The Great New Mexico Chile Taste-Off Format Announced

SOCORRO - Today New Mexico Certified Chile and the New Mexico Chile Association announced the format for their inaugural chile competition, The Great New Mexico Chile Taste-Off, to be held on September 21 at the Socorro Sports and Rodeo Complex.

“It will be a fun-filled event for the whole family, centered around the best chile in the world,” explained Sonja Schroeder, Executive Director of the Association. “There will be food, drinks, activities, and music. When the sun goes down, we will have red and green fireworks and the roasting of giant paper mache red and green chiles.”
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The Association has invited growers from around New Mexico to bring their chile to face-off in two planned competitions: A Judged Taste-Off and a People’s Choice Taste-Off.

The Judged Taste-Off will consist of a panel of judges that will conduct blind tastings in the following categories: Green Mild, Green Hot, Red Mild, and Red Hot. Chile will be rated on a five-star scale, and the chile with the highest score for each category will win that category.

There will also be a People’s Choice Taste-Off, in which the public is invited to sample chile directly from growers and rank their favorites. The chile receiving the highest score wins.

“It’s sure to be a great competition, as we’ve had a lot of interest among growers from all around New Mexico” said Glen Duggins, a Lemitar chile grower and member of the Board of Directors of the New Mexico Chile Association. “Can you imagine the bragging rights the winners will lay claim to!”

The Association will provide a winner’s badge for all five winning categories (four from the judged event and one People’s Choice) that can be used by the winning growers to promote their chile and chile products produced in 2019. In addition, winning growers will receive a free one-year membership to the Association’s New Mexico Certified Chile program.

The event will kick-off at 12:30 pm, and the chile winners will be announced at 6:00 pm., to be followed by evening festivities of the “Burning of the Red and Green Chiles” and fireworks. It is FREE Admission to all of the events, tasting, burning and fireworks. Learn more by visiting https://www.nmchiletasteoff.com.
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WHAT: The Great New Mexico Chile Taste-Off
WHEN: September 21, 2019, 12:30 pm - 8:00 pm (free admission)
WHERE:  Socorro, NM, Socorro Rodeo and Sports Complex 
COST:  FREE