The Other Guy wrote:
>
> I can't imagine WHY anyone would expect any different result.
> What POSSIBLE differences between pastas COULD there be?

Being mildly wheat intolerant I have pasta made from rice, corn, quinoa
and other alternate grains. I can tell the difference with such major
ingredients. To tell one refined wheat pasta from another would take
being cooked in nothing but clean water and salt, eaten side by side
with nothing else, and even then difference would be at best small.
Some difference in loose starch powder. Some difference in final
dryness.

> I remember when a TV Network did a vodka taste test some years ago.
>
> When people THOUGHT they were drinking high priced vodka,
> they rated it best. The claimed cheapest was rated as bad.
>
> In reality, they were rating the cheapest as the best.

In college we did a blind tasting of vodkas. The top shelf brands were
Absolute, Finlandia and real Stoli from across the iron curtan in the
Soviet Union. This was 1977 or 1978 so many of the current fancy brands
did not exist yet. There were also three discount brands.

In the freezer over night, shots marked by letter.

Only half could tell the discount from the top shelf. None could tell
any of the top shelf brands apart nor any of the discount brands apart.
Ever since i've gotten whatever top shelf brand happens to be lowest in
price and moved it to the freezer if I expect guests.

I can easily imagine everyone being tricked if we told them what was in
the shot instead of doing it blind.