YONKERS, N.Y. – One of the most interesting parts of Nikki Kimbleton's trip to Consumer Reports' headquarters in Yonkers, N.Y., was meeting the people who are often guinea pigs for many of these product review. We're talking about the testers.
Amy Keating has been working at Consumer Reports for 10 years. She's tested and ranked just about everything you can think of.
Keating explained, "Bottled water, tap water. Having water come in from Milwaukee to see if it New York has a better tasting water than Wisconsin. I tested iso-flavins in soy, chicken, toothbrushes. We do personal care as well as foods," she added.
Keating's favorite tests? "the best are the ones where you get to learn a lot with things like coffee, wine, chocolate," she said.
The ones she could live without? "The things I really don't like are the hot dogs, anything with meat really. Frozen food, salisbury steak entrees. Not anything I would usually eat."
As a tester, there's something Keating keeps with her at all times. "Basically you need one of these and you don't want to spill it. It's a spit cup," Keating said. "If you're testing chocolate all day, you've got to spit."
Nikki tested a little chocolate while she was there. It was enough to realize that this is no easy job. When she was asked to explain why she liked the chocolate she tasted, she had a tough time. Keating explained why it shouldn't be easy.
"It's a real skill," she said. "And it takes years really to develop the skills that go into it."
IMAGES: Nikki's tour of Consumer Reports' labs
It's not just the testers in the sensory department that have unusual skills, it's in every area of Consumer Reports. There are testers who have drilled thousands of screws, mowed the equivalent of several thousand lawns or done a lot of house chores.
"We have people on staff who have done many, many thousands of loads of laundry," Jim Nanni, an associate director, said. "It's because we test machines multiple times and there's a new group of machines every week or two."
While doing so much laundry at work probably gets them off the hook in their personal lives, everyone employed here said they take aspects of the job home with them. For example, Keating now knows where she can buy the cheaper brand.
"We've done a lot of head to head comparisons from store and brand names. You realize the quality is comparable and you can save some money so sometimes I will give a store brand a shot."
She also added that her job skills come in extra handy when her kids are being difficult. Keating said,
"If my son says I don't like green leaf lettuce I only like red leaf, I will say close your eyes. Now taste and think of what you're eating and tell me if you can really tell the difference. They always roll their eyes."