[ noun ] someone who samples food or drink for its quality <noun.person>
Taster \Tast"er\ (t[=a]st"[~e]r), n. 1. One who tastes; especially, one who first tastes food or drink to ascertain its quality.
Thy tutor be thy taster, ere thou eat. --Dryden.
2. That in which, or by which, anything is tasted, as, a dram cup, a cheese taster, or the like.
3. (Zo["o]l.) One of a peculiar kind of zooids situated on the polyp-stem of certain Siphonophora. They somewhat resemble the feeding zooids, but are destitute of mouths. See {Siphonophora}.
One taster gave one of the most favorable reviews in the tests to Gold Rush from Horizons International Foods Inc.: "They're like what you'd bring back from McDonald's and eat in the office."
Using the fashion editor as copy taster for a week might help. But however much the public may be on Lewis's side in this, viewers are surely not surprised when news programmes reflect much of the nastiness of the world.
But the performance was rarely moving in the way that Gardiner's had been. In the first half Goodman and the orchestra warmed up on Haydn's Symphony No 102, a taster of the complete cycle of Haydn symphonies that they are recording for Hyperion.