puree and it's hot as all get out, but I've found myself on both occasions to be nervous about sharing it more widely.
I've given a few bottles of the CER away, and people have said it was good, too hot, etc.
My second batch is better, I know it is, but I'm getting gun shy about it.
I've been using it fairly often and I like it, but giving it to someone in the know who has had some of those really awesome sauces that the masters have made intimidates me to no end.

Anyone else go through that when they were first starting out making sauces?
Click to expand...

Don't worry about it too much.

While it is important to incorporate customer feedback, especially early on, no sauce is going to be all things to all people, and trying to please everybody will result in something that has no character or identity

First step is to make a sauce that YOU like. People will realize very quickly if you are trying to promote something that you yourself don't believe in.

Then test it on others, and realize its a numbers game.

Most of the population doesn't like hot sauce, and that's OK, but of the people who like hot sauce, how many like YOUR sauce? 10%? (That's probably too low to be successful) 50%? 70%?

When I want through this exercise, about 75% of the people who liked hot sauce, liked mine. Of the remainder, most said it wasn't hot enough.

So maybe in the future I'll make a hotter version, but right now I'm focusing on that core market who like heat,but not extreme heat.

Then once you've identified your core market, it really doesn't matter what people outside of that market think... you can smile and thank them for their opinion, and file it in bucket 13...
 
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i dont like to enter anything into "Comp" until i know i have a winner
im not sure if you where looking for encouragement ,but here gos anyway!! LOL :lol:

however when you make a sauce you put a little bit of yourself in each jar so to speak, i have found that just like with everything else you will get some that love and some well fill in the blank

i do care what people think but what it comes down to for me is at the end of the day i at least pleased somebody :dance:
so dont be afraid to fail, its part of the process and you can learn from it, i listen to people when they give me their opinion and i ask questions about the complexity of the sauce being sampled

so dont be too afraid i must be different than some i go into it with expectation

there,s an old saying

if you show people your desire they then know your serious and when they know your serious then they know you care and when they know you care your desire becomes there's as well

just do what you know to do and dont be afraid to experiment!!

I hope this helps

thanks your friend AjiJoe :)
 
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Make what you like and carry a bottle with your for people to try when out and about. Always make what YOU like, then if no one buys it you still end up with a bunch of yummy sauces.
 
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I can't say I really had this issue with the sauces I make. Some of my creations were complete disasters, some meh, and some outstanding! If I don't like my sauce, I dump it down the drain and go back to the cooking board. If I come up with a promising sauce recipe, then I iterate on the recipe trying various variants. When I have a sauce I like, I give it out for others to try, asking for their feedback. Some people will like it too, some will think it's too hot, not hot enough, or... I value all feedback, and consider each person's feedback thoroughly. The normalized feedback trend line is important - of the population segment who has tried your sauce, do many more people love your sauce than not? Ultimately, it's about bringing some happiness into people's lives, so the more feedback, the better - both favorable and likewise! Feedback can also reveal flavor profile opportunities that you may not have considered, so it's all good!
 
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+1 Dave. I would rather get criticism then praise for the most part. You can't learn or improve from praise. Customer feedback is one reason my Fatal Lime is knocking on the door of discontinue. It is getting one more chance come flea market time.
 
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Send it to as many people as possible so you can get a consensus on the comments. If 95% say it's too sweet, that's good info. If you just taste it yourself you are not getting this info. You need to do this before you go pro. No need for stage fright. It's R&D.
 
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thehotpepper.com said:
Send it to as many people as possible so you can get a consensus on the comments. If 95% say it's too sweet, that's good info. If you just taste it yourself you are not getting this info. You need to do this before you go pro. No need for stage fright. It's R&D.
Click to expand...

You're right, of course.
Think I'm gonna pull the trigger and mail a jar out.
 
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I'm the same or I was till I saw this topic of yours,
at first I gave it to a few friends and they loved it so I though I'd share with you guys
and maybe get some feed back to see if they need improving
thanks skydiver, I guess all you gotta do is jump.....;)

you can find it here;

Sauces in Progress
 
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