Febuary 22, 2015
Assignment
Taste Test Experiments
For my taste test experiment I decided to do Starbucks vs. Dunkin’ Donuts. I am a bit of a coffee fanatic. I can always been seen with a Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts coffee in hand at least once a day. So for my experiment I decided to do my taste test experiment to compare to the two companies coffee brands. I went to Starbucks and got a Venti Caramel hot coffee with crème and then went and got a large Dunkin Donuts caramel hot coffee with crème. I decided that my sorority house is where I knew I could find plenty of willing people to participate in my blind taste test experiment. The first taste test I did was the triangle taste test. In this test I make 2 small cups of Starbucks coffee and 1 cup of small Dunkin Donuts coffee for them to try. Due to the fact that I am such a coffee fanatic I can tell the difference and figured that everyone else would be able to do that same. I was extremely surprised when several 3 of my 6 friends had chosen one DD and Starbucks coffee as being the same brand. Next, I did a paired comparison, where I put one drink in one cup and the other in the other cup. A majority actually preferred DD coffee to Starbucks. But the answers were all over the map when you asked them which coffee was which brand. Many people were unable to identify the difference between which was Starbucks and which was DD. One friend stated that she believed that Starbucks has a much bolder coffee taste compared to the more mild coffee taste of Dunkin Donuts. After doing the two Taste Test Experiments I have come to the conclusion that even thought people say that they only drink or prefer a certain brand, if you do a blind taste test they may not be able to identify the difference in the two competing brands.