Codenames 26

[JR4]

I think that HONEY is fairly obvious. KIWI is a fruit too so that would be my second guess. And then perhaps MINT to wrap up everything?

----

After reading spoilers: I missed PIT but still think that KIWI is a better bet.

[Azoth]

Thinking about it, HONEY/PIT could have been easily clued by Bear.
So I agree with JR4, Nectarine is probably HONEY/KIWI.

I would guess as follows: HONEY - MINT - KIWI.
Mardoc, if you're on board, guess away!

[Mardoc]

Huh - no, I'm very much not on board.  I think PIT is the most direct, strongest connection here. If we were meant to go for fruits, why not clue Fruit? If we were meant to not guess PIT, then we ought to have been clued something that doesn't have them like apples or strawberries. Nectarines are like peaches, they absolutely have PITs

I can see the argument for HONEY, HONEY comes from Nectar although not from Nectarines, but it's second place for me, and honestly I'm leaning toward guessing PIT - MINT - HONEY. And KIWI...well, KIWI - HONEY ought to have been Sweet 2. KIWI - PIT ought to have been Fruit 2. Avoiding general words to clue something specific means we need something that Nectarines have that not all Fruit has, and that's a PIT.

Edit: The more I think about it, the more I think Nectarine is deliberately steering away from KIWI - it's hard to come up with two fruits less similar.

[Azoth]

Okay, let's think about this some more.

Nectarine is a very specific clue. The only reason to pick it over any other fruit is the HONEY connection. I agree that KIWI/PIT ought to have been Fruit 2. So what are we left with?

HONEY/PIT - I say this ought to have been Bear 2. It avoids fruits altogether and has no strong association with any other word that I can see. Perhaps El Grillo missed it, or was worried about a possible link to CZECH?  

HONEY/KIWI - You say this ought to have been Sweet 2. My experience is that kiwi fruits are not consistently sweet, but can be tangy, so Sweet could have led the team to HAM, which can be honey- or sugar- glazed. Of course, the better clue for HONEY/HAM would have been Glazed 2...

I am very confident of HONEY and MINT, but torn between PIT and KIWI.

[Mardoc]

HONEY/PIT - I say this ought to have been Bear 2. It avoids fruits altogether and has no strong association with any other word that I can see. Perhaps El Grillo missed it, or was worried about a possible link to CZECH?  

I'm totally lost here, honestly. There's such a thing as a Bear pit? Czechs are known for their bears? Neither is at all an association I'm familiar with. Russian bear, sure, but not Czech bear.

HONEY/KIWI - You say this ought to have been Sweet 2. My experience is that kiwi fruits are not consistently sweet, but can be tangy, so Sweet could have led the team to HAM, which can be honey- or sugar- glazed. Of course, the better clue for HONEY/HAM would have been Glazed 2...

I admit I'm not a big fan of kiwis so it's possible I'm envisioning the taste wrong. Could have gone with Fructose 2, though. Or Bees 2

But my bigger objection is to the idea of KIWI being a closer association than PIT to Nectarine. A Kiwi belongs to the same category as a Nectarine, but a PIT is part of a Nectarine. You can't have a Nectarine without a PIT.

[shallow_thought]

A Bear Pit is definitely a thing, but now that everyone else has confirmed that the seed of a Nectarine is called a pit (I genuinely wasn't sure), I definitely favour PIT and HONEY for Nectarine. It's possible that there were other ways to clue the same thing, but this seems the strongest for the clue we were given.

If you guys also think that we're being asked to put forwards an additional Expensive word (whether one we missed, or one we suggested that the spymaster had not thought of) - which seems to be the case, I agree with MINT.

So, those three - I don't think order matters much.

[JR4]

Hmm, lots to think about here. I agree that there is a case for PIT but still think that KIWI is slightly more likely to be blue.

My preference is HONEY - MINT - KIWI in that order.

[Azoth]

Well, J4 and I have these as our top two, Mardoc has them within the top three, and shallow thought doesn't have a preference on the order. So let's get rolling:

Point to HONEY
Point to MINT

I'm totally lost here, honestly.  There's such a thing as a Bear pit?  Czechs are known for their bears? Neither is at all an association I'm familiar with.  Russian bear, sure, but not Czech bear.

"Bear PIT" is an expression for sure; I do not know exactly what it means, some sort of trap to catch bears? CZECH bear is a second-order connection through Russia (and wild bears may still exist in the Czech Republic.) Definitely a weaker connection than PIT.

[El Grillo]

HONEY is blue.
MINT is blue.

[shallow_thought]

Well, J4 and I have these as our top two, Mardoc has them within the top three, and shallow thought doesn't have a preference on the order. So let's get rolling:

Point to HONEY
Point to MINT

I'm totally lost here, honestly.  There's such a thing as a Bear pit?  Czechs are known for their bears? Neither is at all an association I'm familiar with.  Russian bear, sure, but not Czech bear.

"Bear PIT" is an expression for sure; I do not know exactly what it means, some sort of trap to catch bears? CZECH bear is a second-order connection through Russia (and wild bears may still exist in the Czech Republic.) Definitely a weaker connection than PIT.

I think "bear pit" is used to describe any confined space full of angry or agitated people, from the days when people either tormented or fought (or were forced to fight) bears in pits. But sometimes I have trouble distinguishing actual history from the huge pile of fantasy novels I've read over the years.

EDIT: Oh, and as for the game, PIT is still > KIWI for me. And yes, El Grillo could have seen one link and not the other, but if he saw both I think Mardoc is right - once you've seen it, Nectarine->PIT is strong. And that's despite the fact that I thought "KIWI" before pit myself.