How to be a Professional Taster

Our Rainbow Farmers Market program recently continued with a visit to students at Miller Elementary School. You can read more about the overall program here, but today we wanted to focus on the tasting portion of the farmers market and how you can be a professional taster – just like our students. 

Ms. Momii, our lead nutrition educator, starts every class off with the tasting portion. “Today, I am going to teach you how to be a professional taster.” Each student receives a bag of arugula and spinach along with a slice of orange. 

Ms. Momii helps them identify which leaf is which, and the kids are instructed one leaf at a time to:

1. Take a mouse-sized bite of the leaf. 
2. Hold the bite on your tongue for 5 seconds. 
3. Then chew/swallow. 

Then the class is instructed to describe how it feels in the mouth (soft or hard, chewy, etc.) and then how it tastes (sweet, bitter, salty, etc.). This encourages kids to taste with all of their senses. 

Then, the kids are told to squeeze the orange on the lettuce and repeat the process. This encourages kids to try fruits and vegetables in different ways. They may not like a vegetable prepared one way, but a different preparation may make it super tasty! 

Now the final experiment in the tasting portion involves the orange. We select oranges that are in season for the students to taste. As we move through the winter season, Cara Cara and Blood Oranges will be on the tasting menu. These oranges are higher in nutrients and both are known for their vibrant color and flavor. Blood Oranges can originate from navel or Valencia oranges, making them more versatile to be used in both sweet and savory recipes, whereas Cara Cara oranges only come from navel oranges and are more so used for sweet dishes.

Just like different preparation methods can make food taste different, did you know that a fruit can taste different from one end of the fruit to the other? That’s what our kids are surprised to learn first hand. If you peel the edges back from the orange on both sides and take a mouse-sized bite of each, you’ll find that they often can taste very different from each other! Why is this, you might ask? Because there are more essential oils concentrated in the end of the orange near the stem, causing it to be a bit more bitter than the other end. Crazy right?

After the tasting portion, the students line up to get a rainbow of fruits and vegetables to take home and share with their family. This encourages them to try even more fruits and vegetables, and share their new found love for tasting new foods with their family. 

Now you know how to be a professional taster, just like our students! What fun foods will you try next? Who will you share this knowledge with?