For their senior year, lovers Pei and Meg got an apartment off-campus. One of the first tasks after testing the mattress and the shower and the mattress again was to stock the refrigerator.

“Ice cream,” Pei said, making her way down the frozen food aisle of the local supermarket. “Must have ice cream.”

“Good idea,” Meg said. “What flavor should we get?”

“Vanilla for me,” Pei said. “You know how I love vanilla.”

“Okay, yeah, but what brand?” Meg asked. “Looks like they have five or six at least.”

“Doesn’t matter, I love them all,” Pei said.

“You don’t have a favorite?”

“Not that I’m aware of.”

“Okay then, we’ll see about that,” Meg said, and she put five cartons of vanilla ice cream, each of a different brand, into their shopping cart. “Not going to be room from much else in our freezer,” she mused.

“When it comes to ice cream I’m a total pig,” Pei said. “So it’ll be gone in a week, if not sooner.”

“So here’s the deal,” Meg explained to Pei later that afternoon. “I’ve got all five cartons of vanilla ice cream out on the kitchen counter. They should be just at the right softness. Now one at a time I’m going to bring you a single spoonful of ice cream, and you’re going to rate it on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the best and one being the worst.”

“Sounds great,” Pei said.

“I was thinking maybe you should be blindfolded, but I suppose the appearance of the ice cream might be part of the pleasure (or displeasure).”

“Sounds good,” Pei said.

Meg brought in the first spoonful. She held the spoon and carefully inserted it into Pei’s mouth.

Pei swallowed the ice cream, then licked her lips.

“How was it?” Meg asked.

“Great!” Pei exclaimed.

“So what score do you give it?”

“Ten.”

“Wow, okay. I’ll go mark down the score and come back with the next one. Oh, do you need anything to cleanse your palate?”

“Huh?”

“You know, like with wine tasting, they give out a plain cracker or a piece of bread or something like that between tastes, to neutralize the, uh, whatever.”

“I don’t think I need to be neutralized,” Pei said. “I’m ready for the next one.”

Meg came out with the second spoon. Pei opened her mouth and Meg inserted the spoon.

Pei tasted the ice cream, swallowed, and smiled. “Ten,” she said.

“Wait,” Meg said. “It was the same as the first one?”

“No,” Pei said, “but it was just as good.”

Meg frowned.

Pei laughed. “No hints of chocolate or blackberry. Nothing oaky. Okay? It was just plain great.”

Meg laughed. “You sure you don’t want some wine to cleanse your palate?”

“No. Just bring out the next one,” Pei said.