The 2010 Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival has two different components: the festival itself, and a hot sauce / salsa judging. The celebrity hot sauce judging itself divides into two stages, the eliminators and the celebrity judges. The eliminators narrow down the playing field for the celebrity judges.
I got to hang out and participate in the eliminator stage, and boy was it crazy. Heaps of mexican food from Serrano's, many cases of St. Arnold's beer, thousands of tortilla chips, and a roomful of hardened foodies. After a few hours we had cut the towers of salsas down to a reasonable stack of awesome salsas for the celebrity judges to taste.
Caution! My video reveals the brutal truth: judging salsa takes lots of beer and antacid. Also, you might notice the important role aroma plays in a Salsa's success. Stinky salsa has an uphill battle against all but the bravest and strongest judges.