Idea! Easy Reviews/Possible Database...

[imaguitargod]

I was "relaxing", taking my medicine for my knees when my roommate Dave and I came up with an idea. We should come up with a standard rating system for those that have a hot sauce they want to review but don't want to write a huge review. Something simple and stupid...heck, maybe someone should start a database based on these criteria (hint hint nudge nudge wink wink say no more say no more.......runwiththeball). Something like:

Sauce Name:
Manufacturer:
Taste: (scale 1-10)
Heat: (scale 1-10)
Consistency:
Food it goes good on:
Comments Field:

What do you guys think? Any ideas/add on criterias? Questions? Comments? Duct Tape?

[Sickmont]

Only problem i can see is when using a 1 to 10 heat rating, the numbers are too vague for people. For example, a sauce that i think is a "10" may only be a "5" to you and vice-versa.

[imaguitargod]

Only problem i can see is when using a 1 to 10 heat rating, the numbers are too vague for people. For example, a sauce that i think is a "10" may only be a "5" to you and vice-versa.
Good point, but that's where the comments field comes in also. But if this were to be done as a database (cough cough....darlochileman...cough) then there would be multiple enteries for the same product. For example, search for entries on "Jearsey Death" and see that "user 1" rated it as a 10, "user 2" rated it as a 8, "user 3" said "1", so obviously this product is hot if multiple people said 8 and above and then we also observe that user 3 is full of bantha poodo because he rated Jearsey Death as a 1. Come to think of it, I never did like "user 3", he still owes me money...

[Sickmont]

Good point, but that's where the comments field comes in also. But if this were to be done as a database (cough cough....darlochileman...cough) then there would be multiple enteries for the same product. For example, search for entries on "Jearsey Death" and see that "user 1" rated it as a 10, "user 2" rated it as a 8, "user 3" said "1", so obviously this product is hot if multiple people said 8 and above and then we also observe that user 3 is full of bantha poodo because he rated Jearsey Death as a 1. Come to think of it, I never did like "user 3", he still owes me money...


Thats a good idea for the database. Have a sort of "heat vote" for all of us, so the average guy can get an idea of how violent or how flaccid a sauce is...the more "votes" by the members(users), the more accurate the products heat profile will be.

[thehotpepper.com]

Good idea, let me look into!

[darthcarl]

sort of a click the rating "amihotornot.com" kind of thing?

I have not been too fond of the reviews using 1-10 on the heat scale then using that with the average to rate the sauce. (you know what blogs I'm talking about). That means there cannot be a perfect 10 jalapeño sauce. I find this rating system that only allows for perfect 10 hab or extract sauces to be unnecessarily biased.

[LinNJoe]

sort of a click the rating "amihotornot.com" kind of thing?

I have not been too fond of the reviews using 1-10 on the heat scale then using that with the average to rate the sauce. (you know what blogs I'm talking about). That means there cannot be a perfect 10 jalapeño sauce. I find this rating system that only allows for perfect 10 hab or extract sauces to be unnecessarily biased.

Speaking of blogs, you now have the attention of one of them....

The whole numeric rating thing has been a topic of conversation at our end on more than one occasion. We have purposefully eschewed using numbers for just the reason you mentioned, because each reviewers' opinion is the epitome of subjectivity. What you call a perfect '10' might be a sauce that someone else finds to be atrocious. We tend to only use numbers for describing the heat, and that's because the heat scale has been pretty well delineated in a number of books & sites about what level of heat correlates to what SHU level.

Few sauces are perfect, but most are shades of some kind of good. All we can do as reviewers or as aficionados of hot sauces is to call it as we see it....which is what we tend to do anyway.

Agree or disagree? :?:

[Cap'n Bones]

Speaking of blogs, you now have the attention of one of them....

The whole numeric rating thing has been a topic of conversation at our end on more than one occasion. We have purposefully eschewed using numbers for just the reason you mentioned, because each reviewers' opinion is the epitome of subjectivity. What you call a perfect '10' might be a sauce that someone else finds to be atrocious. We tend to only use numbers for describing the heat, and that's because the heat scale has been pretty well delineated in a number of books & sites about what level of heat correlates to what SHU level.

