The Great Water Taste-off: Round I

As threatened in previous entries, I did subject my nearest and dearest today to the Water Taste Challenge. Ten kinds of water, lots of tiny cups, many furrowed brows.

I am happy with how the array worked out. I think we’ve got a good sampling of the available waters without going over the top (life is too short), and definitely had a blind taste test. This first round included myself, Spouse and Spouse’s mother, who had excellent taste and a keen attention to detail.

Methodology

Ten kinds of water were poured – by me – into individual portions. The portions for each kind of water were set on one paper plate, with the name of that water written on the bottom of the opaque plate. Then, and here is the genius part, Spouse kicked me out of the room and shuffled the plates, marking each with a number so we could record our tasting notes and eventually correlate them to the brands.

And we were off to the races.

I’m not sharing any conclusions today, since I’ve got other tasters in the wings (one of whom has threatened to “cut me” if I don’t give her a shot at this experiment), but will share a couple of tasting notes and observations.

Overall, I was surprised by how little difference there was between the types. I was sure I’d have been able to pick out the tap water at least, but at the end of the challenge, I just didn’t know. The only one I guessed accurately was the distilled water. Go me. Also, so far, Fiji water was preferred by two out of three tasters.

Possible Challenges

We discussed problems with the experiment. Things that we cannot control for the composition of the bottles and any effect they have on the taste of the product – but I figure that all figures into our experience of the end product and should just be a factor of the study. Also, we have no way to tell how long a given sample has been in the bottle – something that’s been sitting around for a couple of years has probably absorbed more properties of the bottle than something packaged last week.

Upcoming Battle: Snuggie vs Slanket

Also, I caved in to the lobbying of my work colleagues and procured a Snuggie. If someone will tell me how to get a Slanket without giving these people my credit card info, I’ll do a comparison. In exchange, I promise to find some fun way to give away the test subjects.