I Lived A Day In The Life Of A Candy Tester In Ontario & It's A Pretty Sweet Job (VIDEO)
Imagine a world where your nine-to-five job was filled with candy tasting, rating chocolate, and frequently visiting a warehouse stocked to the brim with imported treats.
This Essay article is part of a Narcity Media series. The views expressed are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.
For Candyologists Stephanie West, 29, and Vanessa Janakijevski-Rebelo, 25, that's just a regular workday at Candy Funhouse, where Candyologists get paid upwards of $30 per hour.
Janakijevski-Rebelo has been in the role for four months, and West has been working as a Candyologist for a year and a half. (She actually got the job through a Narcity job posting!).
Although, along with their Candyologist roles West is the Social Media manager and Janakijevski-Rebelo handles public relations. So, by their estimate, they're solely in Candyologist mode about three days a week.
Candy Funhouse is one of Canada's largest online candy stores, and I got to hang out with both candy tasters and experience a day in their life at the company's warehouse in Mississauga.
Spoiler alert: I'm mildly rethinking all of my life decisions at this point.
Palate training
Before you can even become a candy connoisseur, you first have to develop your palate to quickly identify flavours in order to write accurate descriptions of new treats coming into the warehouse.
So, West and Janakijevski-Rebelo threw a blindfold on me, and gave me some montage action training.
To get me up to snuff, they had me identify what colour Skittle I was eating by taste alone.
While this may seem like an easy task, I could barely recognize the flavour differences and failed miserably.
But despite my lack of skill, it was still the tastiest job training I've ever received.
Candy rating
Candy Funhouse carries candy from around the world, and in order to help decide what to stock and what customers will love, West and Janakijevski-Rebelo taste a lot of treats.
West and Janakijevski-Rebelo explained that they rate candy on a decimal system, but the taste isn't the only thing that goes into a rating.
"When you're doing a taste test, you want to make sure you take into consideration lots of different things. You want to look at the packaging. Is it eye-catching?" said Janakijevski-Rebelo.
Janakijevski-Rebelo explained that nostalgia, texture, product sizing, and whether or not you could eat the product in one sitting, are other factors that also come into play.
I got to try my hand at rating a bundle of candy, including Barnetts Mega Sour Fruits UK, which was so sour it had my mouth gushing and my mascara running.
I gave it a 10/10.
Writing descriptions
After taste-testing candy, West and Janakijevski-Rebelo are also responsible for writing up candy descriptions for their website, so you definitely have to flex those creative muscles to make whatever treat you've tried sound as tasty as possible in about two or so lines.
Which, not surprisingly, involves a lot of adjectives like sweet, delicious, and so forth.
Content creation
Candy Funhouse may be in the candy industry, but they also have an impressive social media following with over 330K followers on Instagram, a YouTube Page and a TikTok account with almost 3 million followers.
Some of their most popular content is making ASMR candy platters, and I got to try my hand in the world of audio stimulation.
@candyfunhouse Reply to @defnot._kayleigh The 🍌MINIONS🍌 Platter #minions #asmr #minionsriseofgru #banana #fyp ♬ Rich Minion - Yeat
After thanking whatever candy gods exist that I had my nails done, I quickly realized that making ASMR content is no joke.
From the plop to the crinkle of the package, you have to be super intentional about every sound you make.
But, both Candyologists reassured me that sometimes platters take several cuts. If you're working on one solo, you may even need precut the packaging to make the smoothest transitions in the video.
Job review
This job is an incredibly sweet gig, and if I wasn't devoted to journalism and mildly scared of the dentist, I might consider a career switch.
Both Candyologists also had nothing but good things to say about their sugar-filled careers.
"Overall, it's just so fun. It doesn't feel like a normal quote unquote nine to five job," said Janakijevski-Rebelo
"It's such a fun environment to be in and try things and do. So, each day is kind of a new creative challenge," added West.
While no Candyolgist positions are currently open at Candy Funhouse, they are looking for a Chief Candy Officer to oversee the Candyolgists and perform similar duties.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
