Taste Testing

My sister, niece, and I were having a texting conversation of Seinfeldian proportions the other night.  It started off with me referencing my Girl/Empty Nester Dinner (see previous blog post on that topic).  I mentioned that it included grapes.

My sister, who was also having a Girl/Empty Nester Dinner of her own, said that hers did not include grapes because when she tasted one at the store they were sour.

“You taste the grapes before you buy them” I asked?

“Yes, she said.  “Just like Nanny would when buying them from the huckster.”

My niece replied with, “I taste the grapes because she does.”

I myself have never tasted a grape before buying them.  Partly, my germaphobia plays a role, because, good lord, you gotta wash those grapes before you eat them. They are always on the Dirty Dozen list don’t you know.

I thoroughly examine the grapes first of course.  Peering into the bag, looking at it from all angles to gauge the overall look and freshness of the grapes.  7-8 times out of 10 I get a good bag.

My question is this though.  Does a grape tester do this with other fruit? Are they opening the blueberry container and sampling one of those? Raspberries? Strawberries?

My sister and niece answered that they do not.  They only taste test the grapes. 

My next question is, why just the grape then? And is this a socially acceptable practice? I have seen a person here or there over the course of my many years of grocery shopping, sample the grape.  But nothing like you would say was a standard practice among all shoppers. And I have never seen anyone sample any other fruit.

I mean, obviously, certain fruit does not lend itself to taste testing.  You take a bite of that apple you buy it.

But somehow, the grape has created its own little niche, apart from all the other fruit at the supermarket where-in it has people taste testing them before they buy them. 

Maybe it’s the packaging? Maybe it would feel like a violation to taste a blueberry, because though the berry is small, and like the grape you can just pop it in your mouth, you’d have to pry open its container first. 

Grapes are in this open bag, practically spilling out of the bag in many cases, filled to the brim as they are.  It just invites you to pluck one off and eat it.  And given the price of grapes these days, who wants to risk a bad bag?  As noted above, I run about 70 to 80% on getting a good one.

But cherries are in bags, much like the grapes.  Are the grape testers testing the cherries too? I guess not because the cherry has a pit.  What are you gonna do with that once you’ve eaten the cherry?

Maybe it’s time for supermarkets to take the guesswork out of how good their produce is and just have samples of all the fruit for us shoppers to try.

Hmmm. Pondering such deep mysteries of life has made me hungry. Lucky for me I have some good grapes in the fridge. My pears however are still hard as a rock and I am fairly certain they will go from not ripe to so- overripe-you-can’t- eat-them in a nano second. But that’s a blog for another day.