Jam Tasting
MOTE Week 24, 2026
This week on MOTE I was prompted by nother Mike, who supplied me with: The jam in the pot was green with blue stripes…
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Dennis Farmer had thought he’d seen it all. Every possible variety of jam in the course of a long career tasting for the High Magus’ household. No-one, no matter how rich or well-connected, ever sent jam to the kitchens without it having been cleared by Dennis first. He tasted every jam to ensure that it met the necessary taste standards, and if he made a mistake and let through something that didn’t meet the High Magus’ criteria he would lose his job, and for something sufficiently egregious his life might even be forfeit.
Of course, no one person could carry out all the taste testing. The High Magus had a whole corps of servants whose sole job was to ensure that only the best, the tastiest, produce made its way to his table. It ensured that an invitation to dine at the High Magus’ mansion was never turned down – just being seen there was proof that one had made it to the highest ranks of society.
Dennis tasted the jam set before him. It was edible, even nice, but there wasn’t quite the strength of flavour required. He turned it down and requested the next batch be brought through for his testing.
This one he hadn’t seen before. It was in a small jar, smaller than the norm, and was green with blue vertical stripes.
“What is this?”
“It is greenberry and blueberry, Most Honoured Taster.”
“How do they ensure this effect?”
“I know not, Most Honoured Taster. They haven’t informed us.”
A pity, but many manufacturers who thought they had come up with some new production technique often tried to keep it a secret from those who might be their competitors. The High Magus would no doubt insist on knowing enough to seem knowledgeable before his guests, but there was no need for the information to be provided just yet – indeed if Dennis rejected the jam, the information might never need to be supplied to the household.
He removed the lid, and looked at the jam within. Sectors of greenberry jam were interspersed with sectors of blueberry jam. The former were about twice the width of the latter. It looked very impressive, with the sectors symmetrically arranged around the centre of the jar.
Dennis nodded. It wasn’t unknown for him to reject jams based purely on their look. A poor appearance of the test jar meant that the actual jars supplied to the High Magus would not satisfy the visual criteria for service at the table.
On to the taste. He reached out and picked up one of the many clean small spoons kept to the side for the purpose. He tasted the greenberry first. Excellent flavour, quite strong, but not overly so; Dennis didn’t think it would overpower whatever it was paired with.
With another spoon he tested the blueberry. Equally impressive.
Finally, another spoon to test the pairing. It was inevitable that some guests would wish to pair the two jams together since they were provided in the same jar. Surprisingly, the flavours balanced well.
Dennis turned to the servant keeping track of which jams passed and which jams failed. “Get in touch with the producer. Send the standard information form, and make it clear that all details must be provided. On condition of satisfactory answers to the standard questions, this is approved for the High Magus’ table, and an order can be made.”
Dennis then dismissed the greenberry and blueberry jam from his mind. The next jam awaited his tasting.
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My prompt this week went to Parrish Baker. Please join us over at MOTE; I’m looking forwards to reading all the responses.