# My job makes life difficult...



## carebear (Oct 1, 2011)

About 50% of my job is that I'm a professional taster.  Coffee, tomato sauces, juices, and others. 

Eating out is a nightmare.   

Soon to add beer and soft drinks to the list.

(Fragrance evaluations too, but those are not as difficult to ignore outside the office).


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## PrairieCraft (Oct 1, 2011)

What a neat job.  Do you just get sick of tasting stuff though?  Isn't it hard to try something you might not be in the mood to taste just then?  Do you do direct comparisons, like one brand of apple juice compared to another brand?  Is eating out hard because you're super critical of everything?  I have questions!!


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## Pretty n Plain (Oct 2, 2011)

Oh my goodness carebear I didn't realise there was such a thing. I feel so bad now, DH keeps telling me I should become someone that taste tests/critiques food because i'm so particular on food tastes especially when we eat out, I thought he was just being a smarty pants lol.


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## Bubbles Galore (Oct 2, 2011)

Someone has to do it.   Why is eating out a nightmare?


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## Deda (Oct 2, 2011)

Oh the hell with all that!  What we really want to know is who has the Best coffee!  It's DD - right?


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## carebear (Oct 2, 2011)

Actually I don't typically "judge" products, per se.  I describe them in great detail.  So I might rate a coffee on the presence/absence and then intensity of notes like "cereal", "burnt", "roasted", "acid", "rubber", and many others - none of which are necessarily positives nor negatives - they all work together to give the pleasant or unpleasant impression.

Sometimes we are looking for particular off notes, especially when helping a company determine its products shelf-life.  Then we get to judge when things have gone too far.

Sometimes direct comparisons, but since we're trained to use a scale I most often either just rate the attributes or at least know my reference sample well enough not to have to taste it each time.

It makes eating out (or at home) challenging sometimes because I tend to notice when things aren't exactly right (like when I don't like the herb blend in the sauce, or if in a fancy restaurant I can tell the basil they used was dried instead of fresh I might get annoyed.  Plus sometimes I shift into work mode and start mentally pulling things apart instead of just enjoying them.

And the coffees I've been working with aren't all that great.    Nor have the chocolates.   

Do I get tired of it overall?  No, not really.  Some projects are less fun than others (fish oil), but it's a big part of my job so it is what it is.  I do get tired of certain products, but we really don't taste them in context (like I might do tomato sauce, but not on pasta or anything) so once I get home it's different.


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## NancyRogers (Oct 2, 2011)

That sounds like a very interesting job.  How do you qualify for something like that?  Is there a taste test you do to see if your pallet is smart enough for the job.  Do they train you to notice the different notes?


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## Hazel (Oct 2, 2011)

How do you cleanse your palate between tasting the samples? I'd think the tastes would interfere with each other.

BTW, when are you going to start wine tasting?


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## Soapy Gurl (Oct 2, 2011)

This is just fascinating.  What an interesting career to have.  But I am sure it is like any other job, with its ups and downs and days of wanting to pull your hair out!


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## carebear (Oct 2, 2011)

Soapy Gurl said:
			
		

> This is just fascinating.  What an interesting career to have.  But I am sure it is like any other job, with its ups and downs and days of wanting to pull your hair out!


yep! on all counts!

How do you qualify for it?  Well, my bachelors was Food Science, with a focus on Sensory Evaluation.  That combined with a yen and a good hit of luck (one of the premier Sensory outfits is 4 miles from my house) got me where I am.  

(I moved far away from that over the years and was in product development, but that's neither here nor there.)


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## IrishLass (Oct 3, 2011)

Wow, Carebear, what an interesting and unique job! I gotta hand it to you, though, in my book it takes a person with a lot of fortitude to survive taste testing fish oil. I'm getting the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it (shudder!).

Now, chocolate on the other hand......   


IrishLass


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## carebear (Oct 3, 2011)

Bad chocolate is just as awful as bad fish oil. Trust me!


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## Dragonkaz (Oct 3, 2011)

Wow ... what an interesting job!  

I'm dreadful at things like that ... have always blamed it on eating too many curries when I lived in Fiji ... love them hot and fierce and have been told by others that the curries I love are too hot for any other flavours to be identified ... maybe it's true, but that's the way I love them.


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## Bubbles Galore (Oct 3, 2011)

I'd be really good as an ice-cream taster, snuffly, but happy.  :wink:


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## Bubbly Buddha (Oct 3, 2011)

Wow that sounds like such an interesting job!  I can see where it might make life difficult at home however, or when eating out.  You are just too talented!!


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## Bigmoose (Oct 4, 2011)

carebear said:
			
		

> Soon to add beer and soft drinks to the list.



Sounds cool to me.  I just brewed 10 gallons of pumpkin ale, if you lived near by I would have given you a couple of bottles.

Bruce


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## carebear (Oct 4, 2011)

and i would drink them!


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## PrairieCraft (Oct 4, 2011)

I would be afraid to feed you anything!


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## Araseth (Oct 4, 2011)

It does sound interesting. I have a question, have you ever tasted anything truly horrendous and thought something like...why would someone even create this??? I guess fish oil comes close but I can think of some other foods that could be worse 

Personally I can't stand cold eggs, so I would hate to test egg sandwiches lol


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