How to Plan an Office Snack Tasting or Fruit Tasting Like a Pro

Hosting group events like lunch-and-learns and holiday celebrations in the office is a great way to boost employee happiness, teach your team something new, and nourish their sense of community. When you choose to add an office snack tasting or fruit tasting to the mix, you can nourish their bodies, too!

In this article, we’ll dig deeper into the benefits of tasting fruit or snacks together at work. Then, we’ll share expert tips for planning and hosting a tasting of your own.

Why Host an Office Snack Tasting or Fruit Tasting?

• Better Health – Fresh fruits are packed with immune system-boosting vitamins and antioxidants that reduce inflammation and can even minimize cold symptoms. The right snacks also keep your team full, energized, and productive by balancing whole grains, proteins, and natural sugars. 
• Cultural Connection – Fresh fruit and snacks can also help bridge cultural gaps. To take advantage of this, consider matching your tasting with a cultural celebration. Taste snacks from Black-owned brands during Black History Month, or celebrate Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month by trying cherries from an AAPI-owned farm.
• Happier Employees – Who doesn’t love a free treat at the office? According to a 2023 survey, 57% of employees say free food is their favorite workplace perk. Plus, when you taste treats together, you’ll swap individual trips to the breakroom for a fun teambuilding event. 
• Appreciation for Nature – We couldn’t leave this one off the list! There’s something truly special about feeling a juicy orange segment explode in your mouth in the dead of winter or smelling the perfume of a fresh summer peach for the first time. Paired with the right education, these moments of fruit wonder can connect us to nature, teach us where our food comes from, and help us appreciate local, seasonal food.

Of course, as you know from experience, planning an office event isn’t simple. You have to coordinate delivery of the food you’ll serve, spread the word, and execute the presentation. Luckily, our team at The FruitGuys is here to help. We’ve hosted dozens of office snack tastings and fruit tastings over the years, and we have plenty of tips to share! 

Tips for Planning a Fruit Tasting 

When it comes to organizing a fruit tasting, there’s no one better for the job than FruitGuys’ key account managers. Betty Hui is one of those experts. Not only is Betty a fruit connoisseur, but she’s also a farmer! She and her husband Dick run Bear Track Farm in El Dorado County, California, where they grow fruits and vegetables, and raise lambs and chickens. 

Betty has had her hands in the dirt growing fruit, so she knows more than most about the journey it takes from the farm to the break room. She has shared those stories with employees at dozens of corporate tastings highlighting everything from citrus for Lunar New Year to honey. 

Here are her best tips for a successful fruit tasting at your workplace. You can follow them yourself for a DIY event, or request a fruit tasting quote from The FruitGuys and let an expert like Betty organize it for you. 

1. Keep it simple. Once you’ve got a date in mind for your event, Betty suggests researching which fruits are in peak season and/or local to you or calling a FruitGuys sales or customer service representative for insight. 

“I tell people, focus on a few fruits that you want to learn about,” Betty said. “You don’t need to get complicated, or take on more than you can explain.” 

She recommends choosing three to four fruits at the most for a single event. In the spring, for example, you might choose Ojai Pixie tangerines, strawberries, and cherries. Mix things up in terms of size, textures, and sour and sweet tastes to give your team a better sense of the seasonal spectrum. 

2. Don’t forget the tropics. Fresh, local fruit is great for tastings, but you can also highlight unique and tropical fruits like pichuberries, dragon fruits, guavas, or passion fruits. While these are tricker to source, they can be particularly exciting and intriguing for your team to taste. 

3. Plan ahead. Start working on your event several months in advance so that you can choose your fruit and place your fruit order without feeling rushed. You’ll also want to give co-workers a few weeks’ notice so you can prepare and to promote the event internally. Build anticipation by sharing some tidbits or fun facts about the different fruits you’ll present as the date gets closer. If you work with The FruitGuys on your event, we can provide those materials for you, or you can create our own with help from our Produce Glossary and catalog of Fruit Tips. 

4. Have fun! A fruit tasting event is a creative way to break up the office routine, share knowledge with the people you work with, and build on people’s interest in better health and nutrition. Betty says that when she plans a tasting, she tries to connect one-on-one with the participants and spark those conversations. 

“When I host a tasting, I make sure to go around and ask, ‘What do you taste?’ with every piece of fruit or honey jar,” Betty said. “They talk about it, they describe the taste, or they compare their experience with a coworker’s and say ‘I don’t taste that.’ Then, it becomes a verbal engagement. They have to taste it again to see if they do taste what others are describing. Those conversations are always fun.” 

Tips for Planning a Snack Tasting 

Planning an office snack tasting is similar to planning a fruit tasting. When we spoke with FruitGuys Snack Category Manager Daria Jackson—our expert in all things snacks—she agreed with many of Betty’s fruit tasting tips in the section above. 

“It helps to keep things simple and choose just one or two snacks to focus on,” Daria said. “Then, you can really dig deep into those brands and share their stories with your team. Planning ahead is critical, too. Sourcing bulk cases of individually packaged snacks from small brands can be almost as time-sensitive as sourcing fresh fruit, so the earlier you place your order, the better. It helps that snacks are typically very shelf stable, so you don’t need to worry about bringing them into your office too soon.” 

Daria also shared a few snack-specific tips that will help you take your tasting to the next level. As with Betty’s fruit event tips, you can run with Daria’s advice or request a snack tasting quote from The FruitGuys to have the event done for you. 

1. Find a brand that fits your values. “Here at The FruitGuys, we prioritize sourcing snacks from small, mission-driven brands. You can add extra meaning to your tasting when you look beyond what the snack is—whether it’s a pretzel, a granola bar, or a better-for-you candy—and learn about who created it,” Daria said. Think about the kind of brand your company wants to support. If you’re a woman-owned company, for example, maybe you want to invite your team to taste women-owned snacks. Then, look for snacks that fall into that category. 

2. Tie your snack tasting to a celebration. “Snacks aren’t necessarily seasonal in the same way that fruit is, but you can pick them strategically to celebrate specific holidays or heritage months,” Daria said. “A great shortcut for that is to plan an event around one of The FruitGuys’ Snacks of the Month, which always tie back to annual celebrations.”

In April 2024, for example, The FruitGuys is highlighting three eco-friendly snack brands for Earth Month: Climate Candy, The GFB, and BjornQorn. If you want to celebrate Earth Month at work, hosting a snack tasting featuring one or more of those brands and sharing their eco-friendly stories is an easy way to do it. 

How to Get Started

Between your HR experience and these pro tips, you should have everything you need to start planning your first office snack tasting or fruit tasting. Keep this guide handy as you go, and if you have questions or want expert support, reach out to The FruitGuys. We’re always happy to help!