Three Flavors of Yogurt....photo by Sharon
In my post http://texaschief.typepad.com/looking-out-my-window/2010/07/savor-the-flavor-of-the-day.html I talked a bit about taste testing.
To follow through, the Chief and I have been taste testing yogurt for about the last month or so. My assumption was, after my experience with the popsicles, that knowledge and color have a greater control over taste than your tongue. Of course smell is the strongest determiner of taste than anything else, but popsicles and yogurt are severely insufficient in odor.
The tests were done with the Chief bringing me an opened yogurt. My eyes had to be closed to eliminate any color reference. I would get one spoonful. I carefully smooshed the yogurt to cover all areas of my tongue so I wouldn't miss out on any of my taste buds. And then I would proclaim...
"Vanilla"
"Ummm, Cherry?" "No? Then Blueberry?"
And so on.
What I soon realized was that my knowledge was not limited to nothing regarding the yogurt:
1. Everytime I opened the refrigerator door I would see the yogurts.
2. The yogurts were divided into two groups: the Chief's favorites & mine.
3. When I tasted the yogurt my mind visualized them in the refrigerator.
So, mentally, without any intention of "cheating" I would think to myself "there were three yogurts on my side - cherry, raspberry, blueberry. Hmm, not cherry. Not raspberry, that leaves blueberry.
But even with that information I mostly got them wrong on the first guess. To do the test correctly absolutely no information about the yogurt should be available. This would make a good Consumer Reports test.
By the way, the flavors I tasted correctly the most were cherry, vanilla and raspberry.
Yummy!
