Spicy Dragon Awards 2025
The Hot Sauce Fest ATL Awards honor the craft, creativity, and culture of small-batch heat. In partnership with Hot Sauce Sensei, and with help from our fabulous judge's panel, we evaluate sauces through a rigorous judging process designed to highlight true flavor, balance, and craft.
House Awards
The House Awards are the top distinctions of Hot Sauce Fest ATL. Top Sauce Boss crowns the best overall sauce, Dragonzorde’s Finest is the Founder’s Choice pick, ATL Dragon is decided by the crowd in a vendor showdown. Each vendor submits one sauce, we put them all on a dedicated table, and guests vote for the champion. People’s Dragon is chosen straight from Hot Sauce Sensei’s Tasting Table, where attendees taste and vote for their favorite.
Dragonzorde's Finest
Founder's Choice Pick
Paula's Choice
Greg's Famous - Saudeleur
Woody's Choice
Old City Fire - Spooky Pumpkin
Drew's Choice
Brewer's Fire - "The Greek" Diavolaki Melitzana
Category Awards
The Category Awards celebrate the full spectrum of flavor in today’s craft hot sauce. With 20 categories ranging from verde and BBQ to fruit, jam, fermented, smoky, chili crisp, and beyond, these awards showcase the diversity of craft hot sauce. All entries are judged by our panel of judges, and each category crowns a 1st, 2nd, 3rd Place, and Honorable Mention.
Aged Fang Dragon
Best Fermented Sauce
All Sauce Entries
These are all the sauces submitted to Hot Sauce Fest ATL this year, and each one brought its own personality, flavor, and fire. We’re grateful to every maker who entered, and we want to give a special thank-you to our judges and to Hot Sauce Sensei for lending their expertise to the entire tasting and scoring process.
