Buyer's remorse. It isn't limited to large expenditures like houses, Vespas or battery-powered robots with human faces that supposedly bake like Julia Child and give great foot massages.

Regret exists after smaller purchases too.

Remember the time you ordered that crispy bluegill and cheddar sandwich at that questionable street meat stand in town? Your trusty pal had insisted it was "mind-blowing" and worth all 800 cents. Of course you quickly discovered it was a travesty on a Kaiser roll and passed it off to a grateful pigeon...who then died only two bites in.

Your $8 gone, your thoughts consumed by inescapable hunger (and accidental pigeon murder), you spent the afternoon gnawing your own thumbs and wishing ill of aforementioned "friend."

It was money poorly spent. And proof that you can never really take someone else's word for it when it comes to things "you're just gonna love, I swear!"

Thus it behooves you to get a sample before you put your money down. Try things out before you commit.

Take Maine Mead Works for example. Even though praises seem to follow the stuff like a band of complimentary and well-meaning celebrity stalkers, you still can't know that it's right for you.

I've grown quite fond of Maine Mead myself, but then I've been known to eat fried bologna. (We make choices, see. We're not necessarily proud of all of them.)

You need to decide for you. And you can, thanks to the Maine Mead Works tasting room.

The tasting counter opened a couple of months ago in the Maine Mead Works winery on Anderson Street in Portland's East Bayside neighborhood.

It's open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings and on Saturdays - or by appointment. And in addition to getting a sample of the Dry, Semi-Sweet and Blueberry Meads, you can snag a tour of the joint too.

Making mead is an impressive process, so I learned when I took a tour back in January.

Even better, you may soon get to try the process first hand. Eli Cayer and Ben Alexander are hoping to offer mead-making classes in the not-too-distant future.

Until then, head over to the tasting room and give Maine Mead Works a try.

It may be the single thing you and your bluegill-eating friend can both agree is swell. Really swell.