Cola Taste Test
Date Tested: January 10, 2019
Competitors: Coke [Zero, Diet, Original, “Mexican” aka real sugar], RC Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Bourbon Barrel (Kroger)
Test Description: Blind test, set up by third party – Unmarked containers each pre-filled. Tester may drink out of each in whatever order and render a brand guess and/or rating.
| Guess | Score /10 | Correct Answer |
|---|---|---|
| Diet Coke | 3 | Coke Zero |
| Pepsi | 5 | Pepsi |
| Coke Zero | 4 | Diet Coke |
| Bourbon Barrel | 2 | Bourbon Barrel |
| Canned Coke | 6 | RC |
| Mex. Coke | 5 | Can Coke |
| RC | 5 | Mex. Coke |
At the time of writing this (Dec, 2020), this first taste test still holds the honor of the biggest upset in taste test history. RC Cola came out ahead of its bigger brand competitors by unanimous decision. This first tumble into taste-testing also shined a light on the power of brand and advertising. Despite RC Cola being a clear and unanimous winner, as soon as it was revealed that the “off-brand” had won, I found myself immediately gravitating towards the more recognizable brands. “Now that I think about it, I think I did like the canned coke better,” I found myself saying. Even at the time I found it odd I was trying to convince myself the cola with a larger market-cap was better, but it was difficult to stave off. For what its worth, I later did a Mexican (Real Sugar) Coke vs canned original Coke to see if the die-hard boomers that swear the Coke “back in my day” was better or Coca-Cola themselves who maintain the difference is imperceptible were correct. Myself, I noted the real sugar Coke was slightly better, but given that it was not blind test and my aforementioned biases, I do not deem this a valid data point. This sort of implicit bias was most prominently felt in this test, but that same line of thinking has continued to show its head in subsequent tests, showing clearly the importance of blind testing.
This first test also had a number of errors. No, what I’ll call, “true off-brands” are present in the table. This is because A) the Sam’s Cola (Walmart) was forgotten in the fridge, and B) Kroger’s was out. I also wanted an off brand sugar replacement cola, but I mistakenly bought the wrong flavor – an error I maintain falls squarely on the shoulders of Kroger’s, as their vanilla flavored sugar replacement cola came in a red can – a color traditionally reserved for classic colas. Note every classically flavored cola in the above image has the color red prominently displayed. I digress. All this to say, I think this test could benefit from a re-do. I believe a subsequent test could also include some of the special-interest colas that many swear by. Namely McDonald’s and Chipotle Coke, which each have a cult following.
