what’s the world’s strangest job that actually exists?

I was scrolling through job listings after getting fired from my retail job when I found the weirdest posting I’d ever seen. it said “professional food taster needed, must be willing to eat unusual combinations, no experience necessary, excellent pay.” I figured it was some fancy restaurant looking for a chef assistant, so I applied thinking I’d get to taste gourmet meals all day. when I showed up for the interview, I met this eccentric guy who explained that he worked for a company that develops new snack foods. my job would be to taste test bizarre flavor combinations and rate them on a scale of one to ten. sounded easy enough until he handed me my first assignment. apparently, they were working on a line of breakfast cereal flavored potato chips. I had to eat chips that tasted like pancakes, waffles, french toast, and something called “maple bacon explosion.” the pancake chips weren’t terrible, but the syrup flavor coating made my teeth feel like they were covered in glue. the waffle chips had these little crunchy bits that were supposed to be waffle pieces but felt like eating cardboard. then came the french toast chips, which somehow managed to taste like cinnamon and disappointment at the same time. but the maple bacon explosion chips were a whole different level of weird. they had this artificial bacon flavor that lingered in your mouth for hours, and the maple coating was so sweet it made my eyes water. I had to eat an entire bag of each flavor and write detailed notes about texture, taste, aftertaste, and whether I would buy them in a store. after my first day, I thought the job couldn’t get any stranger, but I was completely wrong. the next week, they had me testing ice cream flavored crackers. pizza ice cream, hamburger ice cream, and something called “thanksgiving dinner surprise.” the pizza ice cream tasted like cold tomato sauce mixed with artificial cheese, and it had little bits of fake pepperoni that felt like rubber. the hamburger ice cream was somehow worse because it had this meat flavoring that shouldn’t exist in frozen dairy products. but the thanksgiving dinner surprise was the most disturbing thing I’d ever put in my mouth. it was supposed to taste like turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and gravy all mixed together in ice cream form. it was like eating frozen leftovers that had been sitting in the fridge too long. my job also involved testing drinks with ridiculous flavors. they had me try soda that tasted like different types of soup. chicken noodle soda, tomato soup cola, and something called “vegetable medley fizz.” the chicken noodle soda tasted exactly like drinking carbonated soup broth, which was as awful as it sounds. the tomato soup cola was basically liquid pizza that burned going down, and the vegetable medley fizz tasted like someone had blended a salad and added bubbles. then they started getting really creative with candy combinations. I had to test chocolate bars filled with pickle juice, gummy bears that tasted like different types of cheese, and lollipops flavored like popular restaurant dishes. the pickle chocolate was surprisingly not terrible, but the cheese gummy bears were horrifying. they had flavors like cheddar, swiss, and blue cheese, and eating them felt like chewing on rubber that had been soaked in expired dairy products. the restaurant lollipops were supposed to taste like burgers, tacos, and sushi, but they mostly just tasted like artificial flavoring mixed with sugar and regret. the weirdest part of my job was that I had to eat these things with a straight face while my boss watched and took notes. he would ask me questions like “does the pickle chocolate remind you of a deli, or more like a fast food restaurant?” and I had to give serious answers while trying not to gag. after three months of eating the most bizarre food combinations imaginable, they offered me a promotion to senior taste tester, which meant I would get to try their experimental line of breakfast foods that tasted like desserts. apparently, they were working on pancakes that tasted like birthday cake, eggs that tasted like ice cream, and bacon that tasted like candy bars. I realized that my taste buds had been permanently damaged by months of eating foods that were never meant to exist. I could no longer enjoy normal snacks because everything tasted boring compared to the weird stuff I had been testing. when I quit, my boss told me I had the most adventurous palate he’d ever encountered and offered to write me a recommendation letter for any other food testing jobs. I politely declined and went back to working in an office where the strangest thing I have to taste is the coffee in the break room.