Thread: Coke Taste Test
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Dan Abel Dan Abel is offline
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Default Coke Taste Test

A lot of people claim that they can tell what kind of sugar is in a food
by taste, and a lot of people don't like HFCS, for various reasons. So
I thought I'd do a blind taste test. We had a case of Mexican sugar
Coke that my daughter had bought from Costco, because she prefers it,
and I bought a bottle of US HFCS Coke. Of course, I wanted to try it
myself, and I recruited my three children also. My wife refused. That
was fine, she could pour. Also, she hates all carbonated beverages, and
especially Coke, and she has a bad cold. My son P is just coming down
with a cold, so he wasn't so sure about his tasting ability. My
children are ages 30, 26 and 24, so they've been around and tasted some
different things.

I put the bottles in the fridge the day before, to make sure they were
cold, and the same temperature. I used eight identical glasses. I
slipped a little card under each glass, marked A or B. I discussed the
methodology with my wife, as she was a food chemist for seven years and
has conducted some blind taste testings. She said, "Well, you just
wanna find out which one they like the best, doncha?". Yeah. So I put
a card in front of each pair of glasses, for notes and such. We left
the kitchen so my wife could pour. She called us back. Of course, we
had no idea which Coke was in which glass. We agreed that we would each
decide which one we liked better, and also guess which was Mexican and
which was US.

Both my sons liked B better, and thought it was the Mexican Coke. My
daughter and I liked A better, and my daughter thought it was the
Mexican Coke. I have no clue how you tell, so I didn't guess.

We agreed that there would be no discussion until everybody was done
writing. When we were ready, my wife announced that A was the Mexican
Coke, and that B was the US HFCS Coke. My sons were a little
disappointed that they were wrong. My daughter was happy that she was
right, but admitted that they were much more similar than she had
expected. I also didn't find them much different, and would have been
unable to tell which was which without them right together. If you gave
me one taste of one right now, I wouldn't be able to tell you which it
was, they were that close (to my taste).

--
Dan Abel
Petaluma, California USA