LISBON — It appears that Julie Footer really likes the Moxie-flavored zucchini wrap. She’d extol the joys of it if she could, but she’s too busy chewing.

She instead gives the dish two thumbs up.

“What can I say?” Footer asked after swallowing and wiping her mouth with a napkin. “I like to eat.”

Boy, did Footer land the right job.

The Moxie recipe contest used to just call its panel of eaters judges. Because the task requires teamwork, however, this year their titles were changed. This year, they call them jurors.

“You know, like a jury,” says Jim Baumer, author of “Moxietown.”

Whatever. Call them what you want, Footer was just glad to serve on the panel. Judging the contest means sampling dish after dish, from appetizers to dessert.

“I get to eat and I don’t have to cook,” Footer said. “How could I pass that up?”

Seated next to her, fellow juror David Gray was soaking it all in. He grew up in Lisbon, but he’s been away for decades, living near Tampa, Fla.

“Other than coming back for the occasional dead relative,” Gray said, “I’ve been away a long time.”

In fact, when he left Lisbon, the yearly festival was still called Frontier Days.

We’re talking ancient history.

“I was raised on Moxie,” Gray said. “We had a grocery store down in Florida that was owned by Hannaford. They had Moxie. Then they sold the company and now we don’t have Moxie anymore.”

Gray took a sip of the venerated beverage.

“I’ve got to find a way to get it flowing down there again,” he said.

As the 32nd annual fest got underway at Chummy’s Mid-town Diner, it was all about the Moxie: in cupcakes and bread; in pulled pork and popcorn balls. Moxie salad, Moxie stew, Moxie-flavored meatballs with Moxie au jus.

“Mm,” Gray offers, after sampling the latest dish. “I’m not really tasting the Moxie in this one. The pepper is kind of overwhelming.”

That will cost the contestant some points. Gray scribbles a few notes and awaits the next dish.

You won’t find a jury like this one in any court of law. One took time out to play guitar and sing. Another juror was pregnant, so close to her due date that several of the others worried that a particularly spicy dish might send her into labor. A few traveled all day just to be at the contest, flying in from Washington, D.C., New Jersey and New York.

Dani Mardayat was one of these. She’s from New Jersey and she’s new to the Moxie craze. She’s only been drinking it a year, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t all the way hooked.

“I’m still a newbie,” Mardayat said. “But I love it. My fiance and I really try to immerse ourselves in the Moxie culture. We’ve been waiting for this festival for months.”

Mardayat mostly expressed her appreciation for a particular dish with moans and coos, but she does have an epicurean streak. When asked what she likes about Moxie, she uncorks a response like a taster at a wine show.

“It’s got a very distinct and unique flavor,” she said. “A distinct, fruity flavor.”

Around the tables, the jurors take their notes. Some dishes they love, some not so much. One juror seems to change her mind about a Moxie-flavored appetizer in mid-chew.

“I don’t know about this one,” she says as she takes the first nibble.

“It’s not bad,” she says after a minute or two.

“Actually,” she says, when the food has had a longer chance to please her taste buds, “it’s quite good.”

Other jurors, even as they nosh, are dreaming about exotic Moxie dishes yet to be invented.

“Imagine if they made a Moxie whoopie pie,” says Footer, “and put it in some vanilla ice cream? You could mix it all together and put some nuts on top.”

Then yet another round of food comes her way and she has to concentrate. On it goes into the night, with a full team handling and serving up the food for the jury. Over them, hostess Julie-Ann Baumer hovers like a den mother, instructing the panel and looking after their needs. The recipe contest is her show, but Baumer is humble about it. She is quick to point out that the event was the brainchild of Susan Conroy, a Moxie festival fixture who died last month.

“All of this,” she says, “is because of Sue.”

For Jim Baumer, part of the success and popularity of the recipe contest can be credited to the move to host it on Friday nights, at the beginning of the festival rather than in the middle of it.

“It used to be right after the parade and nobody paid much attention,” he says. “Now it’s its own little event.”

The winner of each of the three categories will receive a Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender (orange, of course) and a prize ribbon.

Those winners are: 

* Main dish/meats: Megan Parks and Lauryn Griffey-Parks, Auburn, Moxie pulled pork.

* Desserts: Ali Waks Adams, Brunswick, Moxie pie.

* Appetizer: Alexia Barnes, age 11, Leeds,  Moxie pancake syrup.

Each contestant was given a raffle ticket for the Grand Prize: an orange Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer. The winner of that prize? Cicy Po of Brunswick, who claimed she “never wins anything.”