Good Times at the Historic Cocoa Village's BBQ & Blues

Yesterday was a fantastic day for the Historic Cocoa Village’s BBQ & Blues Event! Though pretty humid and hot, the afternoon leveled off for a great awards ceremony as clouds and a little rain were held at bay. I got to the judges area around 8:45 in the morning, making good time from Winter Haven thanks to light traffic. It was odd to see so many parking spaces available knowing that come 11:00 or so you’d have to sell of a body part to find one!

Event coordinator and HVCA president Emma Kirkpatrick does an amazing job setting up this event. The venue at the Historic Cocoa Village’s BBQ & Blues Event is beautiful, as it takes place on the periphery and within Riverfront Park in combination, with Lee Wenner and Taylor Parks. Between the grounds and the view of the Indian River, it’s hard to beat it for BBQ competitions anywhere.

Judging Historic Cocoa Village’s BBQ & Blues Event

I take my role as a Certified Florida Bar-B-Que Association Judge seriously, and it’s a ton of fun! Walking in to an event judges site and seeing the fine folks you come to know and enjoy judging with is an awesome experience. I mean come on, take a look at this shot of our table, which I had the great pleasure to captain and judge with!

On the whole, our table received chicken, ribs, and brisket that were of average quality. The brisket selection did produce two amazing entries, both which scored very well all around. One entrant in ribs turned in a box filled with untrimmed, gray, charred “dinosaur” specimens that tasted about as good as they looked. Conventional wisdom among judges pinned this entry as one from a vendor that may have been required to submit turn in entries. Yuck.

Good Times with Great BBQ Friends

Once judging was over, I headed out to reconnect with my good friends among the BBQ Teams and to meet Pitmasters I’d not yet had the good fortune to get to know.

As I make the rounds among teams after judging, it always puzzles me to see so few of my judge friends doing the same. There are a few among the judging group that are die hard Cook Team Fans like me, but it would be nice to see more interaction between the teams and judges after judging takes place. I talked with several Pitmasters who said of the judges who so come ’round, few offer much in the way of insights regarding what they received at their tables. I offer up as much in the way of specifics as I can, as scores are already in. This is where conversations get fun, and it’s a great way to get to know more about what cookers are thinking when they’re prepping their meats and putting together their turn in boxes.

2014 Historic Historic Cocoa Village’s BBQ & Blues Event Winners

Terry McKay of Git-R-Smoked BBQ took Grand Champion honors, with Wink’s Barbecue winning Reserve Grand Champion. While usual suspects like Hot Wachula’s, Team Unknown, Swamp Boys BBQ, Big Papa’s County Kitchen, Blitzkrieg BBQ, Bull Rush and Staggering Swine and Bovine were present in the top ten, it was a pleasure to see relative newcomer Blazin 7’s finish among the group.

Grand Champion: Git-R-Smoked BBQ

Reserve Grand Champion: Wink’s Barbecue

Here’s how the scores broke down in each category:

Chicken