thePuddingStore’s 6th Anniversary Madness

As per usual, the last weekend of August marks the anniversary of thePuddingStore. It’s a pretty vague date - like Easter. The birth of thePS is akin to the resurrection of Christ - I’ve always thought that. Plans were made for our now third annual PS company picnic, only this year things would be a little different. The difference was turnout.

There’s the turnout! There was also myself, of course, and later on we went and picked up Lindsay, but that’s essentially it. However, thePS is not made up of quitters or those who falter at the face of adversity, so celebrations were had anyways!

The usual chucking of the eggs took place, this time going up to a grand challenge of a 4-person free-for-all! Oh the zaniness of those eggs!

However, even though fun was still had, there was a looming problem. You see, for the picnics, I get an assload of pudding (as seen above). This year getting 48 cups. That’s a lot of pudding! But what to do with it? What indeed? What can 5 people do with that much pudding, all of various flavors? Oh! I know!

Pudding Taste Tests!

Yes, the 5 of us (Erin, Brent, Lindsay, Andrew and myself) all partook in the eating and judging of fine puddings (of which there were 10 different flavors). All of them were marked out of 10 (which included taste, look, texture, and our own sickness as we ate pudding after a BBQ). After the testing was done, our computer (the PS11.9Z) tabulated the results averaging them in a scale of least to most popular! Let’s look at those results now!

10. Bubblegum:
(avg - 3.5) There were only 2 cups of this one to go around. When we finished, there was still one left. I guess that’s because it was bizarre and reminded most of us of dental hygiene. Here’s what our judges thought!
Erin: (5) This tastes like the dentist, except my teeth don’t hurt. I bet they will after I eat 10 different kinds of pudding though.
Brent: (6) It tastes like bubblegum flavored toothpaste from Aquafresh from 6 years ago.
Lindsay: (2.5) Smells very good; consistency = fine, runny; taste = sharp. Sort of like Big Red gum. It reminds me of when babies barf.
Andrew: (1) Tastes like toothpaste.
James: (3) Weird. Just weird. I remember the toothpaste.

9. Tapioca:
(avg - 3.8) I hadn’t had tapioca since I was like 12, and the memories weren’t great. To get it over with, this one went first.
Erin: (-10) Rice is yummy. Rice in pudding is blasphemous. Slimy and blasphemous. It made me cry a little.
Brent: (9) Odd texture; good taste; overall makes me feel healthy again.
Lindsay: (10) It could be sweeter but I really like this. It’s nice. Kind of... dotty. It was fun to play with. I give it a 10 for bravery.
Andrew: (7) Just like real fish eggs.
James: (3) Not as awful as I remember. Still not great though. Not great texture either.

8. Cotton Candy:
(avg - 5) This one came in the same package as the bubblegum kind, yet we actually got through both cups of it! It’s a nice pretty blue.
Erin: (2) It tastes exactly like cotton candy, which means nothing without the fluffy texture.
Brent: (7) Tastes like blue freezies; wouldn’t want to eat too much of it.
Lindsay: (7) Cool, fun, weird after-taste. It made me feel like a space alien in a theme park.
Andrew: (2) Tastes like cotton candy.
James: (7) Wicked taste, just a weird texture for cotton candy.

7. Chocolate/Vanilla Ice Cream:
(avg - 5.6) One of the layered puddings which are always neat looking and have distinct tastes per layer.
Erin: (8) Oh, chocolate pudding. You taste yummy no matter what they call you.
Brent: (6) Just tasted like a weak chocolate flavor... and I’m feeling kinda sick.
Lindsay: (6) The vanilla had a smooth, refreshing texture.
Andrew: (3) Just tastes like chocolate.
James: (5) Nothing special; no real ‘vanilla’ or ‘ice cream’ tastes to it.

5. S’mores:
(avg - 6) There was a tie for 5th place! S’mores is the first (and another of the layered things).
Erin: (7) It didn’t taste like a s’more.
Brent: (8) It’s a weird taste, but it reminds me of actual s’mores, if they were made by Jello, and distributed in small cups.
Lindsay: (5) If I weren’t so sick right now I might like this.
Andrew: (4) How do they make graham cracker pudding?
James: (6) There’s an odd taste. Near as I can figure, it’s honey. There’s not enough chocolate though, and no marshmallow.

