Friday Tomfoolery

One day Snex and I were talking about the veritable cornucopia of artifically sweetened sodas available to us.

We realized that between the both of us, we had samples of every sweetener: Nutrasweet (diet coke/pepsi, coke zero), saccharin(Tab), and Splenda (diet coke with Splenda).

So, since we are scientists, we HAD to have a taste test!

The contestants:

L to R: Fake Diet Pepsi, Fake Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Tab, Diet Coke w/Splenda

We decided to see if we could identify each of the sodas by taste alone.

We reckoned that we would be able to identify the different sweeteners, if not the different brands, since we both are avid drinkers of at least on of the brands. I was especially confident. I figured I could definitely identify the Tab I had been drinking (and not really enjoying) and coke zero, which makes my teeth feel funny (it tastes too much like real coke).

We set about the serious task of a diet beverage taste test. We got five identical styrofoam cups, and labeled the bottom of each with the beverage it would contain. Next we poured the assigned beverage into their cups. We brought in an outside person to mix up the cups and place post-it notes numbered 1 through 5 in front of each one.

We recruited DancingFish and a couple of other people to test our mad tasting skillz.

It was so exciting. I savored every sip and thought long and hard about my decisions. I felt confident that I had nailed each ID, and that I would have the best diet soda identification record of them all.

We recorded our results on the white board, and then revealed the actual soda identities:




SCIENCE!!!

The photo may not be clear enough, but it basically shows that we were pretty much all dead wrong on our guesses. Only one person (the lone smoker!) guessed 2 of the sodas correctly. The rest of us, including me, were dead wrong.

I had gotten too cocky, fake sugar sure showed me.