A Tasting That Goes Too Far

Getting the recipe right

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At a neighborhood tasting, a sapid bean dish attracted attention because its distinct, pleasing flavor remained clear even in a small spoonful. The cook refused to adulterate a jar of pure fruit syrup by mixing in a cheaper substitute and keeping the original label. A succession of richly sweet samples began to cloy, although visitors had enjoyed the first one. The organizers added pauses so people could discuss individual dishes instead of facing an uninterrupted parade of treats.

The cook served the sapid beans again after the pause, and several guests could now describe the flavor they had overlooked in the crowded sequence. Refusing to adulterate the syrup protected its purity, while reducing the number of sweet samples addressed a different problem. Even an honestly labeled, carefully prepared dessert could cloy through repetition or excess. The revised order preserved enjoyable tastes without pretending that more of every pleasing thing would always improve the experience.

Original fictional passages for vocabulary practice.