5. Vanilla:
(avg - 6) The other member of the tie for 5th is good ol’ vanilla - a staple of every pudding aisle.
Erin: (7) For some reason this tasted like white chocolate which would have been kinda cool if I wasn’t eating 10 different puddings.
Brent: (8) A lighter choice with mild flavor... I’m going to puke.
Lindsay: (6) I think pudding is okay is snack-doses, but as ten-course meals, no. So I’m not eating any more pudding.
Andrew: (6) Tastes like tapioca without the little balls.
James: (7) Man... I’m too full of pudding to care anymore.

4. Lemon Meringue:
(avg - 6.1) Only slightly better than the 5th place tie, lemon meringue squeaks into the #4 spot. Unfortunately when I took the picture, the cups of it were backwards. Sorry. But, I can assure you - that’s them.
Erin: (1) I gave it a point because it’s kind of impressive that one little spoonful of pudding can make my face eat itself.
Brent: (10) Accurate flavor; freaky goodness.
Lindsay: (8.5) For a light snack or a classy night on the town, it’s really fun and just for you.
Andrew: (7) A very close representation of what lemon meringue should taste like..
James: (4) I actually never had lemon meringue pie (or at least for a long time) I can only assume that’s how it tastes - pretty sour.

3. Butterscotch:
(avg - 6.2) Man, these scores have been really freaking close. Oh well. Butterscotch is another staple of the pudding industry, and therefore makes sense in the top 3.
Erin: (4) I don’t really like butterscotch, yet I always end up eating a lot of it. This time I stopped after a few spoonfuls, which is still too much.
Brent: (8) Tasty but heavy; more of an after dinner pudding (not much of an appetizer).
Lindsay: (3) This looks disgusting and smells like hard candy that old people buy. I got this on the quiz about what suits your personality. So I guess I look disgusting and smell like something old people would buy. It tastes okay.
Andrew: (8) It’s the standard.
James: (8) I probably would have liked this more, as it’s my favorite, but it was the 9th one I ate.

2. Chocolate:
(avg - 6.4) The more popular brother of the 3 staples, chocolate is a usual favorite. There were quite a few chocolate-esque entries in this, but regular chocolate took the 2nd place spot.
Erin: (9) I shouldn’t have saved this for last.
Brent: (7) Nothing special. I feel really sick.
Lindsay: (6) Bland. Tastes like elementary school.
Andrew: (3) Yup... it’s chocolate.
James: (7) Chocolate’s always good. Those who don’t think so are fools.

1. Banana Cream Pie:
(avg - 6.8) Man, just .4 more than the #2 spot, and just .6 over #3 - that’s not much of a victory, but it’s a deserved one. It’s like a 100m dash win - really, really slight. Listen to Jerry Seinfeld - he has a good bit about it.
Erin: (7) Yummy but reminds me of all those times I had strep throat. Extra points because you can smell is from a mile away.
Brent: (10) Creamy and nanner-like. It’s all good.
Lindsay: (6) This was good. I’m lying - Brent ate mine so I don’t know what it tastes like.
Andrew: (2) Too banana-y.
James: (9) Tastes like pie. Seriously. Banana cream pie.

In addition to trying and judging a lot of pudding, we all learned a little something from this experience:
Erin: Pudding made me cry twice today. I think I need to do something about that. Damn you tapioca and lemon meringue!
Brent: I wish I was dead, but the banana one was good.
Lindsay: Brent can eat things but it’s dubious that he can keep them down. Rutherford hates chocolate. Erin and James shared and didn’t like tapioca. I think I’m going to throw up now.
Andrew: Don’t eat 10 cups of pudding.
James: It’s not what kind of pudding you eat, but how much you eat before all you can taste is pudding every time you breathe.

And that was the day celebrating the 6th Anniversary of thePuddingStore! It was small and simple, but it was fun. Thanks folks!