We began the day with an evacuation drill. (Okay, so maybe everything wasn't awesome.) Like the fire drills I am used to, everyone in the building piled outside onto the parking lot and stood with their departments while the buzzer went off. As we were walking, I couldn't help but to want to shush the people chatting around me (see what SPSG has done to me!). Hahaha....
Because everyone knew about the drill, we hadn't really been able to start anything until after nine o'clock. Once back inside, I chatted with a super nice woman named Janice. We were talking about my interests and she wanted to know how and why I started taking Japanese. Apparently her parents are Japanese, and she grew up hearing them speak Japanese to each other at home. She asked me if I knew some of the words she remembered, and then told me that a woman fluent in Japanese may be flying in from California next week. If the woman has time, Janice wants her to speak to me in Japanese. She joked that it'll be my test before I leave!
Janice was really one of the nicest people I've met at McCormick and very funny, too, but the idea of having to speak to someone in Japanese makes me terrified! I just hope the woman isn't intimidating. Or, if I don't know what she's saying, maybe I can just pull out my acting skills and make it look like I've got everything under control? Golly. So that's kind of on the back burner. We'll see where that takes us.
Our first item on the agenda today was the staff meeting. Everyone in the sensory department meets once a week to discuss projects and schedule meetings and things of that nature. AuBrei made us a schedule for the next two weeks, which was fantastic, so I was able to write in all of the things we have planned. (As a side note, the pen and paper really came in handy today! I was so glad I thought to bring it!)
After the meeting we were free pretty much until 11:30, so Breanne and I tried to work on our Pinterest survey. I say "tried" because Breanne has been having some tech problems for the past week. And by tech problems, I mean that she hasn't been able to get on the internet. It seems like a complicated chain of command that the tech people have to go through to get her authorized to use the internet. Yesterday we were able to get on with AuBrei's account, but today Breanne wanted to fix the problem since she's going to be here all summer. After we got some suggestions from my mentor about how to improve the survey, Breanne called up Tech.
While she was on the phone, I looked for ways to make myself useful. One such way I found was striking up conversation with JoAnne, the woman who sits across the aisle from Breanne. JoAnne is another woman I adore at McCormick. She was labeling boxes of Simply Asia noodles so I asked her what she was doing. She explained that she was working on "shelf life." Shelf life testing involves placing products in warm, cold, and light areas to see how they fare after a certain number of months.
The warm room felt nice. JoAnne joked that if I ever got cold in the office I could walk into one of the hot rooms to warm up.
Cool, right? So that was a fun lesson I wasn't expecting to receive. And the light testing is to see how the product fares after long-term light exposure.
It was a fun, science-y part of the job I hadn't known about before.
At 11:30 we went to a seminar about food as reinforcement. According to scientific data, food rewards are more powerful than drugs. Pretty crazy when you think about it.
After this we had a meeting about the focus groups we'll be working with next Wednesday. My mentor is involved in so many projects, I don't know how she keeps it straight! One of the things I was impressed by today was how this job combines both scientific and creative aspects. The generation of sensory data is really mathematical and factual. However, my mentor seems to be constantly coming up with new ways to approach people regarding their food choices. It's amazing to watch her and her colleagues toss ideas around in a meeting, molding them until they are just the way they want them. It never ceases to confound me.
In the time from 2 to 3, Breanne and I had time to work on our Pinterest project. Unfortunately, Breanne was still experiencing internet difficulty, so we made a few changes to the word document we'd saved, and then asked JoAnne if she needed more help. She assigned us to label 2 oz. soufflé cups for the panels scheduled for Friday. We worked on that until 3 when we got to do one of the more fun things I've done this week.
At three there was something called "McCormick Store" or "Cutting" or something along those lines. Basically, there is a category of food items to taste. We go around the table rating the food and leaving a few comments.
This week was mustard and relish. I felt so official making the rounds, first with the relish, and then with the mustard. There were about 6 different samples for each one. McCormick is looking to find a product that it would be able to sell, based on our preferences. Pretty awesome. I felt like my opinion really mattered!!!
Stephanie (from the sensory kitchen) baked pretzel bites for us to schmear our condiments on, which was tasty. It's been forever since I had a pretzel! In the end, there was one relish that really stood above the rest for me, and one mustard as well. What was really cool was that at the end of the test, Peter asked if anyone wanted to claim any of the products. I was glad to take the Cranberry Relish that I'd enjoyed so much. It reminded me of Thanksgiving. (Most people said Christmas, oddly enough, but I suppose they're similar flavors). But I was so enthused to have something fun to take home with me!
As you can see, I also got a perfect pinch spice packet. I'm thinking it'll be good on chicken.
As Breanne and I walked back to Cathy's kitchen (our temporary home for the afternoon) we were greeted with the smells of banana bread and freshly baking cookies. OH MY GOSH. Cathy has the BEST kitchen there. She gets to bake, all day. And it smelt like heaven.
After being teased by the delectable aromas, I practically jumped out of my seat when Cathy offered me a hot cookie. She was actually worried that they might be too hot. I assured her it was not a problem. Oh and it was so good.
Just look at it.
I wish you could smell it right now. I really hope you are able to get your hands on some yummy chocolate chip cookies soon. If you want the recipe for these, you can copy and paste the link into your browser. I'm telling you, Cathy makes a good cookie.
http://www.mccormick.com/Recipes/Desserts/Vanilla-Rich-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies.aspx
She had to make a variation on another batch of them, so we were privy to even more deliciousness.
Notice, though, the ones in the back are puffier than the ones in the front. We decided that the original cookies (the ones in the back) were much prettier. But who knows what the important people decided. :)
Life truly is better with a warm cookie in your belly. I was so happy after that. It just made my afternoon. Breanne and I finished with the labeling and packed everything up. After that was finished, I was ready to go.
Tomorrow is going to be my long day, and when I get home my new favorite show (Around the World in 80 Plates) will be on, so tomorrow is going to be crazy! I'm excited for the focus groups, though. Can't wait to see what they say.
Til then.
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