Few sauces are perfect, but most are shades of some kind of good. All we can do as reviewers or as aficionados of hot sauces is to call it as we see it....which is what we tend to do anyway.

Agree or disagree? :?:

I agree. Reviews are subjective. I like to read the words from a reviewer as if I were sitting around with fellow chileheads, shooting the breeze discussing our opinions on a particular sauce. Bottom line is, I dislike numbers. :)

[darthcarl]

Few sauces are perfect, but most are shades of some kind of good. All we can do as reviewers or as aficionados of hot sauces is to call it as we see it....which is what we tend to do anyway.

Agree or disagree? :?:

Completely agree. I think we are in unknown territory here. despite the fact that many of us may have been making, using, collecting pepper products for years it is only now moving into the mainstream. evidence Doritos, Sonic, and even vallasic pickes with pepper flavors. The two judging systems that already exist that I know of that would be adaptable are athletic judging (diving, gymnastics, x-games) and wine. There will be...and should be...some subjectiveness to the rating. But a rating/review should provide enough info for the consumer to decide to seek out the product or not.


just musings, I have no sollutions.

and I read your blog daily :)

[sweatnspice]

sort of a click the rating "amihotornot.com" kind of thing?

I have not been too fond of the reviews using 1-10 on the heat scale then using that with the average to rate the sauce. (you know what blogs I'm talking about). That means there cannot be a perfect 10 jalapeño sauce. I find this rating system that only allows for perfect 10 hab or extract sauces to be unnecessarily biased.

The HSB reviewers have already agreed to unify their heat rating systems to the scale below:
1. Water (tabasco)
2. A sprinkle of black pepper (cholula and the like)
3. Mild
4. A little tingle on the tongue
5. Comfortably medium
6. Causes the nose to run
7. Causes large quantities of beer to be imbibed
8. Hot - Hiccup alarm good (pure habanero type sauces)
9. Makes the Baby Jesus cry (evil)
10. Causes severe diarrhea or rabid salivating (extracts)

We agree the numbers are subjective, but you should only go by the numbers of reviewers you identify with.

[tinner666]

Neat idea. I always thought the scale should got to 15.

The HSB reviewers have already agreed to unify their heat rating systems to the scale below:
1. Water (tabasco)
2. A sprinkle of black pepper (cholula and the like)
3. Mild
4. A little tingle on the tongue
5. Comfortably medium
6. Causes the nose to run
7. Causes large quantities of beer to be imbibed
8. Hot - Hiccup alarm good (pure habanero type sauces)
9. Makes the Baby Jesus cry (evil)
10. Causes severe diarrhea or rabid salivating (extracts)
This scale would put Jersey Death at 8 or 9. No salivating there. Final Answer will make you salivate though.:mouthonfire:

[E.Z. Earl]

I agree. Reviews are subjective. I like to read the words from a reviewer as if I were sitting around with fellow chileheads, shooting the breeze discussing our opinions on a particular sauce. Bottom line is, I dislike numbers. :)

Ah - and there's the rub. It is hard to quantify a rating system when it is impossible to make one that fits the Personal Communication Style Profile [PCS} of the individual readers. This is complicated by the degree of "chiliheadness" in each consumer. At the NWFS show I had five guys and one girl tell me the Blazin'-Hot sure tasted good but it wasn't really hot. I had another woman run screeming down the aisle to the beer booth after just one Smokin'-Hot Pup.

I guess I come down on the side of Cap'n Bones. I prefer it like a wine tasting where I judge the qualifications of the taster and then the taster judges the qualities of the sauce. :?: If the same guy blows a number of calls I just tie a bell to his tail (tale?) and dismiss him (or her - this PC crap is killing me) as a unqualified judge. In other words, I give him the "Tin Tongue Award" :doh: So, "Aye, aye, Cap'n - request permission to come aboard."

[thehotpepper.com]

Yeah, I don't use numbers, I just tell you what I tasted.

[darthcarl]

I like the idea of the star system used in places like amazon and amihotornot.com just a picture and a user rating with how many votes.