Green & Black's, the chocolate company, is looking for a Taste Assistant to help them come up with new flavour combinations, test new products and travel round the world sourcing ingredients.
Although no formal qualifications are required only a limited number of people are blessed with acute enough sense of taste and smell to do it.
However, your chances may be greater if you are young and female.
According to experts women tend to have better sense of taste and smell than men. Those under 35 are likely to have sharper senses than those who are older since sensitivities to taste tend to decline with age.
Micah Carr-Hill, Green & Black's Head of Taste, said: "Despite 1 in 4 Britons being born with the right physiology to be a 'supertaster' I'm looking for someone with a good nose too. A highly developed sense of smell is just as important in determining a person's suitability to be my assistant and help me to create the future flavours of Green & Blacks."
Flavour is made up of a complex combination of taste, smell, touch, temperature and sensation with smell the most important aspect.
Candidates will have to undergo a blind taste test as part of the interview process in which they must identify the flavours of specially created bars of chocolate.
The final five applicants will then take part in a live "Taste Challenge" at the beginning of next year.
In a bid to attract the right candidate Green & Black's are advertising the post in cinemas as well as on Facebook, the social networking website.
Humans have around 7,000 to 8,000 taste buds with 4,600 on the tongue and a further 2,500 on the soft palate and roof of the mouth. According to a report by Prof Tim Jacobs of Cardiff University, women tend to be more taste-sensitive than men because they have a greater density of taste buds, or papillae, and are usually significantly more sensitive to bitter (and other) tastes. They are at their most sensitive during the first trimester of pregnancy when the foetus is most vulnerable to poisons.
Experts claim that Britons tend to compromise their sense of taste by eating too fast and being wary of mixing flavours.
Mr Carr-Hill said: "The field is wide open and we're welcoming applications from everyone."
Candidates should apply by December 16 and expect to start their job in early 2011.
Article posted by Spencer Samaroo, Managing Director,
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Source and picture taken from
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