I started out by arranging the lollies in rows of flavour and roughly arranged in assumed favourite flavour. My intention was to then eat one of each, in order of "least liked" to "most liked", and comparing it to the one I had just eaten, to see if I did in fact enjoy it more than the previous.
The flavours in the initial run were laid out from left to right in the picture below, Lemon, Lime, Orange, Raspberry, Strawberry and Grape.
I found the bottom three didn't change, though I considered swapping Lemon and Lime. Lemon definitely has a stronger flavour, and the Lime seems almost bland when directly following the Lemon, but the test is not based on strength, so I decided that even though it is subtle, I preferred the Lime.
I made some changes to the top three though I pushed Raspberry to the top, forcing Grape to second position, and Strawberry to third. But it was not an undeniable win, I found all three flavours competeing for top spot, and could see either Grape or Strawberry coming out back on top.
Time for round two.
In the second round nothing changed down the bottom, nor did it change up the top, but I found myself not really particulary enjoying any of the individual lollies. That is to say, they all still tasted sweet, but something seemed to be missing which would make one flavour stand out above another as a clear winner.
Time for round three.
By this stage, I was starting to feel a little sick of the whole experiment, and couldn't work out which one I actually thought was the best one. I had a glass of milk between rounds. I had a sip between lollies, to try dampen the sugar, but to no avail, I could not tell.
In fact, I came to the realisation that it is the combination of different flavours in the mouth which makes one taste better. The contrast between them makes the experience as whole better, but that didn't help me choose a winner. As far as I was concerned, the experiment was a failure.
No comments:
Post a Comment