And “they” said it couldn’t be done…of course “they” didn’t know with whom they were dealing, eh?
Back in February, we decided we were going to take a run at having a “real” party this year, so we sent out a note to everyone to see who would come along and handle all the pain in the ass protocols we had to establish to make this doable, fun, and safe for all involved. And wow, did you all come through!
So, we took to Amazon to collect supplies: cups and lids for food, stickers to identify the cups of chili, boxes to hold all the chilis, more stickers to dress up the boxes, sheets of magnets, a thermometer to keep tabs on the temperature in the garage, and a slew of inkjet cartridges to print everything up.
Then we decorated the garage to simulate the party dining room, with boxes instead of crockpots, where each guest would come and pick up their individual chili samples for tasting and voting.
Finally, we tried out our Uber driver skills, delivering boxes to our chefs (once again, with a much-appreciated assist from Team Alpha!), and picking up completed chilis from at least one as well.
Morning of, we still had refrigerator-like temps in the garage, the last of the boxes of chilis arrived, (along with one very curious neighbour who apparently did not speak a word of English but just had to see what was going on in our garage!), and tasters came by for about 2 hours picking up their samples.
We had 11 chilis orignally scheduled and 4 desserts contributed, plus some really cool swag for chefs and winners this year courtesy the mind and hands of Heather! We lost 2 chilis just before game time due to illnesses, but the remaining nine made for a great competition (and we’re expecting to see those other two recipes make an appearance next year.
Even folks who opted out of participating in the tasting still jumped in to help make it a memorable party, creating and hosting amazing times in our breakout rooms, whether it was ICB trivia, Jackbox games, beer banter, party innovations, or the classic is it a chili debate, a tremendous time was had by all. Thanks to all of our hosts - Ellen, David, Gail, Mark, and Michael.
Online voting was a necessity this year, and looks like it will become a mainstay for future parties.
Here’s hoping we’ll be back rubbing shoulders in our favourite party digs in 2022. Until then, check out the winners, a few extras and the party in pictures!
Most Appealing Appearance
Justin Queso
Most Fragrant Bouquet
Hello Dal-ly
Most Blistering Heat
Lotso Bean Methane Reduced Weight Watcher Friendly Hope This Tastes Good Chili
Most Curious Combination
Support Your Local Chili
Most Unabashedly Trendy
There’s No Place Like Home - Flying Monkey Chili - aka Eddie's Award Winning Chili
ICB Grand Champion
Chili’s got Seoul
The Name Takes It!
(introduced in 2021 so that non-tasters could still vote!)
Mom's Having Another Hot Flash!!!
The Kahoot has closed, but check out these trivia questions and see if you can handle the heat!
Suggestions from the ICB Incubator for consideration at the summer meeting of the rules committee!
These slides give you only the smallest taste of the fabulousness that happened in debating “Yes, but is it a chili?”
Wanna rewatch the awards? Have at it!
Our notebook where we kept and published all our info as the party planning unfolded.
And finally, a look at the party in pictures…still not the same as being there, but we all did FANTASTIC! Thank you SO much!