Food Badges on Mosey: Sampler to Connoisseur

Food badges on Mosey are marks you earn by rating places of the same kind. A badge climbs four levels: Sampler at five different places, Taster at ten, Expert at twenty and Connoisseur at fifty. The badge is about your own eating, not about a reward, and a level you reach is yours to keep.

How do food badges work on Mosey?

A badge belongs to a family, and a family is a tag. Italian is a family. So is Pizza, Diner, Deli, Vegan or Date Night. When you rate a place, you can add tags, and the app counts how many different places you have rated under each one. Rate the same place ten times and it still counts once, because the ladder measures variety, not repeat visits.

The app says it plainly: rate places with a tag, like Italian or Pizza, and you earn a badge. Keep going and you climb four levels. Most families start at five different places, which is why the first step feels close.

What are the Sampler, Taster, Expert and Connoisseur levels?

Here is the ladder, the same for every food family:

• Sampler: five different places of one kind.
• Taster: ten different places.
• Expert: twenty different places.
• Connoisseur: fifty different places.

Nothing in between earns a new name, and nothing is scored. If you have rated seven pizza places, you are a Sampler with three to go for Taster. A level is never taken away, even if you later stop rating, so a badge reads as a record of what you have eaten rather than a streak you must defend.

Which kinds of food have a badge?

Badge families exist for five kinds of tag: cuisine, kind of place, meal, dietary and occasion. In practice that gives you families such as Italian, Mexican, Tacos, Southern, Cajun and Creole, Dim Sum, Bagels, Donuts and Lobster Rolls, plus place types such as Diner, Steakhouse, Taqueria, Deli and Bakery. There are also meal and occasion families, such as Brunch and Date Night, and dietary ones such as Vegan and Gluten-Free.

A tag with no family still works as a tag, it just does not count towards a badge. A separate set of badges, which the app calls Explorer badges, counts where you have rated rather than what: US states, cities and neighborhoods.

Who are badge holders on a rating?

A badge holder is someone who has rated five or more different places of the same kind. Their badge sits beside their name on a rating, so a reader can tell that a view on a taco truck comes from someone who has rated many taco places, not from a first-time visitor.

That is the point of the mark: a view that is earned rather than a one-off. It does not make one person's opinion outrank another's, and it does not stand in for the star score. It is one more clue when you decide how much weight to give a rating.

How to earn a badge for a kind of food

Start with something you already eat. Most people have one kind of food they return to, and that is usually the quickest badge.

1. Rate the place when you leave, with the stars first and the dishes after. Only the place and the stars are needed.
2. Add the tag that fits, such as Pizza or Diner.
3. Add the next place of the same kind the next time you eat it.
4. Open My Badges to see how far you are from the next level.

When you reach a level, the app shows a New badge screen, and you can share it with a friend if you like. Sharing is optional and changes nothing about the badge.

A badge is not a perk

It is worth being clear about what a badge is not. It does not bring a discount, a prize or a priority table, and no place can pay for one. Mosey does not rank anywhere by badges, and nobody is told who has the most. A badge is a small record of your own taste, shown where it helps another diner read a rating.

Why rating by the dish makes a badge worth more

A badge counts places, but a good rating names the dish. Rate what you actually ordered, such as the carbonara or the green chile cheeseburger, so the next person learns what to order and not merely where to go. That habit also teaches you what you like, which is a better reason to rate than any level.

Mosey is a food app for finding, rating and sharing places to eat, and it is free for a place to list, with no hidden fees and affordable tools for the places that want more. A rating by the dish is a free way to back the independent places you want to keep around.

Build on your badges with lists and friends

Badges pair well with the rest of the app. Keep a list of the places you want to try next in the family you are climbing, and invite a friend to add to it. Follow people whose taste you trust and you can switch the map to Friends' picks to see where they rated or saved. If you want a first list, the guide to starting a food list for your state walks through it.

Two local guides show the same ladder in practice: earning a first food badge in New York and the Sampler badge with Chicago cuisines. The food badges page sums up the ladder, and the US food guides cover where to eat.

Get the Mosey app, pick the kind of food you eat most and rate five different places this month, so your first Sampler badge is just a record of dinners you were having anyway.