Vodka taste test: amateur or aficionado?
Students are put to the test to see if they know the good stuff from the cheap stuff
Do you think you have what it takes?
We all have that one friend – the connoisseur of alcohol who refuses to drink the cost-effective vodka we happily inhale on the weekends. These alcohol snobs turn up their noses at Rubinoff, Burnett’s, and the like. If it’s not Grey Goose, they aren’t drinking it.
But are their tastes really as selective as they say they are?
The Tab was curious as to whether or not these self-proclaimed experts actually know what they’re talking about, so we conducted a blind taste test. We wanted to see whether or not people could actually tell the difference between cheap and expensive brands of the same type of alcohol.
The Methodology
We recruited 12 seniors to take part in a blind taste test involving Raspberry Rubinoff (Rubi), Raspberry Smirnoff, and Raspberry Stolichnaya (Stoli). A special shout out to our wonderful participants for putting their taste buds to the test: Sammi, Bill, Luc, Sarah, Rose, Erin, Emily, Kathleen, Raul, Caitie, Greg, and Jose.
“This tastes like freshman year… Rubi.” – Rose. She was right (Rose on the left, Kathleen on the right)
We chose Rubi, Smirnoff, and Stoli in order to create a spectrum from “cheap” to (more) “expensive” vodka. We bought 1.75 ml of each for the following prices: Rubi for $12.49, Smirnoff for $21.98, and Stoli for $27.98.
We poured each type of vodka into plastic water bottles randomly numbered 1, 2, and 3. Each student was given a sample from each water bottle, which they could sniff and were able to drink in any order. After sampling the vodkas, they recorded their guesses by writing down the name of the vodka with the corresponding number on slips of paper and put the slips in a box.
Every senior entered the test confident that they would at least guess Rubi correctly, if not all of them. After all, Boston College drives Rubinoff sales like no other.
“Oh, that’s definitely Rubi.” – Luc (it wasn’t)
Jose deep in thought
The Results
The participants were not as vodka savvy as they had thought.
Only one person out of 13 correctly guessed all three vodkas. (You go, Glen Coco!) Seven people guessed one correctly, and four people got none right at all. Some other stats:
- Three people confused Stoli and Smirnoff
- Three people also mixed up Stoli and Rubinoff
- Three people correctly guessed Smirnoff and Ruby, but only one got Stoli right
So what have we learned from this experiment?
The general consensus is: (a) Smirnoff and Stoli burn your esophagus, (b) Smirnoff and Stoli are gross (that’s up for debate), (c) Rubi goes down the easiest, and (d) we should all bow down to Kathleen for her superior taste buds.
For many of us, our palates are not as refined as we think or hope they are.
So next time you see that one friend, challenge them to a blind taste test and tell them to give Rubi a chance – it might just surprise them.