Wow, That's A Lot Of Sample!

First time this has ever happened.  OK, so I went to a taste test yesterday where I was supposed to taste ... you know, I think I'm sworn to secrecy.  Anyway, I always make it a deal whereby I eat it all.  I've always been told to at least eat three bites of something before answering the questionnaire that comprises the taste test.  But dammit, one of the reasons I do these things is to eat.  And since it was the Chinese/Lunar New Year, I was too frozen to eat anything until then because I was afraid I would eat something taboo.  Yesterday evening I no longer cared about that.  I was hungry!

So I didn't necessarily take my time, but I ate it all.  But for first time ever doing a taste test, I was given three variations of the same food.  And they were each big honking pieces.  I thought I could still eat them all -- you know, I wanted to make sure of what I was tasting -- but as I reached my final piece, I heard the person heading the taste test to finish up.  And then she came over and told me to hurry up -- "We are about to finish up," is what I think she was pretty much saying.  But I'm not done!  So I hurriedly stuffed the last pieces in my mouth.  Another person picked up my tray and said to me, "You know, I would do the same thing."  He gets it!

The taste test comprised two servings of the same three things, so there was a second and final serving of a taste test that is half an hour long, and to be fair, I don't remember the last time I've been to a taste test that short.  Still, I was determined to eat it all.  Shocked I was, then, that the next serving, also three plates, each had two ... things on them!  There are six things!  Now, normally I would just eat them all, but now I know somebody's watching me, plus we're supposed to be done in half a hour, plus (and I didn't think this would happen), I was getting full!  I took two bites, one from each end, of each of the (really) six things in order to answer the questionnaire, and just out of spite, I started to go back and take a fifth bite.  I was unable to take a fifth bite from the third plate before it was taken away, with most of the food I was given still left uneaten.

Honestly, I feel like I failed.  It's been more than a year since I've done a taste test, so maybe I'm not familiar with how it usually goes.  Maybe this experiment was different.  But a combination of the short session time, the huge heaping of food, me not being as hunger as I thought I was, and a proctor who was, shall we say, moving things along meant that for the first time ever, I have not eaten everything given to me in this type of food research study.  And I'm ashamed.