Tomato Taster Extraordinaire {lol}

OK, I suppose I had better explain about the tomato tasting, just in case you think I've totally lost the plot today {lol} A few years ago my friend Laura asked me if I wanted a job as she was leaving and needed to find a replacement. The only qualifications needed, you had to be aged between 18 & 40 and a non smoker. The job was only 2 mornings a week and was quite highly paid, so I jumped at the chance. It fit in perfectly with looking after the girls etc. too good an opportunity to miss. So I started 2 weeks later working for 'Wight Salads' in Arreton as a tomato taster! We tasted 12 varieties of tomato each day. Each variety of tomato was cut up and placed in numbered plastic cups. We had 3 trays each containing 12 cups, so we tasted each variety 3 times. Are you with me so far? OK, then we had a printed piece of paper which we filled out, one for each cup. We had to give marks from 1-10 for each category eg. acid, sweetness, firmness, crispness, green flavour, tomato flavour, mealiness etc. Don't laugh, it was serious business. We were helping Wight Salads find the perfect tomato!! We had a tea break between the 2nd & 3rd tray and spent all of our hard earned wages on Rennie's and other indigestion tablets from the chemist, which we took by the bucket full in the afternoon {lol}. We did find an antidote in the end, chocolate!!
So, one day, in walks the boss and says he wants us to taste Chili peppers!!! Well of course we thought he was joking but after a while we realised he was being deadly serious :-O After a lot of discussion it was decided that we could taste a variety of chili in between the 1st & 2nd tray to give us a rest from the tomatoes (I kid you not!) So, who were we to argue. We cut up the chili, listening for the 'crunch', we smelt the chili to see how 'green' it smelt, we put a tiny amount of chili on our tongue and couldn't taste a thing for the rest of the morning {ROFL} it was (excuse my french) bloody hilarious. James (the only male among us) said he knew why the variety was called Apache ~ because you ran round the room with your hand over your mouth making Indian noises!!
In the end, it was decided, this was not a good idea. So a couple of weeks later, we all trundled into the tasting room still laughing about the chili episode to find the boss grinning at us. They had found a method of tasting chillies!!! Called a 'Scovill' test (you always wanted to know that right). They had to get a special licence, as each variety of chili had to be steeped in 100% alcohol overnight (hence the licence). The neat alcohol/chili liquid was then diluted by half and half again with bottled water until you could just taste the 'heat' of the chili. Perfect!! So this went on for quite a few weeks until one day we diluted the liquid as required but no one could taste the 'heat' of the chili. Never mind, the liquid must have been diluted too much so we tried it in a stronger state. This went on until we didn't know if it was the alcohol burning our tongues or the chili. An hour later, the guy who's job it was to steep the chillies, came in and apologised as he had forgotten to put the chillies in the bottle. There we were drinking copious amounts of not very diluted alcohol. Can you imagine if the police had stopped us on the way home & done a breath test!! ...
Police: Have we been drinking madam?
Tasters: No Officer we've been tasting chillies
Police: Oh right, and I'm Micky Mouse, come with me!!

The highlight of the whole experience was appearing on TV. Rick Stein's Food Heroes to be precise ~ Food series in which top chef Rick Stein spotlights Britain's local producers of high-quality food and some great regional dishes. We didn't meet him in person but we did spend the day being filmed dressed in specially printed white t-shirts advertising Wight Salads. I've got a photo somewhere that I'll have to dig out and scan. What a fab day.
It has to be one of the best jobs I've had and looks so cool on your CV!! After 2 years of tasting, sadly, the job was brought to a close as all the research they needed had been done. James invited us all round to his house for a leaving party where he had made us a taste panel of chocolate ~ we were in heaven. It was something we always talked about, what it would actually be like tasting chocolate instead of tomatoes. Great memories :O)