if the colas have aged a bit and the level of carbonation has
decreased and the vanilla has become a little more pronounced
and pruney.
This means that if we are asked to give our thoughts on
Coke and Pepsi, most of our answers aren’t going to be very
useful. We can say whether we like it. We can make some
vague and general comments about the level of carbonation or
flavor or sweetness and sourness. But with a DOD of 4, only
someone schooled in colas is going to be able to pick up on the
subtle nuances that distinguish each soft drink.
I imagine that some of you, particularly those who are
diehard cola drinkers, are bristling at this point. I’m being a bit
insulting. You think you really do know your way around Pepsi
and Coke. Okay, let’s concede that you can reliably tell Coke
from Pepsi, even when the DOD hovers around 4. In fact, I urge
you to test yourself. Have a friend pour Pepsi into one glass and
Coke into another and try to tell them apart. Let’s say you
succeed. Congratulations. Now let’s try the test again, in a
slightly different form. This time have your tester give you three
glasses, two of which are filled with one of the Colas and the
third with the other. In the beverage business, this is called a
triangle test. This time around, I don’t want you to identify