Yesterday, Dale Teets, a rep for one of our suppliers, was kind enough to stop by with lunch for our crew, with a twist. He brought in a box of ten hot sauces, known as the Hot Ones challenge, from Heatonist. A pile of Chick-Fil-A nuggets and waffle fries turn out to be the perfect companions to the Hot Ones box, especially for a group that prides itself, like the Pendant team does, on being able to handle the heat.

Dale is well-known by our team to be a hot sauce aficionado, and has even supplied us from time to time with hot sauces of his own making, so it was apt that he would the one to initiate such a tasting event.

Jen adeptly managed to corral the team during the taste testing of each of the ten different sauces included in the box. As you will see, the reactions varied widely with the individual doing the tasting. There were debates over which sauce was the spiciest, or the most flavorful, and I don't know that we ever reached a consensus on either of those points. I do know that our group enthusiastically partook.

Now, on to pictorial representations of how diverse our opinions were. On one end of the spectrum, you can see Jen's reaction to one of the spicier sauces.

At the other end of the spectrum, two of our team members that hail from India, Madan and Manoj, seemed to be wondering what all the fuss was about. Given that it was Tuesday, a no-meat day for him, Madan was restricted to using only waffle fries as the heat-delivery media. As you can see, he was unperturbed by the kick (this was taken just after he sampled one of the spicier sauces).

Manoj, too, handled the heat with aplomb.

When all was said and done, Dale expressed how impressed he was with Madan's calm reaction to all the fuss. It was almost as if Madan was wondering when we would get to the real hot stuff.

All in all, it was a nice interlude as we get ready for our holiday break which starts on Thursday. Thanks to Dale for being (to borrow a phrase from Dickens) "the founder of the feast". The next Hot Ones challenge for you, Dale, is to find a sauce that would make Madan and Manoj flinch just a little!

Merry Christmas everyone!